Paella Primer - Part Two

omba

I can't tell you how many times I have read TNW's Paella Primer. AS mentioned earlier, my aging brain makes me miss some key points. :-)[p]My 13.5" pan arrived today! So, of course I can't wait to play sometime later this week/weekend. Some questions regarding ingredients and procedure:
1. Can you substitute whole plum or crushed tomatoes for the fresh ones?
2. I see the "Egg Advantage" during the stock/rice simmer and beyond. What about doing all the saute work "inside" and moving to the egg for sofrito time? What you think?[p]The reasons I ask ...
1. Fresh tomatoes drive me insane.
2. That saute work on the Egg seems somewhat "scary" to me. :-)[p]Your thoughts?
My gratitude,
Peter[p]PS > No wimp comments, please. :-)

fishlessman

omba,
ive had portuguese paellas that dont have sofrito at all, mostly these are thin paellas made with seafood and stock and its more about the seafoods flavor in the rice than the actual sefood on top. not sure how it would work, but the spanish sections of the supermarkets here carry jarred sofrito. most of the recipes that i see on the web are top heavey with all kinds of ingrediants, not like the paellas that ive seen made by old portuguese woman at all. these were rice dishes, not big seafood platters

AZRP

omba,
I do the sofrito in the paella pan on the stove. I put it into the Egg after adding the rice. -RP

thirdeye

<p />omba,[p]That is a fantastic article. I like it so much I'm going to ask TNW for permission to post a link to it on the paella page on my site. I can't wait to try the seafood version and since I'm into technique and tradition I'm sure going to have some fun with it.[p]That being said, I'm sort of with fishlessman. Over the years I've had all kinds of things called paella with all kinds of ingredients. Some traditional, some not. Some plain, some complex. The majority of them I have enjoyed. Three versions were from a Spanish cooking class and prepared by a guy from Spain, all of them were different. My method for cooking one on the Egg is way simple compared to TNW's write up, and I enjoy it. I partially grill the meats, then assemble and finish on the Egg. I guess what I'm saying is, paella is a workingman's dish. I see things like bouillabaisse or chili in the same light, in that they can be made with what you have on hand, and with the seasonings you like while following a general technique.[p]~thirdeye~

AlaskanC

omba,[p]I think you can do it either way. I usually make the whole thing on the egg, but I have started it on the cooktop inside when it was too cold out.[p]Now you can call me a wimp!

Celtic Wolf

AlaskanC,[p] There is no chance of me calling you a wimp.. I have seen pictures of what you can do with a rifle...

hayhonker

Celtic Wolf,
it's what she can do with a knife that gets me.
I had night sweats and bad dreams leading up to the dissect a frog day back in grade school.

stike

AlaskanC,
i ain't callin you a wimp, no ma'm.[p]

Hustling Hare

AlaskanC,
Most all of us need to be wary of calling you a wimp knowing where you live. I can't imagine what "too cold" would mean to you. My guess is it would be about 40 deg colder than this Texas boy would consider too cold.[p]I've been threatening to do paella, too, btw. Maybe some day soon.

The Naked Whiz

omba,
You can do all the sauteeing and reduction of the sofrito in the kitchen if you like, but part of why I did all the work was to see if could do it all outside. The setup I use works pretty well for the whole thing and it's just fun to do the whole dish start to finish outside. But like AZRP says, you can do it as you see fit.[p]I used tomato puree on one cook and that seemed to work fine. I added a little water since it was a bit thick and I wanted to cook it all and reduce it. I imagine crushed tomatoes would be fine also. Good luck and don't be timid![p]TNW

The Naked Whiz

fishlessman,
I'm guilty of overloading. It's more a matter of getting too much stuff ready and the only realizing it when you start to put it on the rice. [p]TNW

The Naked Whiz

thirdeye,
You have permission! My method, or rather, the method I adopted is actually pretty simple after you do it once. It's a whole lot of describing a fairly simple process. Go for it![p]TNW

thirdeye

The Naked Whiz,[p]Glad to see you are crusing this thread. Is it OK to put a link to your paella how-to on my site??[p]~thirdeye~

thirdeye

The Naked Whiz,[p]You were faster than I was. Thanks for the OK[p]~thirdeye~

The Naked Whiz

thirdeye,
No problem, just tell people to click on the google ads when they visit, LOL!
TNW