Soft shell crabs, shrimps, middle neck clams, steamers cooked as a paella...
To be or not to be?
Cooking certain dishes could sometimes be problematic. Oh! I don’t refer
here to pure technical culinary difficulties, I leave this to the cookbooks, but to intellectual, if not metaphysical interrogations…
What is the weight of traditions, should you follow a recipe to the letter or just keep its
spirit, is the original recipe set in the stone of your countertop, how far are
you “authorized” to vary a culinary good practice built up through multiple
generations? You see, not simple!!!
For instance, should the famous quiche Lorraine, the culinary flagship
of the region, incorporate cheese or onions or any other ingredients which are
absolutely not in the traditional recipe(as a reminder, crème fraiche, bacon, a
touch of nutmeg and possibly a hint of Dijon)? Being from Lorraine, the answer for
me is obviously “NON”, not at all. Now, if you want to put cheese in your
quiche, it is absolutely not a problem. Just don’t call it quiche Lorraine. You
see, I am open-minded!!!
Another example is the cassoulet… Yes, but here, it is even more
complicated because you need, first, to answer to the question : “Which
cassoulet?” Carcassonne, Toulouse, Castelnaudary… Should it be made with duck,
pork, lamb, game? And with which beans: lingot de Castelnaudary, coco de
Pamiers or haricot Tarbais? The Hundred Years’ War is nothing compared to the Cassoulets’
War… As I care for my safety, I will cautiously avoid answering those questions…
The Paella? A political marketing invention
And the paella? The case is very interesting indeed. First of all,
this is quite an old dish, although not that old (18th century)
originated from the area of Valencia in Spain. Traditionally and originally, it
is defined as a rice dish, cooked in a pan named paella (similar to the
French poêle, the Valencian dialect, like its northern neighbor the
Catalan, sharing many words with the French Occitan language). But surprisingly
enough, and although Valencia is located on the Mediterranean coast, the
Valencian paella incorporated only poultry meats: chicken, duck, rabbit… and possibly snails! No shrimps,
mussels, fish or other seafood, no chorizo, considered as an heresy, either… What
is amazing is that the paella’s success, beyond and despite its obvious
gustatory qualities, is mainly the result of political marketing campaign. After
the Spanish civil war, Franco wanted to develop the Spanish tourism industry
and probably, also, reunify Spain. In this respect, he picked up the paella as
the iconic food specialty of Spain: a cheap dish, the color of which, red (tomato,
red pepper) and yellow (saffron) reproduce those of the Spanish flag… From a
rather obscure local specialty, the paella has become a national symbol and an
international success, losing by the same token its exclusive poultry dish to
become a seafood dish, and even incorporating -sacrilege!- chorizo…
The lesson: just a question of crust
Thus, like the cassoulet is eventually a way to cook beans with
different and varied types of meats, the paella is a way to cook rice with
varied types of meats and seafoods… In both cases, this is just a question of “crust”:
the soccarat at the bottom for the paella and the “croute” on the top for the
cassoulet.
Out of the box: soft shell crab, crispy shrimps, clams, steamers
Here I made on the charcoal BBQ a very “free” paella with Bomba
rice, incorporating:
- Soft shell crabs, cooking the bodies in the paella and treating the claws and legs like tempura (beer/flour batter and deep-frying)
- Shrimps, also cooked two ways, in the paella and deep fried
- Clams and steamers cooked in the paella
Great taste and great contrast of textures between the paella ingredients
and the deep fried ingredients…
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