Christmas Eve Shenanigans

Christmas Eve has always been a special part of the holidays for my family. In recent years, the traditions have included visiting my Grandma for Christmas with her, eating munchies and fondue and everything fried, and watching movies or playing games. With my brothers now married, Christmas Eve is sort of the highlight of my Christmas because all of my siblings, now, spend the day at my parent's house with us.

Having had a few weeks to relax and unwind from the fall semester, I decided to do something special to wrap up the year, which started with me studying abroad in Spain for 4 months. I made paella, a dish my land lady in Spain made for me and her family at Easter from scratch. Paella (pronounced pie-ey-ya) is a Valencian or Eastern Spanish rice dish, a very traditional dish in Spain. The recipe I made for Christmas Eve was a lot of memory from Easter, along with some additions from online sources. My dish was also made entirely from scratch to get as many authentic flavors as possible.

Paella was a slang term for “pan” back in the day; today it exclusively means this dish, and the pan that is specially made for it.

The rice dish probably evolved from Moorish dishes that influenced Spain until the late 15^th century. There are 3 types: paella valenciana, seafood paella, and mixed paella. The whole idea of paella is pretty much a mix though, it is rice with certain spices, and whatever meat and vegetables were around throughout the centuries. There are specific ingredients that are more traditional than others today, however.

We had a traditional mixed paella with chorizo (sausage) and chicken and vegetables. The paella valenciana is often made with eels or snails, and the seafood paella (although it encouraged me to expand my horizons while abroad) isn’t something everyone in the family would have enjoyed. There are many types of paella that result in competitions across Spain, including kinds with black rice (colored with squid ink) and many different meats and seafood (rabbit, chicken, sausage, clams, shrimp...)

I made a vegetable stock and infused the rice with white wine, saffron, and a mix of sautéed vegetables called the sofrito. Then I combined the stock, rice mixture, and meat in a big pan until the rice is cooked. I was hoping for a crust of rice at the bottom of the pan when it is done—not burnt, but sort of caramelized—called a socarrat (soh-kah-raht, from the verb socarrar, which means to toast lightly). It is the mark of a well-made paella.

When it is done, paella is traditionally eaten directly from the pan.Since we had to transport it to my Grandma's, we skipped this part. I saw some signs of the socarrat but again, with transferring it to a traveling dish, it was hard to tell. My recipe was as follows: 

Paella with Chicken and Chorizo

Stock:

1 1/2 large onion- peel + chop finely or grind

1-2 heads garlic- peel + break into cloves

2 stalks celery- chop off leaves and chop finely or grind

2 carrots- scrub and chop finely or grind

1 bay leaf

½ tsp saffron (<1gram)

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika (Pimeton)

5 cups water

Paella

½ cup dry white wine

½ large onion, chopped

½ red bell pepper, chopped

½ tomato, chopped

½ lb cooking chorizo in 1/4” slices (Spanish or Basque chorizo, or Portuguese Linguica sausage)

¼ cup chopped parsley

½ cup frozen peas

½ cup green beans

4 tbsp chopped garlic

6 oz roasted piquillo peppers

2 cups Bomba calasparra rice (or Goya California pearl rice, paella rice, medium grain rice)

4 chicken thighs or breasts

extra virgin olive oil

1. Fill pot with stock vegetables, paprika. Sweat for 5 min with lid on, then remove lid and add cold water. Simmer for an hour, and then strain the vegetables off.
2. Chop chicken into small pieces. Salt it and rub with paprika.
3. On medium/high heat, brown the chicken and chorizo in olive oil in a 13” pan 5-10 min. Remove and set aside
4. Add onion, bell pepper, chopped garlic, parsley, tomato, and piquillo peppers and cook for 5 min, stirring occasionally. This is the sofrito. The technique is simple: sauté the vegetables over medium heat until they soften and the flavors meld, and the water from the tomato has evaporated. This mixture should be thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon.
5. Add rice to the sofrito and cook 2-5 min or until golden, stirring. Add wine to the rice and stir until absorbed.
6. In another pan, sauté the saffron in oil for just a few moments.
7. Pour the broth from the pot into the paella pan and add saffron, green beans, and peas. Allow it to boil. Simmer on lower heat until the broth is almost all absorbed. During this time, move the pan to get even heat coverage, but don’t stir the rice. The liquid may boil off too quickly to cook the rice (rice will start to float a little when it’s close) so keep extra stock handy just in case. Rice should be done but not mushy- 20 min of cooking. Last 2 min of cooking, cover with foil or place the whole pan in a 400 degree oven to get even heat.
8. Socarrat is the caramelized crust of rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan. To get some, increase the heat at the end of cooking, paying close attention to the sound of the rice (it crackles) and the smell.
9. When the liquid is absorbed, the rice is done, the paella needs some time alone to finish cooking and round out its flavors. Cover the pan with a clean towel or foil and let it rest off the heat for five to ten minutes.
10. Serve directly in the pan it was cooked in.

To reheat: Add water and heat at 350 degrees until warmed through with the water re-absorbed. 

*Some notes: I found that timing was very important, especially when cooking the rice. I added the saffron a little late, so the rice didn't dye evenly. Also, my paella could have used more flavor--  I was light-handed on the spices and on adding the meat. Finding ingredients was hard, especially finding non-long grain rice, saffron, and the chorizo. 

Everyone seemed to enjoy the paella, and the Indian dish my brother made for later in the evening. We introduced my parents to the game Apples to Apples, which was a rousing success, and watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-long Blog. A great Christmas for the Liptaks!

Happy holidays, and thanks for reading!