No Spanish Dish Has Been as Misunderstood as Paella
It’s about the rice
On the Fourth of July this year, having volunteered to cook dinner for my wife and her parents at their home in southwestern Florida, I fired up the grill on the patio, like so many other Americans on that midsummer holiday. What I put on the fire, though, once the coals were glowing hot, wasn’t hot dogs or burgers or ribs. It was paella.
An outdoor grill — whether a charcoal-fueled round Weber kettle model (which accommodates a round paella pan perfectly) or a rectangular propane affair or anything in-between — is the perfect means of preparing a good paella. It mimics the way the dish was originally made and, if you’re burning wood instead of propane or pressed briquettes, the process actually adds a faint smoky flavor to the rice.
What I made in Florida was not a conventional paella. Instead of chicken, shrimp, or whatnot, I used duck, wild mushrooms, and garbanzos. Though it may have lacked any iconic all-American Independence Day resonance, it turned out pretty well and disappeared quickly at the table.
Was it really paella, though? One Spaniard who read my slightly immodest tweet about it didn’t think so. “There are no garbanzos in paella,” he responded. “Sorry.”
