merryb wrote:

>> Paella is basically a rice dish and it most often has saffron in it. I
>> would say there is a basic technique, but from reading Casas' book, I
>> found that there isn't just one technique, or one particular version.
>>
>> http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/a...to/paella.aspx
>>
> Almost like a risotto? Do you have a favorite recipe you'd care to post? I
> won't eat mussels, but I can pick them out if necessary...

It's like a risotto in that both paella and risotto use short-grain rice and
are cooked in open pans. It's also like risotto in that both paella and
risotto have their ardent purists. (Anya von Bremzen's book _The Spanish
Table_ gives a list of "rules" which these purists will put forth at length:
"Only cook paella over an open fire fueled either by grapevines or limbs
from orange trees" is one such "rule". Another is "Don't include chorizo in
a paella which contains seafood." Obviously, not every paella in the world
follows these "rules".)

Paella is unlike a risotto in a couple ways: First, the rice isn't stirred
during cooking. The result is that the rice's starch doesn't become a major
component of the liquid in the final dish. In fact, paella doesn't have much
liquid at all in the final dish; you're supposed to cook it until the rice
forms a crust (the most-prized part of the dish) on the bottom of the pan.
Second, paella has more prominent inclusions (like chicken, big chunks of
vegetables, mussels, and so forth) than typical risottos have.

The closest comparison I could make to typical food in the USA would be
jambalaya, but jambalaya doesn't generally contain saffron, nor is it made
with short-grain rice.

In their books on Spanish cooking, both Penelope Casas and Anya von Bremzen
take pains to emphasize that the rice is the most important part of paella.
Both laud the native Valencian rice as the best, but list acceptable
substitutes -- and long-grain rice is *not* an acceptable substitute,
according to both of them.

Bob