Any secrets to a great paella recipe? My wife (Japanese) bought a bag of seafood mix. Every recipe I've found boasts "quick and easy", I don't want quick and easy, I want good. Please help me, my friends, I beg you.

>>21453739 (OP)
Saffron

I am Spanish, i am from Valencia. Paella is valencian. If you put seafood on a Paella you are literally shitting on my culture, there is no such a thing like seafood Paella, its always WITHOUT and never WITH

Don't be fooled, those who prepare Paella with seafood are ripping off tourists

>>21453739 (OP)
wife: :|
wife (Japanese): :O

>>21453746
Wow. How is adding seafood ripping people off? Do you have a recipe you use?

>>21453739 (OP)
valencia short grain rice
brown your onion, peppers veggies well,
then your raw rice to get a bit of toasting on it
Deglaze with wine (or sherry or port)
real saffron, which I soften a bit in stock to help distribute it. Then add the rest of your liquids, olive or capers, other vetggies like pimentos, asparagus or artichokes Tuck in your steaming seafoods.

>>21453768
It's unreal that most of the recipes I've seen don't mention deglazing at all. Thanks man.

>>21453739 (OP)
Never made it, but y'all aren't unaccustomed to rice, so it's prob not as hard as you think. The signature of paella is the hard crust at the bottom, but to get that, it'd require mushier rice at the bottom whose starches get "burned" and melted together. This of course means you can't stir the bottom, at least at the end of the cook. It also means you'd want a rice that has enough starch. You should also look up washing recommendations too - if any - for the same reason. For cooking times, cause you don't wanna get the crust charred black, look up cooking times and temperatures. Getting the socarrat right is gonna be the hardest part - otherwise, most cooking (not baking) should be fairly easy imo, though not necessarily quick.

Concerning the seafood, a good tip imo is that normal meats are waay too strong to be used with seafood; issue with using both at the same time would be that you will never taste the seafood, and only the land meat. So I recommend that you use a seafood stock if you can, and to not use any other flesh except from that seafood mix. The peeled shrimp shells are great for stock.

As for other ingredients, idk. The jambalaya part of me is telling me it needs bell peppers, but for paella, dunno. I'm also biased against those green peas when something like green peppers (any) or cilantro/parsley/green onions exist.

>>21453813
>jambalaya
Every recipe I've seen sounds extremely similar to jambalaya, the only difference I've seen is the use of saffron. Is saffron really that strong?

>>21453746
this is a good shitpost because there actually are people who think like this

>>21453824
>Is saffron really that strong?
it's floral tasting, if you ask me, a distinctive flavor

>>21453746
Personally, I never do seafood. I live in Florida, and ehh, seafood in a pot of rice is not how I personally make it. But, OP has some seafood on hand and wishes to do make this dish. He won't be wrong just a version.

OP, I had some good mussels cooked in wine and chorizo once, omfg so good, and had about 2 bottles of Barbera that night afterwards, so maybe you'd like a bit of chorizo in your sofrito to start your skillet.

I make it with Uncle Bens, paprika and turmeric, chicken thighs, canned mixed vegetables, and canned seafood like mussels and squids and lots of anchovies. Its an expensive meal and everyone loves it

>>21453824
>saffron
I've never had it as an adult so idk. But I honestly doubt that every Spanish mother who makes it for their senpai at home is gonna be using saffron though due to the expense, in the same way that people who make biryani at home ain't using saffron all the time. It's different for restaurants because "good" paella need saffron as a selling point.

If you're wavering about using it, honestly, if I were in your position and I weren't low on cash, I'd use it. Cause like, why not? We making something special, why not go all out the first time? Then you can choose to do something different to compare the next time, like maybe see if a little bit of honey or rose water make a fun replacement. Could also use the saffron for other stuff in the future, since they preserve well.

>only real difference
Imo, the only real difference to me was the Spanish sofrito aspect and the socarrat. The south will have their trinity and mexican+texan influence in the jambalaya instead. My opinion on saffron was mentioned above already.

>>21453856
if you're putting a family's worth of fresh seafood in a pot with rice I think you can afford $0.50 worth of saffron

>seafood paella
Enjoy your fucking rubbery fish lmao

>>21453739 (OP)
The secret to a good Paella is to use good quality choritso.

im from the valencia region and the only thing i will say about this matter is that chorizo is about the only actual agreed on taboo with paella. Im pretty liberal about how spanish style rice should be but chorizo is the thing that will make it the least authentic possible.

>>21453865
>>21454953
This is starting to sound like how "real Mexican tacos" only have meat and raw onions in them. No chorizo and no seafood, alright, what the fuck goes in it then? I reckon I'll just follow an internet recipe and you retards can enjoy your pot of rice with nothing good in it.

>>21455058
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella#Paella_valenciana

But you can make non-traditional Valencian paella with seafood and it will be good. I agree on no chorizo though.
If you do use seafood, you need to think about timing of the cook. Over/undercooked seafood is bad, with meat there's a larger window where it's good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj77iYKeQHc is a good video on non-traditional paella.