Cooking in:Spanish rice dishes can beat risotto, writes Hugo Arnold.
Italy is not the only country in Europe to put rice to delicious use. While it has its arborio and carnaroli, Spain has its Valencia and, most delicious of all, Bomba. Spanish rice dishes offer as much, if not more, variety than risottos - and an added benefit: they don't need stirring. The secret is leaving well alone.
It is the process of breaking down the starch in the rice that gives risotto its much-loved creaminess. In Spanish cooking, the aim is to retain the creaminess within each grain of rice. The starch must be cooked to make the rice edible, but on no account should it be allowed to leach into the surrounding liquid. Thus you produce a dish that is entirely different, although equally - some would argue more - delicious.
Spanish rice dishes divide roughly into two, the wet and the dry. Paella belongs to the latter category, but there are others using black pudding, squid, eel, beans, game, poultry, milk and spices. The wet rice dishes are not cooked in the traditional paella dish, but in a puchero or olla - a deep earthenware or enamelled metal pot, typically narrower at the top than bottom. An enamel casserole will suffice, for the paella, a large frying pan. There are many versions of these wet rice dishes - the common thread is that the finished dish is a soupy stew, the rice an integral part of the liquid.
RECIPES SERVE FOUR
(If you have difficulty getting hold of Spanish rice, Italian arborio also works well.)
POACHED CHICKEN WITH RICE, BEANS & AIOLI
4 chicken breasts
olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200g French beans, trimmed and cut into 3cm lengths
1 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
400g Valencia (or medium-grain) rice
1 dsp Spanish paprika
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes, drained
1 litre chicken stock, simmering
2 egg yolks
300ml oil (made up of 150ml each of light olive and vegetable
oils)
Juice of one lemon
Season the chicken breasts and sauté in a paella pan or wide frying pan in four tablespoons of olive oil. Set aside. Add the onion to the pan and continue to cook for 10 minutes over a gentle heat. Stir in one of the garlic cloves, the beans and the rice, and coat well in the oil. Saute for two minutes before adding the paprika, cook for a further minute and then add tomatoes, stock and chicken. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat very low and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for five minutes. Mash the remaining garlic clove with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk in the egg yolks and add the oils, a drop at a time. Continue adding the oil - you can increase the rate once the egg yolks are beginning to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper and add lemon juice to taste. Slice each chicken breast in three. Season the rice, pile on to four plates, top with the chicken and serve with the aioli.
CALASPARRA RICE
1 aubergine
olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 courgettes, trimmed and roughly chopped
200g French beans, cut into 3cm lengths
1 tsp paprika
400g Valencia (or medium-grain) rice
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock, simmering
Generous pinch of saffron, dissolved in a little hot
water
Cut the aubergine into 2cm chunks and toss in a bowl with three tablespoons of olive oil. Grill until golden brown. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200 degrees. Sauté the onion in four tablespoons of olive oil in a large paella dish or oven-proof frying pan for 10 minutes. Add the garlic, courgettes, French beans and paprika and continue cooking for two minutes. Add the rice and, after one minute, the tomatoes. Stir so everything is well mixed and pour over the stock and saffron. Season well with salt and pepper. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for five minutes before serving.
RICE WITH PRAWNS AND MONKFISH
450g uncooked shelled prawns
450g monkfish cut into bite-sized pieces
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g Valencia rice (alternatively medium grain)
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre chicken stock, simmering
Pinch of saffron (threads or powder), dissolved in a little
hot water
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 lemons, halved
Heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole dish. Season the monkfish and prawns with salt and sauté for three minutes. Do this in batches so they do not stew. Set aside. Add the garlic and rice to the pan and, stirring, sauté for two minutes before adding the tomatoes and the hot stock, bring back to the boil, stir once and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is just cooked. Add the monkfish and prawns along with the saffron to the rice two minutes before the end. Check seasoning, stir in the parsley and serve with a wedge of lemon. harnold@irish-times.ie