Well I'm going to leave Spain alone for a little while, but I'm sure will be back with more stories and cooking. My lil bro is a big Spain fan himself, so I'm sure he'll be making an appearance and cooking up some paella and tapas with me, figgy style.But I feel that it's prudent to have a little discussion about the paella pan. I mean, why would anyone invest in a piece of kitchen equipment that's pretty much good for one recipe?
Basically because the pan is shallow and wide and comes in all different sizes. The sides are sloped and the bottom is dimpled, which helps the rice cook more evenly than a frying pan.
I keep wowing my friends with stories of ones I saw in Spain that were three feet across that chefs used to make the paella over an open fire. Traditionally they make the fire with orange and pine branches, and the smoke infuses flavor into the paella. The flames also help create a nice crust around the edges.
For lack of an open fire, we of course cooked our paella on a charcoal grill. I've also done it on the stove top and it works fine. Mine of course is probably a measly 18 inches. But just big enough for a decent size paella party : )
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