Thoughts of a Middle Aged Man

For an early Father’s Day present, my wife went down to Sur La Table, and purchased an 18″ carbon steel paella pan. I have been playing around with basic paella ingredients such as spanish chorizo sausage and smoked paprika but I have been restricted by using my standard size saute pan. With this new pan I can cook a paella for 6 to eight people and use my wok burner on my stove top.

So I searched the web for paella recipes and decided to sort of make up my own based on the ingredients I had on hand. So I browned some chorizo, then some chicken thighs, then onions, tomatoes, red bell peppers. I added the rice with some smoked paprika to toast the rice followed by a splash of white wine. Once reduced, I added enough homemade chicken stock which I bloomed some saffron to fill the pan. I added back the sausage, chicken and added some artichoke hearts and let it cook away. After twenty minutes, I added some peas and covered the pan with some foil and turned off the heat. We waited 5 minutes and I moved the whole dish to the table for a wonderful presentation.

It was amazed at the difference a pan makes. The large, shallow carbon steel pan allows the rice to carmelize on the bottom, creating the socarrat. The socarrat is a tasty addition that I couldn’t achieve in any other pan.

If you want a pan, I would get one online at PaellaPans.com, but Sur La Table is a good alternative if you cannot wait for it to be shipped. So after holding our pasta making party, a Paella fest will soon be on our entertainment schedule.