Valencian Paella, the original recipe

Instructions for Valencian paella

Mise en place

• 1. We begin our recipe by preparing the vegetables. Clean and cut the green beans, grate the tomato, and if the garrofón beans are fresh, peel them from their pods. If the garrofón beans are dried, soak them beforehand.
• 2. We can ask our butcher to cut the meat for us. Otherwise, we should cut it ourselves into fairly small pieces; this will make sautéing easier.

Preparations

• 3 With all the ingredients prepared, let's start making our Valencian paella. Place the paella pan in the paella burner or on the wood fire (without lighting it). Pour the oil into the paella pan and use it to level the surface so that it's as flat as possible.
• 4
  Now, with the paella pan leveled and the oil inside, we can turn on the heat to a gentle setting so that it heats up gradually.
• 5. We'll start the sofrito with the meat. Add the meat and sauté it well on all sides until it's nice and dark brown. A trick to achieving the perfect paella flavor is to avoid constantly stirring the meat; let it brown thoroughly on each side and release its protein.
• 6 Once the meat is ready, we move it to the sides and add the beans first for a few minutes and then the lima beans, sautéing well without burning them.
• 7. Once the vegetables are ready, push them to the side and add the tomato, followed by the sweet paprika to prevent burning. Continue sautéing until the tomato has released all its water.
• 8 After 20 minutes, using a fork, mash the pumpkin and artichoke. Once there are no more pieces, add the rice to the pot and season with salt and pepper.

Cooking the rice

• 9. With the sofrito finished, it's time to add the water to make our broth. Here comes the trickiest part, so to speak. We must first add 3 liters of water, which is what we'll need to cook our rice. Using a toothpick, or if you have our easy paella magnet , mark the water level. Add the remaining water and turn the heat up to high to bring it to a boil.
• 10. Once it starts to boil, we can lower the heat so it simmers more slowly and develops a richer flavor. We can also take this opportunity to make our saffron infusion. Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle and add a few tablespoons of the paella broth. Let it infuse until just before adding the rice.
• 11 Once the water reaches the mark we've set, it's the perfect time to add the rice. Stir in the rice and the saffron infusion. Taste for salt and adjust as needed, but don't overdo it, as the broth will reduce and the flavor may intensify.
• 12. For the proper cooking of Bahía rice, we need between 16 and 18 minutes of cooking time. We prefer to cook it for 16 minutes if possible. We maintain a high heat for the first 5 or 6 minutes and then reduce to a gentle heat, ensuring a steady, even boil. Once the cooking time is up, our Valencian paella will be ready; all that remains is to enjoy it with our guests.
• 13. Place the sprig of rosemary on top of the rice 5 minutes before the end. The idea is to add a touch of rosemary, but not so that the entire rice tastes of rosemary.