Once again, we have this awesome trivia from Rudy’s – A Cooks Paradise in Twin Falls. At the end, is a surprise!

March 22, 1841: Cornstarch patented. The Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch in 1841
March 23, 1923: ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas’ was written by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn. It was one of the most popular songs of the 1920s
March 24: National Chocolate Covered Raisin
March 25, 1775: George Washington planted pecan trees (some of which still survive) at Mount Vernon. The trees were supposedly a gift to Washington from Thomas Jefferson. (Some sources date this planting at 1799).
March 26, 1753: Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford was born. American physician who invented the percolator, a pressure cooker and a kitchen stove. He is frequently credited with creating the dessert, Baked Alaska.
March 27: National Paella Day

Let’s celebrate! Break out the paella pans, stoke up the fires, bring on the rice and let’s cook, cook, cook!!

March 27th is National Spanish Paella Day!

There are hundreds of paella recipes and every cook has their favorite. Paella is a typical Spanish recipe and is traditionally cooked in a paellera – a round flat pan with two handles – which is then put on the table. It is normally made using shellfish but can also be made with chicken or rabbit. In many Spanish villages, especially in coastal areas, they use a giant (see the photo) paellera to cook a paella on festival days which is big enough to feed everybody.
A paella is very flexible so if you don’t have the exact ingredients or if you find some of them hard to get hold of, substitute them for something similar. Getting fresh shellfish can be a problem, but you can always use frozen fish and use fish stock instead of water to increase the flavor. Here’s one recipe from http://www.spain-recipes.com. (Understand, this is a translation.)

1/2 Pint of Oil
1 Chicken, Cut To 8 Pieces
2 Bowls (cups) of Rice (1lb. 5 Oz. Approximately)
5 Bowls (cups) of Meat Broth (I would use beef stock)
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Pepper
1 Small Can Of Peas
1 Small Onion
2 Tomatoes
Saffron
1 Clove of Garlic (Optional)
Parsley
Salt

Start by heating half of the oil and once warm add the cut chicken and let it cook for 15 min. Once it’s brown, reserve it in a dish. Add the chopped onion. After 5 minutes, add diced tomatoes, without seeds and peeled.

Let it braise about 5 minutes more, mashing the tomatoes with a skimmer. Strain it and throw it in the paella pan.

Add the rest of the oil to the paella pan. Throw the green pepper, cut to square pieces of half inch. Add the fried chicken. Keep stirring with a wooden tablespoon, without letting it go brown. Throw salt, and the meat broth, hot but not boiling. This is completed with the 5 broth bowls (cups).

Shake the paella pan a little taking it by the handles so that it is broth flows all over. All this should be made to medium fire.

Meanwhile, in a mortar mash a little bit of garlic, the parsley and the saffron, with a little bit of salt so that it doesn’t slip, and it wet it with a couple of soup spoonfuls of temperate water. Spill this mixture on the rice and shake again the paella pan. When the broth has reduced to the half, decorate the paella with the red pepper cut to ribbons, and the peas.

Let it cook about 20 minutes. Once the rice is cooked and the broth has reduced, retire the paella pan from the fire, on a wet cloth, leaving it rest for about 5 minutes. Serve it with some big clusters of lemon without peeling like decoration.

Serves: 6

Your turn! Have fun with this and follow the recipe as close as possible. Don’t burn the rice!! And that’s the hardest part. Every time we have had paella, it’s always been in a party situation. So keep it that way. Have a party. Plenty pealla to eat and lots of good, big Spanish Red to go with it. Thanks to Rudy’s – A Cook’s Paradise for this information and the recipe. Cheers!