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 gre...