No Problema Paella

The signs were there. Zucchini piled up like unpaid bills. Twenty-minute recipes that felt 18 minutes too long. An empty sea salt container I couldn’t be bothered to recycle or replace. When I served scrambled eggs for the third dinner in a row, this home cook had to admit she was burned out. The obvious solution was to check into a hotel with fabulous room service. The practical solution was to undertake a culinary challenge. Maybe mastering a tricky dish would bring my cooking mojo back. Paella is a rice-and-things dish that hails from Valencia, on Spain’s eastern coast. The “things” vary, but typically include meat, seafood and veggies. The best part about paella – besides eating it – is the special vocabulary paella aficionados use. Your pan is a paellera. Your sauteed vegetables are sofrito. And while you might call burnt rice a mistake, paella folk call the crust that forms on the bottom of the pan a socarrat. Any dish that specifically instructs you to overcook the rice is right up my alley, so I bought a paellera and assembled the ingredients to make vegan paella. Ironically, the rice was the hardest thing to find, since standard white rice won’t do. Instead, you need a short-grain rice that will soak up the flavorful broth but not stick together like sushi rice. The most authentic paella rice is the bomba variety, which hails from Spain and is hard to find in St. Louis. You can either order it on the Internet or make do with a medium-grain rice like the calrose type. Paella is traditionally cooked over an open fire. I put the paellera on my Weber grill, sauteed the vegetables, added warmed broth and rice, and watched it all go up in smoke. Seriously. The conversation went like this: Husband: “Your fire is too hot.” Me: “It’s fire. It’s supposed to be hot.” Husband: “The paint is melting off the pan.” Me: “Ahem, it’s a paellera, and it’s totally supposed to do that.” (It’s not supposed to do that.) This was the precise moment I learned that the secret to paella lies not in any one ingredient, but in how well you manage the cooking temperature. Which means paella isn’t something you make from a recipe, it’s something you make from intuition. Like learning to drive a manual transmission, you have to practice over and over until you get the timing down (and the burning smell goes away). So how do you manage the heat? I achieved the ideal temperature in my 22-inch Weber by starting hardwood briquettes in a 12-inch chimney. I also learned that you can open and close the bottom vents on a Weber – less airflow equals less heat and vice versa. This is particularly helpful when you want to calm the fire while you simmer the rice. Not a fan of charcoal grills? The good news is that it’s much easier to control the heat on a gas grill. If you can add some wood chips to get the smoky flavor, so much the better. It is possible to cook paella indoors. It’s not authentic, but you can get pretty darned close if you skip the paellera and use a cast-iron skillet. The skillet fits on the burner better than an oversized paellera, and the cast iron will conduct the heat evenly. It took me four days, three pounds of rice, two bags of charcoal and one gallon of vegetable broth to nail the technique and remember why I love to cook. The way paella spins a handful of basic ingredients into a spectacular meal is something truly magnífico. Vegan Paella 6 to 8 servings 4 cups vegetable broth (If using bomba rice, increase vegetable broth to 5 cups.) 2 tsp. smoked paprika 1 pinch (15 to 20 threads) saffron ¼ cup olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, diced 1 large green bell pepper, diced 1 large red bell pepper, diced 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes 2 tsp. minced garlic 1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes with liquid 2 cups short- or medium-grain rice 2 oz. chopped parsley • Light a charcoal chimney filled with just enough briquettes to make a single layer of coals in the barbecue kettle. • In a medium pot, warm vegetable broth over medium-low heat. Add smoked paprika and saffron, gently crumbling the saffron between your fingers. Heat broth until hot but not boiling. • When the briquettes are covered in white ash, spread them evenly across the bottom of the kettle. Place a 15-inch paellera on the grill over the charcoal. Pour the olive oil into the paellera and swirl until the oil coats the bottom. • Add the onion to the paellera and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the peppers and eggplant, and saute until lightly brown and soft, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans and diced tomatoes with liquid. Cook 5 minutes longer. • Add the rice to the vegetable mixture, stirring to coat the rice in the sofrito. Add hot vegetable broth. Spread the rice evenly in the paellera and stop stirring. Close the lower grill vents slightly to decrease the temperature so as not to scorch the rice. Let simmer about 30 minutes, untouched, until the broth is absorbed and a golden socarrat forms on the bottom of the pan. • Remove the paellera from the grill, cover with aluminum foil, and let it rest 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve directly from the pan. Stove instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute the vegetables in a 12-inch cast-iron pan or other heavy, oven-proof skillet. Add the beans and diced tomatoes with liquid. Cook 5 minutes. Add the rice and hot broth, smoothing the rice evenly over the bottom of the skillet. Bake uncovered, without stirring, for about 30 minutes, until the broth is absorbed. Finish on the stovetop over medium-high heat, 3 to 5 minutes, until the socarrat forms. For paella perfection, use the Peregrino brand of bomba rice. Order it online at Tienda.com. Buy this 15-inch paella pan at World Market. $15, World Market, 24 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood, 314.918.7800, worldmarket.com