Craig Burgess
22 February 2018
Get Creative: Make Paella [A1]
Craig gives the traditional paella a personal twist. He makes something that's possibly unconventional, but that is easy to prepare, very yummy and quite paella-like. Be inspired, go wild in the kitchen and have a crack at Craig's fill-in-the-gaps recipe exercise. The exercise practises the first person in the present tense, and is perfect for beginners - particularly if you're in Elementary 2 or 3.
A traditional paella?
There are as many paella valenciana recipes as there are valencianos making paellas. The traditional paella differs from household to household and town to town, and its recipes are passed down from generation to generation (have a look at the videos below for more on this). If you ever get to try a truly Valencian paella, you’re in luck.
Most paellas outside of the Comunidad de Valencia are not entirely traditional but use the key ingredients (rice, saffron, sofrito) as a base for a rice dishes that can have anything from sausage to scallops in them (neither of which are found in the traditional Valencian dish).
So, there is no one way to make paella (even the traditional ones) and a lot of recipes aren’t actually all that authentic. Great news for us would-be chefs and the perfect excuse to get creative in the kitchen!
Craig's take on paella
Below is Craig's recipe. Have a go at conjugating the verbs in the first person in the present tense (the yo form: yo cocino, yo como). Watch out for the irregular verbs in the recipe. The infinitives of these verbs – along with the irregular pattern they follow – are found in the box below.
Happy conjugating, happy cooking and ... ¡Buen provecho!
El agua de azafrán
El sofrito
La 'pièce de résistance': la paella
La cena
La paella de Craig
Esta es una receta de paella inventada. No es una paella tradicional pero a mí me gusta mucho. Me gustan mucho los colores y me gusta el sabor. Y es muy fácil de preparar. Es una paella para 2 personas.
Los ingredientes:
| Una taza de arroz bomba o arroz arborio Un tomate Media cebolla Un diente de ajo Unas judías verdes Medio pimiento rojo Medio limón |
400 gramos de pescado blanco (me gusta mucho el “rockling” – también valen la merluza y la lubina) Una cucharadita de pimentón dulce Media cucharadita de pimentón picante Un pellizco de azafrán sal pimienta 2 o 2,5 tazas de agua (o caldo) |
La receta:
Conjuga los verbos del texto en primera persona (yo...)
Conjugate the verbs in the text in first person (yo...)
Los verbos irregulares son:
| HACER (irregular) FREÍR (irregular) SOFREÍR (irregular, como FREÍR) |
TOSTAR (O > UE) REVOLVER (O > UE) SERVIR (E > I) |
- Primero (HACER) .............1............. un sofrito, que es una mezcla de tomate, cebolla y ajo.
- (PICAR) .............2............. la cebolla en cuadritos. También (CORTAR) .............3............. el ajo y el tomate.
- (FREÍR) .............4............. la cebolla en una sartén a fuego lento.
- Después de 10 minutos, (AÑADIR) .............5............. el tomate y el ajo. (AÑADIR) .............6............. el pimentón dulce y un poco de pimentón picante. (ECHAR) .............7............. un poco de sal y pimienta.
- (SOFREÍR) .............8............. todo durante 20 minutos.
- En otra sartén, (TOSTAR) .............9............. un pellizco de azafrán.
- En un bol pequeño (MACHACAR) .............10............. el azafrán tostado y (AÑADIR) .............11............. agua hirviendo. (GUARDAR) .............12............. el agua de azafrán, que es de color amarillo intenso.
- Ahora, al sofrito, (AÑADIR) .............13............. el arroz bomba o el arroz arborio. (REVOLVER) .............14............. bien el arroz y el sofrito. (AÑADIR) .............15............. el agua de azafrán y un poco más de agua (o caldo) (en total 2 o 2,5 tazas de líquido).
- Por último (AÑADIR) .............16............. las judías verdes picadas, el pimiento rojo y el pescado blanco.
- A veces (ECHAR) .............17............. unos trozos de limón (pero me gustá más sin limón).
- (DEJAR) .............18............. cocinar todo. Cuando el arroz absorbe todo el líquido, (QUITAR) .............19............. el fuego y (DEJAR) .............20............. reposar la paella durante 15 minutos.
- (SERVIR) .............21............. la paella con un buen vino.
La soluciones (the answers!)
| 1) HACER > hago 2) PICAR > pico 3) CORTAR > corto 4) FREÍR > frío 5) AÑADIR > añado 6) AÑADIR > añado 7) ECHAR > echo |
8) SOFREÍR > sofrío 9) TOSTAR > tuesto 10) MACHACAR > machaco 11) AÑADIR > añado 12) GUARDAR > guardo 13) AÑADIR > añado 14) REVOLVER > revuelvo |
15) AÑADIR > añado 16) AÑADIR > añado 17) ECHAR > echo 18) DEJAR > dejo 19) QUITAR > quito 20) DEJAR > dejo 21) SERVIR > sirvo |
The real deal: la paella valenciana
Check out these nifty little videos from Wikipaella of six versions of la paella valenciana, as made by chefs from the following regions of La Comunidad de Valencia:
And for students in Lower Intermediate levels and above – have a look at these video interviews with valencianos talking about their own personal methods of preparing traditional dishes (en español y valenciano – also from Wikipaella):
La Comunidad de Valencia
¿Sartén o paellera?
The traditional pan for making paella is called a paellera (and also, confusingly, paella). The paellera gives the paella a more crispy base (a delicacy called socarrat in Valenciano and Catalán). If you can't find a paellera, a good old frying pan (sartén) will do the trick.
Check out this video from Wikipaella to see how a paellera is made: El delicado trabajo del herrero (the delicate work of the blacksmith).
And a recipe of Ana's
Ana has made many-a-paella, often in the backyard on a warm summer's evening and sometimes even while camping! Click here to see one of her recipes.
Download a Printable Version
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