Spanish Food Recipes

Without question the most famous and well known among Spanish food recipes is for paella. The beauty of paella is that it is not just one dish. You can make endless paella dishes with almost any combination of ingredients. It is not difficult to make paella. The most important part is the right amount of water or broth to the amount of rice. Too much water or broth, and your paella will be soup while not enough water or broth results in a very dry paella. You want your paella to be juicy, but not soupy. Once you master the right amount of water to rice, you will be on your way to making perfect paella every time.
Making paella is not as time consuming as many people think. Everything is going into one pan which makes for a great deal of ease, and clean up is minimal. Only if you decide to make a nice fish broth to use instead of water will you be cooking in another pan. But that can also be made ahead of time. The main thing is having all your ingredients out and ready. All your vegetables need to be cut, and you may want to marinate your meats beforehand. If you are making a seafood paella recipe, some fish can be marinated and shell fish will need to be soaked.
Let’s look at some of the ingredients that go into a typical recipe for paella dishes. Paella calls for two of the most significant foods from Spain, Spanish rice and saffron. Both of these foods were brought to the Valencia region of Spain by the Moors some thirteen hundred years ago. The Spanish rice is a short grained rice, and it is used in paella because it absorbs flavors more readily than long grained rice. It also has a far more interesting taste and texture. Saffron is gold, and remains an expensive, rare commodity. I sometimes cannot even find it in the stores, and I can’t imagine making paella without it. It is perhaps the most essential ingredient. It turns the whole paella a lovely golden red color, and fills the pan with rich aroma.
Some of the other herbs in paella are rosemary, thyme and paprika. The Spanish make several different kinds of paprika: sweet mild, bittersweet, hot and smoked. I really love the smoked, but one has to have a taste for the smokey flavor. I also like the hot, which I will often use when making small paellas, but refrain when I am making for a large group when I do not know the overall preference. Then the sweet mild is a safe and tasty option. The bittersweet is exactly that though I find the bitter dominates the sweet.
I am a big fan of flavored olive oils whether it be with garlic, lemons or herbs. I prefer using one of these for my paella ingredients instead of plain olive oil. I look for a nice, rich flavorful Spanish olive oil for sauteing all my vegetables. If you have a brand new paella pan, you can also season your new pan with such an oil. I also think one of the secrets to a great tasty paella is using a homemade broth instead of water when you add the rice. You can simply plan ahead by buying a little extra of meat, chicken or fish. Then use leftover scraps, bones and the extra for making your broth ahead of time.
There are many great Spanish food recipes, but paella is the winner. There is room for so much variety and creativity when it comes to making paella dishes. Get yourself a good paella cookbook, and find out what you have been missing.