At the risk of being hunted down, I am sharing Catalonian chef Joan Marce Gonzalez secret to perfecting a paella – Catalonian style. Note to all chefs – you can’t expect to share your secrets with a bunch of travel bloggers and have them kept as secrets. Joan Marce Gonzalez is also the same chef that also prepared our calcots at our Catalonian Gastronomical Event.
Surprisingly, the secret doesn’t lie with the ingredients. There were no secret ingredients, or at least ones that our Catalonian chef was willing to share with us. A good chef is entitled to keep a few secrets, safe from the prying eyes of a group of hungry travel bloggers.
But it starts with the rice. The secret to Catalonian style paella is that once you pour the rice in you don’t stir the paella -not even once! You will want to cook it a moderate temperature to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan, so be patient. A perfect paella is not to be rushed!
Everything else gets placed on top of the rice -without mixing it all together. Perhaps this is where my self-made paellas have gone wrong – too much stirring, at too high heat.
Voila! This is what your paella should look like which fed a group of around 10. A Catalonian paella is is ideally complemented by:
locally grown Catalonian MF Wines and held in a spectacular location like this luxury villa in the charming village of Besalu.
Thank you to Joan Marce Gonzalez for sharing his secrets and to Charming Villas for hosting our paella.
What are your secrets for a perfect paella?
This post has been submitted to WanderFood Wednesdays where you can find more food related posts.
Interesting about the no stir practice. The result looks mouth watering.
Italian Notes recently posted..How to buy a sandwich in Italy
@Italian Notes – I know, I had no idea either. It was delicious and gives me something to aspire too – if I can do it without burning it.
That’s the big secret? I have to try it
Even though I am really afraid that things will stick at the bottom… So, based on the pics it looks like you prepare a kind of broth first with spices and all, then you add the rice, and then you add the fish and bell peppers?
Sabrina recently posted..What Do People Eat in China? Chinese Hot Pot
this looks SO good. time for a trip!
wandering educators recently posted..Stockholm’s Archipelago: Muskö and Torö
@Sabrina – Exactly! I haven’t tried it yet on my own, but I’m pretty sure my usual method of cooking on “maximum” would not work for this.
@Wandering educators – It was delicious, although not as spicy as I thought it would be. The seafood was the “piece die resistance”
Lovely lovely! I don’t think I have ever tried to cook a paella because it’s not the kind of cooking you undergo for two people, but now that you say it, the “no stirring” makes sense. All the paellas I have seen had layers of ingredients, not stir-fried like Chinese rice for instance.
Zhu recently posted..5 Canadian Culture Facts I Never Truly Understood
That looks incredible. And I had no idea Catalonia looked so much like Santa Barbara (my home town in California!). I don’t know if I could bring myself NOT TO STIR though. That requires a self control I do not possess.
Don’t stir the paella, sounds so simple but will be hard for me to resist. Will have to try it, the results look amazing!
Claire recently posted..Lennon Wall Prague
I still drool a little when I think about the first paella I had in Spain.
Stephanie – The Travel Chica recently posted..Foto of the Week from … Curiñaco – A Short Bus Ride to Paradise
Its the same with french fried don’t ever stir makes them mushy. Thanks will try making this wonderful dish.
oops french fries