Paella Rice with Meatballs and Haricot (Navy) Beans

Mister Cooklocal on deck tonight.

This past Christmas, I was in the need to come up with a unique present for the beautiful Mrs. Cooklocal and, honestly, I was stumped. We don’t want for much. At least, not much that would fit under the tree or in a bank account. So what was needed was something of an event. Something that would just keep on giving.

A few months ago, I saw the cookbook Paella from our new favorite cookbook publisher, Phaidon, out at Costco and flipped through a copy. Well, first I lovingly stroked the cloth cover. Then I flipped through a copy. Sure, it was cool, but, my mind was sort of blown when I landed on the nine sweet paellas. I had never, ever considered dessert paellas. And if you’ve seen some of the food ideas I’ve considered, you’re probably surprised. Heck, sweet paella could be commonplace.

I regretted not buying the book on the spot, even though I have no idea if there’s a good high protein grain we can use in paella. You know, so I can eat it.

So, flash forward to planning for Christmas. I made the decision to grab that book. And a pan (yay Spanish Table!). Even though a dear friend and a chef said that the pan wasn’t necessary, what was necessary was caring about making the paella and pouring your heart into it. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you more, Lisa, but the pans were inexpensive and I’m not entirely sure we have a pan that’d work anyways.

I also gave her 12 post it notes, one for every month of the year, on which she will write a page number and I will then cook that page’s paella for her.

Or, at the least, try and, should I fail, order pizza.

Let’s call it a Year of Living Paellaly. On second thought.. no, let’s not.

My first attempt was a pretty basic paella. I admit, I screwed up my first attempt at making sofrito by not including the liquid from the tomatoes (something I’m still not sure I should do). I could have added more spices to this paella to give it a bit of fire.

I wish I could say that this dish was easy, and that you should all run out, buy the book, buy a pan and start paella-ing it up. But really, this was a tricky dish that was labor intensive. I can’t deny, making it was fun, but it wasn’t easy.

The cookbook itself is almost more than a cookbook, I’ve seen people refer to it as a textbook in how to make paella, that just happens to have recipes. I can’t deny I haven’t learned all the subtleties yet. The ins and outs of the side sauces, the socarret (a thin crispy layer of rice at the bottom of the pan), the wooden spoons used to eat them.

Now, before we can make the paella, we need to make an ingredient: the sofrito.

Sofrito is one of those ‘basic cooking’ things, like a miripoix, a roux, or a bechamel, although not a true mother sauce, it is a key ingredient to the savory paellas. The plus side of the sofrito is that you can make it ahead and freeze it in small batches, so you can make this well in advance and not have to worry about it come paella day.

So, let us start with the Sofrito:

Tomato Sofrito from Paella

Olive oil, 1/4 cup
Red onion, 1/4th, finely chopped
Spanish onion, 1/4th, finely chopped
Shallot, 1/2, finely chopped
Garlic, 1 clove, finely chopped
Green pepper, 1/4th, deseeded and thinly sliced into strips
Carrot, 1/4th, sliced into thin strips
Leek, 1/4th of the white, cut into thin strips
Dry white wine, 1/2 cup
Rosemary, 1 sprig
Bay leaf
Sugar, Salt, Pepper to taste
Either: Ripe tomatoes, 1lb 2oz, diced or Canned, peeled, whole plum tomatoes, roughly diced (with liquid)

Heat oil over low heat in a large pan.
Saute the onions until they begin to soften, but before they color, and add shallot.
Saute the shallot until it is softened and see-through, and add garlic.
Cook garlic until it is translucent, and add the pepper, carrot and leek.
Continue the low heat saute until the added vegetables have softened and disintegrated.
Once the mixture thickens, add the wine and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon.
Once the alcohol evaporates, add tomatoes, rosemary and bay leaf.
Simmer for 50 minutes, sirring occasionally.
Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar and remove the rosemary and bay leaf.
Pass the sofrito through a food mill and then pass the resulting liquid through a fine sieve or chinois. (A food processor or blender would introduce too much air into the mixture, so the traditional milling methods are best, unless you have some kind of vacuum blender)
Taste the resulting liquid, adding more salt, pepper or sugar if needed, and allow to cool before storing.

Notes: I have to admit, this took me two tries. The recipe claims you’ll get about 2 1/4 cups out of this, but my first attempt was about 2 cups shy. I think the problem I had was that I had not included the liquid from the can of tomatoes. And even then I’m not sure I made a full 2+ cups of liquid, or did it right, for that matter.

And now on the main course….

Paella Rice with Meatballs and Haricot (Navy) Beans from Paella (for two)

The Meatballs

Lean pork, 2 1/2 oz, finely chopped
Beef, 2 1/2 oz, finely chopped
Onion, 1 3/4 oz, finely chopped
Flat leaf parsley, 2 tablespoons, chopped
Fresh breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup, soaked in milk for 5 minutes and squeezed dry
Egg, 1, lightly beaten
Flour, 1/4 cup
Olive oil, 1/2 cup

Mix the meat and onions together in a bowl, adding in the parsley, breadcrumbs, egg and salt.
Shape the mixture into meatballs roughly an inch in diameter. We ended up with about 6 meatballs per person, and one extra to whoever wins the knife fight for it.
Coat the meatballs in flour.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and, once warm, add the meatballs and saute until browned all over.
Remove from the pan and set aside.

The Paella Rice (or really, the paella itself)

Meat stock, 2 1/4 cups
Garlic oil, 1/4 cup
Scallions, 2 cups, diced
Turnips, 3/4 cup, finely diced
Hazelnuts, 6 whole
Bomba rice, 1 cup (or any other short grained, white paella rice)
Sofrito, 1/3 cup
Sweet smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon
Haricot (navy) beans, 3/4 cup
Saffron threads, 1/4 teaspoon, toasted and pounded (see note)
Salt, to taste

Heat the stock in a sauce pan, but do not boil it. We want it hot, just not boiling.
Preheat oven to 300F.
In a paella pan, heat the garlic oil over low heat.
Add the scallions, turnips and hazelnuts and saute for a few minutes, until the vegetables have softened.
Add rice and stir, making sure to get the grains coated with oil. Using a wooden spatula is recommended as it’s best for the pan.
Cook until the rice is translucent, when you can just see through to the center of the grain, taking care not to let it burn.
Add the sofrito, using it to deglaze the pan.
Cook until the sofrito has reduced almost entirely away and the contents of the pan have thickened.
Mix the paprika into the pan, bringing the heat on the pan up to medium.
After a few seconds, before the paprika has a chance to burn, add the hot stock and the beans.
Bring the paella to a boil and arrange the meatballs over the rice.
Add the saffron and cook for 5 minutes, raising the heat up to high, or until the rice is rising to the top of the liquid (assuming your pan is small enough, our pan didn’t have enough liquid depth to show floating rice).
Taste and add more salt if needed, however, the flavors in the dish will concentrate so be sparing.
Finish the paella in the oven for 12 minutes.
Remove paella from the oven and allow it to rest for 3 minutes before serving.

Notes: To toast the saffron, there are a few different methods. I put it in a small pan, toasted it over medium heat and made sure not to burn it. If you have a mortar and pestle, crush it up.

Apart from getting the sofrito right, the paella was actually pretty easy, even if I didn’t get the crispy crust on the bottom. If I could change anything, I’d probably add a bit of meat to the meatballs, as 5 ounces of meat for some 13 meatballs made for something more like ‘meat’balls. My bread crumbs also seemed to be more like plaster, without much liquid ready to squeeze out of them.

Honestly, I’m a little afraid of the rest of the year. Some of these recipes are challenging, but at least I have the basics down. And it isn’t like this dish came out badly. It could have used a little more heat to it, probably a sprinkling of padron peppers to give it some spice, but otherwise, I was happy with how it came out. Let’s see what the Mrs. has to say…

Patricia here… I agree that the paella needed a bit more spice or heat. But overall it was excellent. Not that I’ve had a lot of paella in my time, so all I can really say is that I enjoyed the meal. What I enjoyed even more though was reheating the paella the next day. John set the paella pan on high heat, added some of the garlic oil, and let the pan get nice and hot before he added the leftover paella. That produced all of the excellent crispy bits that really made the dish.