Paella in Barcelona
Paella, paella, paella! Paella is found on many menus across Barcelona, from street food vendors to five-star restaurants alike, and for a good reason - paella is amazing! To learn how to make this beloved Spanish dish (although actually it is only a dish native to Valencia but has found its way across the country) I decided to enroll in a paella cooking class.
The class started with a trip to the market with the chef, where we bought fresh prawns, mussels, clams, and squid. Paella comes in many versions (chicken, seafood, vegetarian, etc.) but this class was only for seafood paella. After stopping for some fresh bread as well, it was time to head back to the kitchen and get cooking.
As the chef prepared the kitchen, he brought out some sangria (of course) and pinchos to get us hungry for more. In short, pinchos are similar to tapas, except pinchos are usually multiple foods skewered together via toothpick. After showing us how to assemble the pincho (rub tomato on bread, drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of sea salt, slice of manchego cheese, slice of each jamón ibérico and chorizo, top with padrón pepper) it was time to get cooking.
The chef first showed us some basic knife skills along with how to clean the seafood properly. After that, he left it up to us to clean and cut all the food. Guess who got the coolest job of cleaning squid!
Paella is cooked in a wide thin pan known as a paellera which allows for a majority of the ingredients to have direct contact with hot metal. Every paella starts off with a generous pour of Spanish olive oil into a hot pan to start cooking the vegetables. After the veggies comes the squid and clams which are then stirred in concentric circles to allow for all the ingredients to have an even amount of contact with the hot metal. After a healthy dose of white wine (for the paella and us), the mussels, tomato sauce, spices (including the all essential saffron), fish broth, and prawns are added to the pan. Once this is thoroughly mixed, it is time to add the most important ingredient - the rice! After cooking for 35 min it is time to dig in.
Although I would have been more than happy to end it here, the chef was not quite done with us yet. He next gave us some bartending lessons and showed us how to make sangria to enjoy with our paella! Buen provecho!
Making some sangria
