SC - saffron/paella

[Susan Fox-Davis]

> Mark S. Harris wrote:
>
> > Any idea/documentation whether this paella is period?

According to Paella La Movida:
<http://www.netwiz.net/~astrid/LaMovida/paella.html>

"Paella is a delicious dish of rice, fish, shellfish, vegetables and chicken,
seasoned with garlic and
saffron.

Paella originated in Valencia, a region on the Eastern coast of Spain. Arab
farmers brought the short
grain rice used in paella in the eighth century during their occupation of
Spain. It was not until the
thirteenth century, when King Jaume I of Aragon restricted the cultivation of
rice to Albufera,
practically in Valencia's backyard, that the dish "paella" began to take shape.

           Men and women working in the rice fields looked to the Mediterranean
Sea and to
           their very fertile land for other ingredients to mix with this rice
and thus, paella was
           born. The name paella comes from the Latin word, patella, which
refers to the round
           shallow, two-handled pans that the field workers used to cook the
newly created dish.

At Paella La Movida, we make our paella the way the Valencian field workers
intended, with the
freshest local ingredients available. Some of our ingredients, paella rice,
saffron, olive oil, we import
directly from Spain to ensure the highest quality. We welcome the opportunity to
offer you an ancient
Spanish rice dish with the fresh flavor of California grown products.

Paella started as a popular dish, a working man and woman's meal, a dish for all
to share. Share it
with friends or take it home with you. Have as much or as little as you want.
That is the way it was
always intended and that is how we bring it to you.

                                Que aproveche!"

A Spanish medical doctor's personal home page
<http://www.cnb.uam.es/~aserrano/paella_eng.htm> implies that Paella as we know
it today developed in the 19th Century as a working-man's dish cooked over an
open fire.  So, the dish is not necessarily period, but has roots in our
centuries of interest.  Here is a pertinent excerpt;  his English is not adept,
but charming.

" During the period of work the feeding was with inlays, something of hunting
and food " of
hot " that they themselves cooked in a kitchen utensil, type escudilla, very
similar to the
frying pan but without handle to easily be able to be transported in a full car
of coats. The
plates that used to cook were of fast and simple preparation and solid
consistency:
migas, mojete (with flour of vetchlings and codfish) and gazpacho manchego. They
were
simultaneously first and second plate.

The mentality of the inhabitants of these towns always has gone years in front
of those of
the bordering populations, this fact was essential because the men of the last
century did
not have any repairs in helping to the women of the house in the tasks of the
kitchen
causing that was born paella.

 In the indicated celebrations and days typical cakes and candies were tasted
whose
preparation required an exclusive dedication on the part of the women, the
habitual
cooks. The base of the feeding in the Valencia of century XIX was " the caldoso
" rice
cooked in a stew of mud or metal.

The men began to make use being they those that, while the women prepared
candies,
made the main food from rice and rabbit of mount that they themselves had
hunted. But
the agriculturists single felt comfortable cooking in the same utensil who took
to the field
and for them the suitable point of baking of the rice was to obtain a food of
semidry
consistency, like mojete or migas: the rice had been born in paella (the word
paella
defines the utensil of kitchen similar to the frying pan but without " tail ").

Although paella was the plate characteristic of the holidays in the Hole of
Bu6nol, single
was well-known outside these populations by some veraneante. The construction of
the
railroad in century XIX caused the arrival of the tourism from the capital of
the province,
as much of weekend as of summering. At the beginning of the century XX Buñol she
was
one of the citys of Spain with greater hotel supply over many capitals of
province.

 At the moment so single it is left to public one of the famous old ventas by
his paellas
open: Venta Pilar. Let us remember that the "Ventas"   were the hotels of long
ago, as
gathered Cervantes in " Don Quixote".

  The veraneantes that lodged in sales and in particular houses, they proved,
they pleased
and took with them the plate prescription so exquisite to which variations were
being
done him: first the mount rabbit changed later by rabbit of young and by
chicken. Soon
paella arose from marisco, the mixed one, etc.

This plate no longer is patrimony neither of a town nor of a province or
country,  is
international. "

A. Serrano also recommends the hard water of Valencia, rich in Calcium and
Magnesium, for the best paella.  Interesting, si?

Submitted by Selene Colfox
selene at earthlink.net