Paella Valenciana

Paella Valenciana belongs to Valencia, and it is a rice dish with a surname: chicken, rabbit, ferraura or flat green beans, garrofó, grated tomato, saffron, and round rice cooked wide and shallow in a paellera. No chorizo. No seafood in this one. Those can make other good arroces, rice dishes, but they don't make this paella.

The method that decides it comes after the tomato has cooked down and the rice has had its minute in the oil. Add the hot saffron water all at once, spread the rice flat, and then leave it be. Stirring works the starch loose and turns the pan creamy; Valencia wants grains that sit separate, with the dark, toasted socarrat catching underneath.

If you're far from Valencia, use bomba or Calasparra; another Spanish round rice works if you lower the water a little. Garrofó can be replaced with large lima beans or butter beans, already tender, and the dish will be less buttery but still honest. Rabbit is worth keeping; if you cannot find it, use more chicken and know what you've lost.

Before guests come, I set the pan level and measure the water. That is not fussing. It is kindness to the cook. Pésalo, no lo adivines. When the water goes in, the spoon's work is almost over. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.