On the 24th November our Spanish friends Pepe y Maria and their family, Julian and Carmina invited us to their house in the country to learn how to cook traditional Paella---------- and of course to eat it !!

 

I am a fairly average cook and so I thought that cooking Paella was probably a matter of throwing the rice and fish or meat together and letting it simmer--- but no.

I realised I have a lot to learn when I saw Maria cooking Paella ‘Spanish style’.

 

Firstly oil and garlic are simmered and then all of the added ingredients like peppers, various fish, seafood and/or meat are all cooked separately in the liquid to the correct time then each removed and the next ingredient cooked etc. so that the liquid gains all of the flavours.

After all the ingredients are cooked, grated tomatoes are added and cooked into a paste.

The rice is then added, fried lightly and the stock/ water added.  The correct quantities of water, stock and olive oil to rice is very important.

All the cooked ingredients are returned to the huge pan and simmered.  In Maria and Pepe’s house the Paella pan was simmered over a wood fire outside on a BBQ--- this gave the rice a wonderful smoked flavour.

 

Picture the scene, Tony and I , trying to speak and understand Spanish, armed with a dictionary, trying to learn how to cook Paella ----- after a few Sangrias our conversation was much improved !    Lots of Spanish words, gesturing, miming and laughter and so we learned how to cook Paella.

 

We had a lovely time and thanked our friends for the invitation.

 

Photos of--------Maria and Pepe cooking Paella.

 

Love to all

 

Tina and Tony x x