Shellfish Paella & Other Spanish Stuff

When I was a junior in college, I was fortunate enough to spend a semester abroad in Madrid and live with a Spanish family who made traditional, classic Spanish dishes like paella on a regular basis. And like your average Spaniards, they ate these meals around 2 or 3 pm so that when I got home from school an hour later, the leftovers would be waiting for me at that perfect post-dining temperature—when the food's no longer hot but not cold either and the flavors have had a little extra time to just hang out and get to know each other—and do you know what I would do? Not eat it because I was—for no real reason apart from being "healthy"—a vegetarian. Can you believe that? My Spanish host mom must have thought I was insane to pick at her paella, eat a few bites and say, "Ya comí," before quietly retiring to my room for the afternoon. The saying that youth is wasted on the young is the TRUTH. Times a thousand.

So when my real mom came to visit this past weekend and wanted to make paella, I thought it might be a perfect time to try to redeem myself and to publicly and finally say I'm sorry to my Spanish host-mom for snubbing her beautiful homemade paella with the full-bodied shrimp, the head of which I'm sure was what really scared me appetite-less at the time.

Saveur's version:

Photo: Luca Vignelli

our version:

(Only headless shrimp were available at the grocery store.)

Coincidentally, Saveur did a special feature on The Principles of Paella recently. Because of this, I now know that this step pictured below of steeping the saffron is the "most traditional way of coloring and flavoring paella."

Also coincidental, or perhaps just Spanish synergy at this point, this past weekend marked the opening of Spanish-bullfight-inspired Faena Nueva: New Glazes on New Pots by Adam Silverman at Heath Ceramics. I grabbed myself the middle one below. Sooo coool, right? The show is up through the 25th so if you're in L.A., you should definitely stop by and check it out in person.

OK, back to paella: We were banking on my mom's knowledge for how to debeard the mussels, but she only shouted from the living room: "I don't know how to do that!" We Googled it and as it turns out, it mostly involves just ripping the hairy stuff off and then scrubbing the shells clean.

I don't think I even need to label this as a success. It's pretty apparent, no? Only we did fail to get the nice crust on the bottom--tips on how to do that, anyone?--and it was just a tad on the bland side. Next time, I think I'd like to use a stock of some kind instead of water. Also, adding some chorizo would definitely not hurt, but then of course it wouldn't be Valencian (as this recipe describes itself).

Oh Mom, how will we ever redeem ourselves with the Spaniards when you are pairing their famed dish with diet Coke?

For recipe, click here.