Small Scale Stove-Top Paella

Posted by johngl

My most glorious spousal unit discovered some 8″ diameter paella pans for less than $10 each. Never one to caught short of pans, we purchased four of them. Finding myself with some time to cook this afternoon, along with some duck and pork in the fridge, I thought I would put a couple of those cute little pans to use.

If you have read any of the previous paella posts (each of those is a separate link), you know the traditional method of cooking is over an open fire in a really large pan. I did these entirely on the stove top with some really great results.

Most paella recipes are geared toward 16″ pans because that is the largest that will fit in a conventional oven. Consequently, if you are using an 8″ pan, you’ll have one quarter the surface area so you need to cut the rice and stock volumes to a quarter of the original recipe. Basic high school math gives you these proportions. If (heaven forbid) the math is too much for you, just take my word for it.

The base recipe for a 16″ paella pan calls for 1-1/2 cups of medium grain rice (I use the traditional bomba rice), so I dropped that down to 3/8 cup. I like fractions.

The recipe also called for 4-1/2 cups of stock. This cuts down to 1-1/8 cups of stock. I had a cup and quarter of duck/beef stock along with another cup and a quarter of chicken stock in the freezer.  Since I was making two paellas, this worked out pretty well as all I had to do was melt them all together and reduce the stock by a quarter cup. This stuff is so good, I could easily drink a quarter cup, but I resisted the urge.

The greatest thing about paella is that you can use what you have on hand to make something wonderful.

For instance, I gathered a 28 oz can of tomatoes, a head of garlic, and a large onion together to get started on the sofregit, the flavor base of all paella. This takes some time to put together and cook down, so do this first.

Chop your onion:

Drain, de-seed, and chop the tomato:

Mix them together with about six large cloves of chopped garlic…

and reduce over medium/low heat until it gets all dark, gooey, and paste-like:

I took the extra step and reduced the “juice” I strained off the the tomatoes to a paste and added that back into the tomato/onion/garlic mix.  I also added some Piment d’Espelette pepper and a pinch of salt and black pepper. This reduction takes about 40 minutes. Don’t rush it.

About two-thirds of the way through the reduction process, I let the mixture sit to long without stirring and it stuck to the bottom of the pan. I deglazed with a bit of fino sherry. It not only loosened the stuck bits, but added an absolutely wonderful sweetness to the mix. I’ll remember that one.

Now for the other ingredients I scrounged from my pantry and fridge:

The white beans are simply amazing and hail from the north of Spain. The red stuff is roasted red bell peppers packed in olive oil. That’s a pork tenderloin up front.

I chopped up the tenderloin into large cubes:

Oh, I nearly forgot, there’s some pre-cooked duck going into this, too.

De-skin and de-bone the duck, saving the bones and skin for stock.  Chop up the duck meat and set it aside; we’ll need it later.

Now that we have all the parts together: a hot batch of beef/duck/chicken stock, duck, pork, beans, roasted bell peppers, sofregit, and the rice, lets get down to it.

Divide the sofregit into quarters and add a quarter to each of the two paella pans that should now be on low heat. Add the rice and stir things together until the rice is coated with the red goodness. Store the other two quarters in the fridge until you need them for another batch.

Add about a half-cup of stock to each of the paella pans along with the duck and the creamy white beans.

Increase the heat and bring this mixture up to a boil, then reduce the heat again to medium low and allow the rice to hydrate a bit. Do not stir the rice.

After about another 10 minutes, add another half-cup of stock.

Also lay out some of the roasted red peppers in a pretty pattern. After another 10 minutes, add the pork.

The pork was seasoned with salt and more of the Piment d’Espelette, then seared off. It will finish cooking in the paella.

As the rice hydrates, it expands up and around the meat. Once all the moisture is absorbed, it is time to create the soccarat, that thin caramelized, crust that makes a paella.

Turn up the heat a bit and move the bottom of the pan around to try and get it evenly heated. After about two minutes, turn off the heat and allow the paella to rest for about 10 minutes.

I didn’t move the pans around enough and got a couple of hot spots; the socarrat got a little darker (in spots) than I wanted, however as dark as some of this looks in the photo, it isn’t actually burnt (though extremely close). Another 20 seconds though, and all bets would have been off. As it was, it was wonderfully sweet and chewy and I was very pleased with how my first attempts at these small-sized paellas came out.

The duck was very tender and the richness of the stock really brought this all together. I loved the creamy white beans, too. The pork, thanks to the Piment d’Espelette was nicely spiced; adding the pork later in the cooking process kept it from overcooking.

Naturally, we had to have some wine with such a heady and rich paella. Since this is a decidedly Spanish dish, only a Spanish wine would do. Most glorious spousal unit headed off to the wine room and grabbed a 2006 Chapillon Harmonie that is made up of 90% Petite Verdot and 10% Tannat varietals. This 14% alcohol, inky-colored, smooth and velvety concoction made my palate sing with its very long, satisfying finish.

It also complimented the paella nicely.

If you happen to see these cute little pans at your local kitchen store…

grab a couple. They work (and look) just like the larger versions, only on the stovetop! The paella that comes out of these tiny little pans is just enough to feed two, but make an extra one for a snack later.