Paella Mixta Valenciana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •38 to 40cm paella pan for 6 servings
• •Wide gas burner, outdoor paella ring, or two burners
• •Small lidded pan for opening mussels
• •Fine sieve for straining mussel liquor
• •Kitchen scale

Instructions

1. 1

   Open the mussels

   Scrub the mussels and pull away the beards. Discard any cracked ones and any open mussels that do not close when tapped. Put them in a small pan with 100ml water, cover, and cook over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking once, just until they open. Lift them out, discard any that stay shut, and strain the liquor through a fine sieve. Add enough hot chicken and fish stock to that liquor to make 1.3 litres total, then keep it hot.

   Leave some mussels in the half shell for the top of the paella. If your pan is crowded, take the rest out of their shells and fold them in at the end.
2. 2

   Season and sear

   Pat the chicken and rabbit dry and season them with 6g of the salt. Set a 38 to 40cm paella pan over a wide gas burner, outdoor ring, or two burners, and heat the olive oil. Sear the prawns for about 45 seconds on each side, just until the shells turn red and glossy, then lift them out. Add the chicken and rabbit and brown them well for 8 to 10 minutes, turning until the edges are golden and the pan smells meaty.

3. 3

   Cook the vegetables

   Add the flat green beans to the meat and cook for 3 minutes, scraping the browned bits from the pan. Add the squid and cook for 2 minutes more, until it turns opaque and gives up its first liquid. Keep the heat lively enough that the pan sizzles; if the squid sits in a puddle, the sofrito will have to fight through water before it can sweeten.

4. 4

   Build the sofrito

   Lower the heat to medium. Add the garlic and the scraped ñora flesh, if using, and stir for 30 seconds. Add the grated tomato and 3g salt, then cook it down for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the tomato turns dark, thick, and almost jammy and the oil shows clear at the edges. Stir in the pimentón for 10 seconds only. Do not let it burn, or it turns bitter.

5. 5

   Toast the rice

   Sprinkle the rice evenly into the pan and move it through the sofrito for 1 to 2 minutes, until the grains look glassy and every grain is coated with oil and tomato. Pésalo, no lo adivines: the rice and stock balance is what keeps a paella dry rather than soupy. Level the rice into a thin, even layer.

6. 6

   Add hot stock

   Crush the saffron between your fingers into the hot stock, then pour the stock into the pan all at once. It should bubble hard straight away. Taste the liquid now; it should be well seasoned, a little stronger than a soup, because the rice will drink it. Use the spoon only to spread the rice evenly and tuck the meat through the pan. From this point, do not stir.

   If the liquid is boiling harder on one side, rotate the pan every few minutes. Move the pan, not the rice.
7. 7

   Cook the rice

   Boil briskly for 8 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes more, still without stirring. Arrange the prawns and opened mussels over the top, pressing them lightly into the rice, and cook another 5 to 6 minutes, until the liquid has disappeared and the rice is just tender with a tiny firm point at the centre.

8. 8

   Catch the socarrat

   When the rice is nearly done and the pan looks dry, raise the heat for 60 to 90 seconds and listen for a fine crackle underneath. Smell for toast, not burn. That dark crust is the socarrat, the prize at the bottom. If the rice is still too firm and the pan is dry, spoon 50ml hot water or stock around the edges and cook 2 minutes more. If the rice is tender but wet, give it another minute over higher heat.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Take the paella off the heat, cover it loosely with a clean cloth or paper, and rest it for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve from the pan, with lemon wedges if you like them. Scrape the bottom fairly so everyone gets a little socarrat. Tal como se hace allí: the pan comes to the table, and people know where the good bits are.

Chef Tips

• •Use bomba or Calasparra rice. They drink more stock than ordinary short-grain rice and stay separate. Arborio works only at a pinch; use 100ml less liquid and expect a softer, creamier grain.
• •The pan matters because the rice must cook shallow. For 450g rice, use a 38 to 40cm paella pan. A deep pot gives you arroz, not paella, and that is a different dish.
• •Rabbit is right here, but if you cannot get it, use more chicken. That changes the flavour, not the method. Do not solve the gap with chorizo. No chorizo in a Valencian paella.
• •Use a light, unsalted stock and keep it hot. Half chicken and half fish or shellfish stock gives the meat and seafood equal footing; a heavy brown stock will bully the rice.
• •Buy prawns in the shell and mussels that smell clean and close when tapped. Seafood that starts tired does not improve in a paella pan.
• •Cook the paella just before eating. You can prepare every piece ahead, but once the rice goes in, the table waits for the paella, not the other way around.

Advance Preparation

• •Scrub the mussels, cut the meat, clean the squid, trim the beans, grate the tomatoes, and measure the rice up to 6 hours ahead. Keep the seafood cold and covered.
• •The mussels can be opened and their liquor strained up to 2 hours ahead. Keep the mussels covered in the refrigerator and add the strained liquor to the stock.
• •For a dinner party, you can brown the meat and cook the sofrito up to the end of step 4 about 1 hour ahead. Reheat the pan until it sizzles before adding the rice.
• •Do not cook the rice ahead. Paella is at its best after its short rest, while the grains are still separate and the socarrat is crisp under the spoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 560g)