A Tempest in a Paellera
How do you make a paella? There are a few answers to that question, and a few questions it also raises. For example, what is a paella? A paella is a rice dish that is typically from the area of Valencia. I found a website that prides itself as a Valencian cooking website, lapaella.net, and has only two recipes for what it calls authentic paella. Outside those two recipes, the author calls all others simply rice dishes. The true paella has no seafood, only chicken and rabbit, and various different vegetables, including green beans. The Valencianos defend their dish with the zeal of a grizzly bear mother defending her cubs. I can understand. Their dish has become famous all over the world, and has mutated into different forms. They want to protect the origins of such a tasty dish. Much like the French defend champagne, saying theirs is the only true champagne, all others are sparkling wines.
The original recipe contains chicken, rabbit, paprika, saffron, crushed tomato, wide green beans, butter beans, navy beans, water, virgin olive oil, rice, salt, and sometimes snails or artichokes. That's it. The Valencians claim that anything else concocted outside Valencia, even if it's cooked in the paellera (the shallow, handleless, pan used for paellas), is simply a rice dish and not a paella. That includes what is generally known as paella mixta in the rest of the country, and which includes a mixture of chicken, pork, seafood, and different vegetables. Which is why so many are so upset about Jamie Oliver's take on a paella, because it includes chourizo, which even the other versions of paella doesn't touch.
I'm not a purist when it comes to making a certain food. But even I agree that adding chourizo to rice takes it out of the realm of paella and deposits it into the kingdom of innovative rice dishes. I'm not saying it must necessarily be a bad mix, but Oliver's ingredients in his new paella are: garlic, onion, carrot, parsley, chourizo, chicken thighs, olive oil, paprika, red pepper, tomato puree, chicken stock cube, rice, frozen peas, frozen prawns, and a lemon. This is not paella, even if it is made in a paellera. This is a modern take on an ancient regional dish.
Some of the comments that have shown up fall short of accusing Jamie Oliver of an actual assassination attempt on Spanish cuisine. Someone even called him a food terrorist. Others said it is an offense to add chourizo to paella. Someone said no way that is a paella, it's simply "rice with things." Apparently, as Oliver later explained, he got his idea of adding chourizo from his Spanish grandmother. Well, his grandmother was most likely not from the Valencia region, and probably did add chourizo to a lot of stews. However, a rice stew is not paella, even though a paella is a rice stew.
I will continue making my version of paella mixta, with no chourizo added. Besides, my taste buds rebel against considering prawns and chourizos in the same dish. That's not a combination that sounds appetizing. But then, my tastes run to the classic.
The original recipe contains chicken, rabbit, paprika, saffron, crushed tomato, wide green beans, butter beans, navy beans, water, virgin olive oil, rice, salt, and sometimes snails or artichokes. That's it. The Valencians claim that anything else concocted outside Valencia, even if it's cooked in the paellera (the shallow, handleless, pan used for paellas), is simply a rice dish and not a paella. That includes what is generally known as paella mixta in the rest of the country, and which includes a mixture of chicken, pork, seafood, and different vegetables. Which is why so many are so upset about Jamie Oliver's take on a paella, because it includes chourizo, which even the other versions of paella doesn't touch.
I'm not a purist when it comes to making a certain food. But even I agree that adding chourizo to rice takes it out of the realm of paella and deposits it into the kingdom of innovative rice dishes. I'm not saying it must necessarily be a bad mix, but Oliver's ingredients in his new paella are: garlic, onion, carrot, parsley, chourizo, chicken thighs, olive oil, paprika, red pepper, tomato puree, chicken stock cube, rice, frozen peas, frozen prawns, and a lemon. This is not paella, even if it is made in a paellera. This is a modern take on an ancient regional dish.
Some of the comments that have shown up fall short of accusing Jamie Oliver of an actual assassination attempt on Spanish cuisine. Someone even called him a food terrorist. Others said it is an offense to add chourizo to paella. Someone said no way that is a paella, it's simply "rice with things." Apparently, as Oliver later explained, he got his idea of adding chourizo from his Spanish grandmother. Well, his grandmother was most likely not from the Valencia region, and probably did add chourizo to a lot of stews. However, a rice stew is not paella, even though a paella is a rice stew.
I will continue making my version of paella mixta, with no chourizo added. Besides, my taste buds rebel against considering prawns and chourizos in the same dish. That's not a combination that sounds appetizing. But then, my tastes run to the classic.
| The recipe of discord. |
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| The original paella. |
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