Paella Valenciana photo by benjieordonez

Planning to visit Spain soon? Add a little bit of inspiration and excitement by preparing Paella Valenciana! When I think of Spain, one of the first visions I have is paella. And I’m  not the only one. The province of Valencia considers their paella as its provincial pride. The earliest known versions of Paella Valenciana had as its ingredients – marsh rat and eel. Don’t worry, the recipe I am including here is simple and ingredients easy to find.

This is the basic Paella Valenciana as taken from Wikipedia. A good friend of mine used to cook the best Paella Valenciana. She isn’t around anymore, but I think I’ll ask her daughter for the recipe and share it with you here on a future post.

• Heat oil in a paellera.
• Sauté meat after seasoning with salt.
• Add green vegetables and sauté until soft.
• Add garlic (optional), grated tomatoes, beans and sauté.
• Add paprika and sauté.
• Add water, saffron (or food coloring), snails and rosemary.
• Boil to make broth and allow it to reduce by half.
• Add rice and simmer until rice is cooked.
• Garnish with fresh rosemary.

Add some color and local flavor when you take that trip to Spain by arriving during the city or town fiesta. The place comes alive! Paella is prepared for eveyrone! Author Fiona Pitt-Kethley shares her photo of the gigantic paella  served free in Cartagena!

Free paella photo by Fiona Pitt-Kethley

This post hopefully inspired you to prepare some paella at home with thoughts of visiting Spain sometime soon! Besitos!

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