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Recipes with short-grain paella rice

4 recipes that use short-grain paella rice, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Paella de verduras, takes 60 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, saffron threads and sweet paprika.

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Arroz a banda

Along the Alicante coast, from Santa Pola to Dénia, arroz a banda began as a fishermen's meal: the small, bony fish that wouldn't sell were simmered into a deep, rust-coloured stock, rice was cooked in it, and the fish was eaten "a banda", on the side. Today the rice comes first, thin, golden and intensely savoury, with a spoonful of allioli, and the poached fish and potatoes follow. A common mistake is a weak stock; the rice tastes of nothing more than what it cooks in, so use plenty of fish and reduce it well. The allioli here uses pasteurised egg; raw-egg allioli is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: let the rice catch slightly on the base in the last minute to form socarrat, the toasty crust everyone fights over.

115 minSpanishFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Arroz del senyoret

The name means "the little gentleman's rice", after the well-to-do diners at Valencia's beach restaurants in Las Arenas and El Saler who refused to get their hands dirty peeling prawns. So every piece of seafood goes into the pan already peeled and cut to fork size, while the shells are fried into the stock to keep all their flavour. The result is a thin layer of saffron-gold rice dotted with sweet prawn, squid and monkfish, eaten straight from the pan on a summer Sunday. A common mistake is throwing the prawn shells away; they give the stock its depth. Chef's tip: grate the tomato rather than chopping it; the pulp melts into the sofrito and lets it darken quickly.

75 minSpanishFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Arroz con costra

Elche and Orihuela, in the south of Alicante, finish their Sunday rice in a way no other Spanish rice is finished: a thick layer of beaten egg is poured over the cooked rice, chicken, chickpeas and sausages, and the earthenware dish goes into a hot oven until the egg puffs into a golden lid. Families argue about whether the costra should be cracked at the table or cut into wedges. This contains pork (white sausages and morcilla). A common mistake is pouring the egg over rice that is still soupy; the egg sinks in and goes rubbery, so wait until the liquid has almost all gone. Chef's tip: bake it in a wide earthenware cazuela if you have one, which holds the heat and gives the crust its traditional dome.

100 minSpanishRice & GrainsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Paella de verduras

Paella comes from the rice fields around the Albufera lagoon south of Valencia, where it was cooked over orange-wood fires in a wide, shallow pan. Valencians are strict about it: short round rice, saffron, sweet pimentón, flat green beans (ferraúra) and big white garrofó beans, and never any stirring once the rice is in. This all-vegetable paella keeps those rules and adds artichokes and red pepper, as the market gardeners of the Huerta do in spring. It is cooked and served in the same pan, straight onto the table. Chef's tip: listen for the socarrat at the end. Turn up the heat for the last 1–2 minutes until the rice crackles and smells toasty; that caramelised crust on the bottom is the best part of any paella.

60 minSpanishRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with short-grain paella rice