From: pino@galileo.Berkeley.EDU (Jose L. Pino)

Here is my mother's recipe (she is from Spain.) I made some a couple of nights ago:

PAELLA (serves 6)

1/3 cup of Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, minced
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3-5 tbsps minced fresh parsley
1 generous pinch of saffron
2 tbsps of chicken bullion
3 skinless Chicken Breasts, cut in large chunks
2 green peppers, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 tsp of yellow food coloring (optional -- saffron is very expensive, a pinch
of it is all you need for taste but a richer color is desired)
8 oz tomatoe sauce
1 tsp sugar
4 cups of rice
7 cups of water
salt
1/2 lb - 1 lb shrimp, leave shell on
1 lb scallops

Saute onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil until the onion begins to become transparent. Add saffron, chicken bullion, chicken, peppers and saute until chicken has become white. Add tomatoe sauce, sugar, food coloring. Stir. Add rice & water and bring to boil. Salt to taste. Boil 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp & scallops, boil an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Simmer 10 minutes covered, stirring occasionally. If the rice appears to be getting too dry during the last 10 minutes, add more water. If the rice is too wet at the end of the 10 minutes, uncover and evaporate unwanted liquid.
ENJOY!

From: Sharalee <Sharalee@planning.mit.edu>

The reason you have found paella to be radically different depending where you get it is that it's another of these wonderful "collect everything in the fridge and throw it in the pot" dishes. The following is sort of an outline -- improvise to suit your own tastes. Quantities, except for the rice and broth, are extremely flexible.

Phase I - Make the chicken & broth
Put 3lb or so of chicken parts (or a whole fryer) in about 10 cups of water with salt and pepper. Add a couple of bay leaves and a few whole cloves. You can also add things like onion, garlic, celery, carrot, leeks, etc as you would when making chicken soup. Cook until the chicken is tender. Strain & save the broth, and discard (or eat) all the solid bits except the chicken meat and the bay leaves. Tear the chicken into manageable pieces and set aside. (I've had paella where the chicken was left on the bones, and I find it rather difficult to eat.)

Phase II - Things to be sauteed
olive oil (for sauteeing)
garlic, several cloves, sliced, crushed or minced
onion, 1 med to large, chopped
1 large bell pepper, finely diced (you could add a small hot pepper
also if you felt like it)
3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped, left sitting in some wine
chorizo, cut into 1/4" slices (i've used kielbasa when i can't get
chorizo - it doesn't matter as long as
it's that kind of firm sausage)
shrimp, shelled and deveined

Heat some olive oil over high heat in a *large* pan (they actually sell paella pans, but you can use a large saute pan or even a wok). Add the garlic and saute until light brown. Add the onions, cook until translucent. Add the pepper, cook a few minutes more. Add the sausage and shrimp. When the shrimp are done (they've *just* turned kind of orange-red-pink and are curled up -- don't overcook them), add the tomatoes and their wine. Turn the heat down a bit.

Phase III -- The Wet Part
You will need:
the chicken broth, chicken & bay leaves from Phase I
a small sack (a couple pounds, I guess) of live mussels and/or clams
3 cups rice
oregano, thyme, ground pepper (black or white, a little cayenne if you like)
saffron

Prepare the shellfish (remove their beards, wash the shells, make sure none of them are dead). Put roughly six cups of broth into the pan with the cooked veggies, sausage and shrimp. Add spices to taste (don't forget the bay leaves). The saffron should be maybe 2-3 threads -- it's the big flavor here. Stir thoroughly, then add the shellfish. Cook for a few minutes, and the shellfish should start to open. When they are well on their way, start sprinkling the rice over the mixture, gently folding it in as you go. Be careful from this point on not to mangle the shellfish -- you don't want a lot of empty shells when you're done. When all the rice is in the dish, let it cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add the rest of the broth and the cooked chicken pieces. Continue cooking until the rice is "right" -- tender, not too dry, not too wet. Take out the bay leaves (or don't bother if it's just you).

I've had this with peas in it, which was quite good. You can use any kind of shellfish, vary the veggies, change the spices, substitute bite sized pieces of boneless pork for the sausage, etc etc. Use your imagination and have fun!

If you like the taste of french fries, you'll love the spanish tortilla. When made correctly, the spanish tortilla is a delicious half-inch thick "cake" of fried potatoes mixed with fried eggs and onions. After cooking, the tortilla can be cut into pizza-like triangles to serve 4-6 people, or cut into squares to give a whole group a bite-sized toothpick sample.

1 cup olive oil
four large potatos (peel and cut into small pieces about 2mm thick)
salt to taste
one large onion, thinly sliced
four large eggs.

Some people add thin slices of red pepper together with the onion.

Heat the oil in a 9-inch skillet, add potato pieces, one slice at a time so that they don't stick. Alternate layers of potato and onion. COOK slowly, medium flame. DO NOT FRY!! Turn occasionally until potatoes are tender, but NOT brown. They must be loose, not "in a cake".

Beat eggs in a large bowl with a fork. Salt to taste. Drain potatoes. Add potatoes to beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat 2 tbsps of the oil in large skillet. Add potato-egg mixture, spreading quickly. Lower the heat to medium-high. Shake pan to prevent sticking (crucial step!!) When potatoes start to brown, put a plate on top skillet and flip to cook other side, adding another tbsp of oil. Brown on the other side. Can flip three or four times for better cooking. 

Feel free to share this recipe with your friends, as long as you include my name and web address, so others can contact me with comments. 













GAZPACHO From Spain

It is difficult for me to give you definite weights or quantities for this recipe; please forgive me.

Lots of red, ripe tomatoes Cucumber (with the part that attaches it to the plant removed: it is bitter) Anaheim peppers (or any green pepper which is not sweet)Old, hard bread (my favourite for gazpacho is extra sour dough, but others will do too)

Garlic
Red vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Water

There might be as many recipes of gazpacho as families are in Spain.  This is the one i have learned at my house.  There is nothing "gospelly" about it. 
As a rule, you want more tomatoes in the gazpacho than anything else.  A nice looking gazpacho should have a pretty orange-red colour. Therefore, add the ingredients according to this principle.  First, cut the vegetables in pieces that your blender can manage.  You do not need to peel the cucumber or the tomatoes or remove the seeds from
anything (at least i never do).
Cut some bread and soak it in water.
Add it to the blender.  Add the olive oil, salt, vinegar and water.
Turn the power on until everything blends "homogeneously".  Take a spoonful and taste it.  At this point you can decide what is missing, what is in excess, etc.  You can experiment with the recipe:  some people like the gazpacho very thick, so they add a lot of bread, while some others like it very liquidy, and they add more water instead, or less bread, whatever.
  Some people get crazy adding garlic, while some
others hate it.
  I prefer gazpacho at room temperature.  However, as it is a typical summer dish, it is usually served cold.  In some places this is so true that they even throw ice cubes in it when ready to eat. 
  As with many other dishes, when you save gazpacho from one
day to the other, it tends to improve in flavor.

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