Arroz a Banda

Arroz a banda is Alicante's, especially the rice country of the Valencian coast, and its name tells you the trick: the rice is cooked apart from the fish. First the fish gives itself to a deep fumet, then the rice takes that stock, salmorreta, and oil until it cooks dry and stained red-gold. The fish is served on the side, a banda, with allioli. That's what makes it this dish and not its neighbour.

The method that decides it is the stock and the stillness. Build a clean, strong fish fumet from heads, bones, and small rock fish if you can get them. Then make salmorreta, the Alicante base of ñora pepper, garlic, tomato, and parsley, cooked until the raw tomato is gone and the oil turns brick red. Toast the rice in that base before the stock goes in. Once the hot stock is added, spread the grains flat and leave them alone. Stirring wakes the starch and turns dry arroz into porridge. A fine porridge perhaps, but not arroz a banda.

If you're far from Alicante, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use bomba if you can, Calasparra if not, and a short-grain rice for paella at a pinch. For the stock, ask for firm white fish bones and heads, shrimp shells, or a few blue crabs; what changes is the depth, not the rule. Don't use salmon bones, they make the broth oily and loud. My Margin beside this one says only: hot stock, wide pan, no spoon. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.