and I've been cooking Spanish food since I was a little boy.

Today I'm going to be cooking the world-famous

the Spanish national Paella Valenciana.

If there is a dish in Spain that brings family together it will be paella.

I'm putting my reputation on the line, because Balenthenos are

very particular with this recipe, like Napolatanos are with

their pizza. So I have a quite a lot of ingredients here

Artichoke, green beans, broad beans, as you can see. Chicken and rabbit

the two main meats. The real heroes of this dish.

This stuff is just fundamental to the recipe. Essentially.

So lets start, okay. I'm just heating up

this beautiful paella pan. I'm going to start preparing the saffron.

Okay, in Spanish saffron is the most expensive thing in the world. The clove is very

small

and its difficult and hard to find outside of spring.

What makes it different, is that it is toasted.

As supposed to sun dried. We're going to use this from

another country and toast it ourselves. Okay, so I'm just going to

fold it. Kind of an envelope.

Then I'm going to put it

into this hot pan just for a few seconds,

and that will give extra fragrance, and it will be easier to release all that

beautiful aromas and the smokiness

into the stock. I've had it for about 10 seconds on each side,

that is enough. I have the chicken and the rabbit. And first thing

a generous amount of salt. There's a lot of ingredients going into that pan.

Good olive oil extra virgin always. You see how it's cracking, the salt

The pan is really hot and we're going to go with the meat. Have a couple of

chicken thighs,

with the bone and the skin, cut in half, and sort of like a

quarter of rabbit approximately.

But again, you cannot get rabbit, or you don't like it,

just put some more chicken in or pork rib, that will do.

We need to cook this meat until it's

really dark.

This high heat has given the meat a really nice brown caramelized colour

and flavour. I'm just going to make a little space for the veggies.

I have some runner beans already prepared, and some broad beans.

And I want this to get really brown again. At this point I need to add the artichoke.

Very fundamental ingredient in the paella.

Take the outer leaves from the bottom of the flower. Gonna cut the stalk.

Peel the stalk. You can either do it with a

paring knife. With the pealer cut the artichoke

around here. Peel it with a paring knife on the outer part

a leave sort of like a diamond

shape, like a mushroom. Cut it in half. Cut in quarter

and this inner hair, which is inside,

which is not edible we just need to remove it.

Just going to do the same with all this quarter's. I'm going to add a couple of artichokes

in total

so that it all browns nicely. This is not a recipe that needs a lot of

stirring.

Actually. Otherwise juices will be released

and it will start poaching and boiling, and this isn't what we're looking for.

Gonna go with the next ingredient. Garlic. Very important in the Spanish cuisine.

Just gonna finely chop it. A couple of garlic pills for this recipe will be

sufficient.

I've put the heat down. Give it a little stir,

and I'm not gonna leave it there for too long. Maybe just about a minute.

or thirty seconds even depending on the heat.

Smoked paprika as the world knows it.

That's what gives fantastic favour to a lot of Spanish recipes.

Give it a little stir, and I'm going to add straight away

the grated tomatoes. I have two grated tomatoes over here

and I think I'm only going to use

half. Put the heat, right back up. And now it's time for a stirring.

As well, this tomato will cook

in about two minutes, no more. Take a look at this.

Really nicely browned loads of colour.

Loads of depth. You know even the veggies they are no longer green. This is

not an al dente good-looking type of thing.

All those reds, all those browns means flavour.

I have a stock here. I'm just gonna pour this chicken stock

one-and-a-half liters. Give it a little

stir. Lets go back to the saffron. Going to use

about half a gram. Crush it a bit so that it spreads

out a little bit more. Let's bring this to the boil.

And add the rice.

And now with the rice. Okay I'm going to be using about 250 grams which is half of this packet.

But if you don't find a Spanish rice, or something that's called paella rice

just use short-grain rice, okay. Never use basmati or jasmine, or long-grain in

general.

It is one of the rices which absorbs the most water.

Take a quick look. Look at the colour.

I'm just going to add around 250

grams of this rice. Give it a little stir.

Make sure either spreads quite nicely. Just leave it for a couple a minute so

that they

rice flattens and evens, and then we'll just let it be.

Okay, this is getting back up to the

boil. Last stir. I will let it cook on the highest heat

for 10 minutes. Then will lower it down for another six

minutes, approximately until it's ready. You can see here

that this part, the water is below the rice,

and that one is just over there. It's very important that you don't stir your paella

at any point, after the begin, because

otherwise the rice will release the starch, and it will become stodgy.

We are going to add the rosemary, three sprigs.

We're going to create a little bit of a lead. I'm going to

lower down the heat, because this rice will still need

about five minutes on the low heat,

and another five minutes resting, and I think that will be

the perfect rice, with a perfect socarrat underneath.

Which is the crispy bit that forms through

all that oils and fats that goes down and a bit of the

starch of the rice how it crispens up at the bottom.

That's the most tasty part.

It's been resting for about 4-5 minutes, so now is the time to unveil it.

Mm it smells beautiful. The rice looks like it's perfectly cooked.

You can see a bit of the burnt bits on the side.

That's exactly what I was looking for. I have to say and the socarrat on the

bottom.

Normally, just take the rosemary off put it into one side,

and you serve a mix of the top, the bottom, the side, the centre. Just so

that

everyone gets a bit of this part.

Nice piece of meat, a little bit of the rice.

Mixed with a socarrat, always scraping the bottom.

In many families they like it with

a wedge of lemon. They would put it on the side and just squish it yourself.

Okay. So we never squish it all over.

mmm

It's amazing how tasty this rice dish can be. Every aroma every fragrance and

spices,

vegetables, I mean it's all in, and there you go.

Paella. Spanish national dish. If you want

me to make any other Spanish recipe please say it on the comment box below

and I'll do my best. You're looking for a great drink to go with this paella

going to Drinks Tube, and there is a fantastic daiquiri.

This recipe and loads more classic Spanish dishes are

in my book. Tapas Revolution.