So today was my last day in Valencia as well as my last day in Spain and I was going to take a cooking class. Paella to be exact. Valencia is the home of paella, and I thought what better way to say adios to Spain than to learn the art of making paella.
Anyway, at 10:00 a.m., I met up with 4 young women from Holland, two ladies from Chicago, a couple from Maui and a guy from Oakland as well as our instructor for the four hour class, Reyes. Once introductions were made, Reyes took us on a bit of a walk through the old quarter before reaching Mercat Central de Valencia.
Now I had already been through the Mercat Central, so there wasn’t a whole lot new to be learned. However, the shopping experience with Reyes was new. We were going to buy a couple of ingredients for our paella. First up was the fishmonger where Reyes picked out some cuttlefish that would be one of the ingredients for the seafood paella some of us would be making. Then it was on to a vegetable stand where Reyes picked out a handful of garrofon, which looked a bit like elongated pea pods and was actually a form of butter bean.
From here, we left the Mercat Central and walked down a couple alleys to the building housing the kitchen where we would be cooking and the dining room where we would eat our masterpiece.
However, before any cooking was going to be done, we had to don aprons and shell the garrofon while enjoying some locally produced olives, rosemary olive oil almonds and of course some alcohol … in this case kava (the Spanish version of champagne).
Now in order to shell the garrofon, we had to pull down on the top of the pod which revealed a little string that we pulled to the bottom of the pod. The pod was then opened to reveal 3 or 4 beans inside. Apparently the Spanish version of the garrofon is purplish in colour whereas the Peruvian version is white in colour (aka Lima bean).
Anyway, as we were shelling the garrofon, Victor, our sommelier and appetizer guru, told us about the wines we would be drinking throughout the morning, which included the kava, a white wine, a red wine, and mistella (an apertif made out of moscat grapes).
So after the garrofon were shelled, we moved on to the kitchen where we were paired up according to the type of paella we wanted to make. Now the women from Chicago, the couple from Maui and two of the Holland girls wanted to make Paella de Valencia, which is the traditional paella made with chicken and rabbit. The other two women from Holland and me and the guy from Oakland (Eric) wanted to make the seafood paella so I ended up paired with Eric, who turned out to be a lot of fun.
Anyway, once in the kitchen, Reyes walked us through the ingredients we would be using and steps we would be taking to make the paella. And surprisingly, the ingredients and process turned out to be fairly different depending on which paella you were making. For the seafood paella we would be using olive oil to cook the ingredients, which included giant prawns, onions, tomato sauce, cuttlefish, bluefish, saffron, paprika, seafood broth and rice.
So first up, we had to pour a generous amount of olive oil into the pan making a circle and then we turned on the heat. Once the olive oil started to move and develop tiny bubbles we had to gently set the four giant prawns into the pan. Now once the prawns were cooking, Vincent served us a glass of white wine along with a fabulous cheese with quince jam. Delicious.
We kept an eye on the shrimp and finally turned them once they started to develop a whitish colour on the underside. We then flipped the shrimp over and waited for the whitish colour to appear on the second side. Reyes kept an eye on the shrimp and once she gave us the OK, we removed the shrimp from the pan and set the giant prawns aside.
Next, we dumped the onions into the olive oils and let them simmer for several minutes until the onions caramelized. Then it was time to add the tomato sauce along with the saffron and paprika which we stirred around for a bit until the liquid in the sauce was reduced. We then added the cuttlefish and once the cuttlefish was coated in the sauce, we added the bluefish to the mixture and stirred the seafood around for a bit coating all of the pieces.
Once the seafood was coated, we added the seafood broth and let that cook for a bit. And while the seafood broth was absorbing all the flavour in the pan, Victor served us a cracker topped with tomato jam, tuna, salt and pine nuts (YUM YUM YUM).
The last ingredient to be added was the rice. Now believe it or not, there is a very particular way you add the rice, which is in a straight line across the pan. Once the rice is added you then move the rice around with a large ladle to make sure the rice is evenly divided around the pan. Reyes even encourage us to shake the pan a few times to make sure the rice was properly spread out. And the ratio of seafood broth to rice was 500 ml of liquid to 100 grams of rice.
So once the rice was added, it was time to let the entire mixture simmer for approximately 15 minutes so that the rice would completely absorb the liquid. NO STIRRING during this time because you want the rice to develop the socarrat, the yummy carmelized, crispy layer of toasted rice at the bottom of the pan. And it was at this point that we turned on the second burner under our pan to obtain a higher temperature for cooking the rice.
And while we were waiting for the rice to cook, Victor served us an appetizer made of cherry tomato, pepper and pearl onion. I surreptitiously ditched the pearl onion (NOT a fan) but the cherry tomato and pepper were pretty darn good. And yes, Victor continued to top up our wine.
Now once the rice started to appear through the liquid we knew we were getting close to finishing. Reyes instructed us to turn up the heat a bit and eventually the liquid was completely absorbed by the rice and we started to see brown edges in the pan indicating the presence of the socarrat. At this point, we turned off the burners and added the four giant prawns. Then it was time to eat.
We ended up sitting at a long dining room table opposite our partners with the paella pan in front of us. Victor then served us a red wine along with some crackers and jamon sausage. Then we dished up the paella and damn if it wasn’t spectacular. Now some folks did not finish their entire pan, but Eric and I were not those people. There was no way we were leaving a drop in that pan. Our paella was really, really good.
And to end the meal, we were served a desert of sponge cake topped with whipped cream, oranges and cinnamon along with an apertif of mistella. I was absolutely stuffed.
All in all, a simply fabulous experience. I would do this again in a heartbeat. Fun people, a unique way to spend four hours and Reyes and Victor were wonderful hosts. Simply perfect.
So later in the afternoon it was off to Madrid on a less than two hour train trip and then tomorrow a less than two hour flight to Algiers. Spain has been a blast (aside from that whole passport drama).
