paella

[cellio]

I tried a new recipe for "vegetable paella" tonight. (We will set aside the question of whether that is an oxymoron.) It was pretty yummy; I think it's a keeper. Ralph, it's in that vegetarian cookbook you gave me, in care you're curious. Next time I will decrease the salt.

The rice did not get as yellow as I would have liked. I used enough saffron and I bled the color out of it appropriately; I think there was just too much other liquid in there, or something. I'll have to think about how to modify it.

Comments

saffron yellow

[chite.livejournal.com]

Saffron rice never really comes out yellow enough, no matter how much saffron you use. Turmeric will produce a brighter yellow and won't significantly change the flavor. Actually for paella it's perfectly reasonable to have a slight turmeric flavor.

-Lynne

Re: saffron yellow

[cellio]

Actually, I did achieve very bright yellow once; I'm just not sure it can be done with tools around the home. I was cooking an SCA feast in a well-equipped school, and they had something that they called a steamer but that appeared to be some sort of pressure cooker. We put the rice and water in a large pan, put it on the rack in this thing, closed the door (it had one of those "locks" that you keep turning until very tight), and turned on the heat. It took a long time (I vaguely recall an hour), but the rice was fluffy and bright yellow. It was pretty impressive! (We served it on trays along with purple cabbage.)

Re: saffron yellow

[chite.livejournal.com]

Woah. I might have to try that with a rice steamer. heh. I'm doing a feast on the 20th of October but hadn't planned a rice dish... it might be a good reason to try it!

Re: saffron yellow

[cellio]

Let me know if the rice steamer works. (I don't own one.) You should also check to see if the kitchen you'll be using has this gadget I was describing; I got the impression that it might be kind of unusual. I've only cooked one feast (so not a lot of experience to draw on), but I've helped in several kitchens and I don't think I had ever seen something like that before. I'll try to remember to ask Johan what it was.

One thing's for sure: the risk of burning the rice was way lower using that thing. I had gone to the event with the plan of using a big pot; what we actually did was improv once we realized what that thing was.