COOKINGWITHCAMPICHE
Michael’s Paella
A savory Spanish treat
prepared to be shared
BY DAVID CAMPICHE
This was a proud moment, watching
my son, Michael, a fine and disciplined
chef, take over our small home kitchen
and hammer out one of the best dinners, a
classic Spanish paella. This is a backbone
dish of Spanish cuisine.
For several years, Michael was an exec-
utive chef in a Spanish restaurant in Port-
land. Small plates, called tapas, were the
restaurant’s specialty, and on Mondays, the
restaurant served paella. This was a bit of
an engineering trick, involving a fortune in
paella pans and the timing of a dedicated
chef and staff.
Paella is about seafood, accompanied
by Arborio rice. Like most great dishes, it
begs homemade stock, in this case a fish
and shrimp stock, sofrito, a pepper and
vegetable addition, and a Spanish sausage
like chorizo (Bilbao sausage), a sausage
with a touch of heat.
In Madrid, Spain, locals eat late, some-
times at 10 or 11 p.m. after a long after-
noon nap, and dozens of restaurants roll
out huge pans of paella to the delight of
hungry folks. This includes plenty of tour-
ists, including, years ago, my wife, Laurie,
and me. I may not always remember where
I laid my car keys but I do have a vivid
memory of the sublime taste of this dish.
Ingredients
• Three to four Bilbao sausages, 8 inch
links, sliced thinly
• 10 cups of stock, made from shrimp
shells, fish scraps and veggies
• 5 cups of Arborio rice
• 1 1/2 pounds of shrimp
• 1 1/2 pounds of calamari
• 2 pounds of chicken pieces
• 2 pounds of butter clams (little necks)
• 2 cups of peas
• 4 cups of sofrito
• One lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil for the sauté
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron, in a half cup of
water until it blooms
• 1 cup of white wine
• Salt to taste
10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Photos by David Campiche
LEFT: Simmering a Spanish paella. RIGHT: Sublime and picturesque ingredients make up a delicious paella.
Preparation
A large, flat paella pan is important but
not necessary. Arborio rice is mandatory.
This is a large recipe, designed for a gather-
ing of friends or some very hungry athletes.
Michael lightly browns shucked shrimp
shells in olive oil and adds 1 cup of white
wine and non-oily fish pieces (bones, heads
and tails, with halibut being a favorite) plus
celery, onions, black peppercorns and bay
leaves to three of quarts of water. Slowly
simmer into a stock for a couple of hours.
Three or four 8 inch sausage links are
sliced less than a quarter of an inch across
and sautéed separately until brown. Pour off
the oil and hold. To make sofrito, combine
one red, green and yellow pepper, one red
onion and four tablespoons of minced garlic.
Chop and sauté all in 1 cup of olive oil. Add
five grated tomatoes, toss the skins and cook
until the mixture is reduced to a paste.
In another large flat pan, preferably a
paella pan, saute chicken pieces in olive oil
and add in the rice when half cooked. Stir for
several minutes, add in the sausage, the sof-
rito and then the stock. Add the saffron. After
the mixture starts to boil, set a timer for 15
minutes. At 10 minutes, add the clams. Still
in their shells and push the clams down into
the rice. After five more minutes, lay on the
shrimp and calamari, placing them carefully
across the top of the rice.
As the paella cooks down, shake the pan
to keep the rice from sticking. Lower the heat
and finally scatter the peas across the top.
After 15 minutes place the pan in an oven at
450 degrees Fahrenheitfor five minutes.
Take out the pan, squeeze in the lemon
juice and cover all with saran wrap for at
least five minutes. Prepare for the sublime.
David Campiche is a potter, poet, writer
and lifelong resident of the Long Beach Pen-
insula with a keen interest in adventure, fine
and culinary arts. Find more about his work
at davidcampiche.com.