Jorge de Angel Moliner · Valencia, Spain
Arròs del Senyoret (Valencian Seafood Rice)
Lots of tourists came to Spain solely for its paella. And I can say, its unforgettable taste is really worth travelling half-way round the world. To say the truth, I tasted the best paella for tourists, as it’s named by Jorge – creative and charismatic Spanish chef who shared the recipe of his dish for this post – in Girona, in a rather plain outlet not far from the quay.
Ingredients
Method
- Soak the ñora in just-boiled water for 20 minutes.
- Peel the prawns, keeping the heads and shells, and pull out the dark vein; keep the prawns in the fridge.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the small saucepan over medium-high heat and fry the heads and shells for 3 minutes, pressing the heads with a spoon.
- Add the fish stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Strain the stock, measure 700 ml (top up with water if needed), add the saffron and keep it hot over low heat.
- Split the soaked ñora, discard the seeds and stem, and scrape the soft flesh off the skin with a knife; discard the skin.
- Season the monkfish and cuttlefish lightly with salt.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the wide pan over medium heat and fry the garlic for 30–40 seconds, until pale gold.
- Add the monkfish, cuttlefish and prawns and fry for 2 minutes, stirring.
- Lift the prawns out onto a plate and set aside.
- Add the passata and fry for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until it darkens to a brick colour and the oil separates.
- Stir in the ñora flesh and the paprika for 10 seconds; paprika burns quickly.
- Pour in all the hot stock at once and bring it to the boil.
- Taste the stock and season with salt; it should taste slightly too salty, as the rice will absorb it.
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Scatter the rice evenly over the pan and stir once to spread it out; do not stir again from now on.
- Cook over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, turning the pan now and then if your burner is smaller than the pan.
- Turn the heat to low, press the prawns into the rice and cook for 8 minutes more, until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is just tender.
- Turn the heat to high for the last 1–2 minutes, until the bottom crackles and smells toasted, but not burnt.
- Take the pan off the heat, cover it with the tea towel and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, grate the garlic for the aioli into the jug and add the egg yolk, lemon juice and salt.
- Blend with the stick blender while pouring in the oil in a very thin stream, until thick and glossy.
- Taste the aioli and add more salt or lemon if needed.
- Serve the rice from the pan, with the aioli on the side.
- Roast chopped garlic in olive oil.
- Add seafood and fish and fry for 2-3 minutes, then put prawns aside.
- Add pomito and roast till they become orange.
- Add bell and Noras peppers, stir and add stock at once.
- Bring to the boil, add salt and saffron.
- Cook for 5 minutes and add rice.
- Cook until the rice absorbs the whole stock.
- Serve with aioli.
What we changed for home
- Prawn stock made in 15 minutes from the prawn heads and shells simmered in store-bought fish stock Ready-made prawn stock is rare in shops. Frying the shells you peel off anyway and simmering them in fish stock gives it a strong shellfish taste.
- Ñora pepper soaked and scraped; 1 dried ancho chilli or 1 extra tsp sweet paprika if you can't find it Ñoras are dried sweet round peppers from eastern Spain, sold in Spanish delis and online. Their flesh has to be soaked off the tough skin. Ancho is the closest dried pepper in most supermarkets.
- 'Pomito' read as tomato passata, 2 tbsp Pomito is a Spanish brand of sieved tomato.
- Saffron given as a pinch of about 10 threads, rather than food colouring Colouring adds colour only; saffron gives the rice its flavour as well.
- Olive oil added to the list and an aioli recipe written out The method fries in oil and serves the rice with aioli, but neither is in the list.
- Pan size, heat and timings given, with no stirring once the rice is in The original says only 'cook until the rice absorbs the stock'. A thin layer of rice in a wide pan, left alone, cooks evenly and forms the toasted crust at the bottom (socarrat).
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
Screen stays on while you cook