In my winter garden, I grew several plants of fava beans. They make a beautiful plant and are very hearty. I grew them from seed given to me by Tony, our pizza oven contractor. Fava Beans are not commonly available for purchase in this area, so I decided to grow my own! I love their delicate flavor, especially in my Paella!
The bean pods grow very long, but the prize is what is inside sitting in their soft velvety casing. These beans are taken out of the pods, blanched and skinned before using in recipes. I actually use the whole beans with skin in my Paella recipe and they are delish!
So now on to making Paella! I got inspired from a trip my husband and I made to Spain a few years back. I loved all of the flavors and the variety of items that were used in the different Paella dishes there. Then I happened to see an advertisement for a Pinot and Paella festival in our area and that was all it took to entice me into trying my hand at it! I found a wonderful article by Norberto Jorge that explains the process step by step for traditional paella from one of my fav’s; Fine Cooking. Here is the a link to the article in case you want to check it out: http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to/paella.aspx
I make my paella traditional style, and I use whatever I feel like at the time. Usually fava beans, asparagus, red pepper, chicken, Spanish chorizo, shrimp and clams. You can add whatever you like in the way of vegetables, meats and seafood and keep it simple or not. I also cook it on the outdoor grill so that I have a large cooking surface and don’t care if it splatters! The most important part is to cook the rice at the end over a higher heat to get the “socarrat”, the caramelized crispy rice underneath. Yum!! It’s the best part.
A little Pinot, a litte Paella, what could be better!
Traditional Spanish Paella