Mrs. DFB and I spent Thanksgiving 2022 at a Paella class in a long-delayed trip to Spain. If you find yourself in Seville—and you should—I can’t recommend Taller Andaluz de Cocina enough.
But here’s the thing… I’m not going to produce the perfect Andalusian Paella outside of Iberia. I can go to as many American grocery stores as I want in search of exact ingredients, but the supplies are never going to be one to one with Spanish marketo. They have beans that we don’t, different types of rice, plastic boxes bulging at the seams with packed in saffron for $20 that would run 5 times the price here, and they’ve got a giant pan that I could hypothetically buy but it won’t fit in my cabinet.
When in Rome, you do as the Romans. When back home, you do you.
So this version is mine: made with lamb sausage, and a little chipotle-shaped kick.
It’s also flawed. I’ve gotten a partial crust maybe 50% of the time now that I have the ratio right. I suspect this is because cast iron changes temperature much slower than the big cast iron pan, but I have no idea and am not quite ready to invest in a specific pan for this.
Oh, but one thing: order the real smoked paprika. American grocery store paprika doesn’t hold a candle to it. The smell alone will knock your socks off.
Serve with Rioja or, if it’s the middle of summer and you feel inspired to make even more things, sangria.
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 mid-sized carrots
- 2 peppers, different kinds (red, poblano)
- Handful of small tomatoes
- Like a tablespoon of Smoked Paprika
- 210g Arborio rice (70g per person, but three for these ratios)
- 3 lamb sausages.
- Ideally rosemary lamb merguez. Optionally you can add your own Rosemary.
- Pot of Roast Vegetable stock. 4 cups is usually about right.
- EVOO
- Fresh Cilantro
- Salt
Steps
- Dice onion, garlic. Set aside.
- Chop carrots, puppers, tomatoes.
- Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet.
- Start the stock in a small pot (need more than a saucepan)
- Fry garlic and onions at medium-high heat. Like 5.
- Chop up three lamb sausages into small pieces. Push the garlic and onion aside and cook them.
- Add vegetables. Keep it running hot.
- Season with sea salt, a lot of paprika, and enough chipotle to make it spicy without overpowering the smoky parprika.
- Add stock, just enough to cover all the stuff.
- Draw a line line across pot with the rice. Stir the rice in.
- If you have dill tear it up and stir it in.
- Cook 18 minutes. 5 minutes high heat. 5 minutes medium heat. 8 minutes low heat. All the liquid will have evaporated.*
- In the last minute, turn up the heat, drizzle with olive oil. Run this for hotter and longer than you think, it’s hard to get the crust.
- Top with Fresh Cilantro.
- Cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
“But Chef, you’re doing it wrong!” “My recipe is better!” “I need to yell a lot in Spanish!” I’m here for it! Email me your strong opinions (and please note if it’s okay to publish them).