Paella with Grão Vasco Dão Branco

Paella, just prior to plating.

Last night, we Tyler's co-worker Brittany, a fellow wine geek and foodie, over for dinner.  I always feel like I need to make something impressive when we have dinner guests.  Paella is perfect in this situation.  It's simple enough for a weeknight dinner party, but exotic enough that most people don't think to make it on a regular basis. 

Paella can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want.  Using frozen seafood and a paella seasoning packet reduces the cost. Saffron is an important spice in paella, unfortunately it costs $5 for a small pinch.  

You'll need this stuff at the bare minimum.

Ingredients


2 tbs. olive oil
16 oz. chorizo (spicy) or linguica (mild) sausage
12-16 oz. fresh or frozen seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, squid, octopus)
2 cups white rice (medium grain or arborio is best)
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium preferably)
Optional: add 1 or 2 cups of frozen peas and/or several mussels or clams in shell for presentation.

Ready, set, let's make paella!

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in either a paella pan or large skillet over medium high heat. We have a paella pan, so that's what we used.

Paella pan, heating up. If you don't have a paella pan, a skillet will work.

Chop the sausage into bite sized pieces and brown. Once the sausage is browned, remove it to a bowl, add the broth to deglaze, and stir in the seasoning packet. Mix in the rice, reduce the heat to low, and simmer.

Mmm. Cooking sausage. Smells great!

Rice cooked in chicken broth, what could be a better base for a meal?

When the rice has started to absorb the liquid, add the sausage back in.  The seasoning in the sausage add flavor to the paella.

OK, adding sausage makes it better...

As the liquid continues to absorb, be sure to stir frequently. When the liquid is mostly absorbed, add your seafood. If you are choosing to add fresh clams or mussels, be sure to put a lid over the pan for a few minutes so that they will steam open.

... and adding seafood makes it great!

If the rice begins to stick to the bottom of the pan... let it! That's what's supposed to happen. In Spain, grown men will fight over the crust of rice on their paella.

Tasty, tasty crust.

When the liquid is fully absorbed, it's time to serve. As they would say in Spain, ¡Disfrute su cena!

Plated, paired with wine,
and ready to eat!

The wine pairing for this was a natural; Iberian food and Iberian wine. Initially, I thought of using an albariño from Rias Biaxas, in northwestern Spain, and that would have worked (especially if I'd picked one of the fuller, rounder style albariños that are popular right now). Good examples can be found for under $20, however, good values can also be found in Portugal, which is where our pairing for this meal comes from. We had a bottle of Grão Vasco Dão Branco, a white wine from the Dão, in north-central Portugal, south of the Douro river, and which cost me about $9. It's a blend of Portuguese grapes -- encruzado, bical, and malvasia fina, for those who keep track at home -- but don't get too caught up on "what grape type is this?" for Portuguese wines, as they've got about 8,000 types of wine grapes. Additionally, since they've been making wine since Roman times, the prevailing attitude is "we've been growing grapes on that hill for a thousand years, we know well what grows well there," as it is in most of the rest of Europe.

Anyhow, the wine had a nice citrusy note on the finish, that complimented the seafood well, but it had enough oomph to stand up to the rice,  a nice, round melony midpalate. For a pairing with paella, it worked quite well. It'd also be pretty darn good with medium-weight fish, like haddock or sole, or a bowl of thick clam chowder.

Other wines that would work with paella would include heavier Italian varieties; Soave or other garganega-based wines comes to mind. Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume from the Loire, in France, could work as well. A very mildly oaked chardonnay from California might squeak in, too. I would, however, not choose an oaky wine, nor one that's too light -- no New Zealand sauvignon blanc or really oaky, buttery chardonnay with this one! You want to balance the weight and the flavor profile of the wine with the weight and flavor of the food; since citrus goes so well with seafood, you want something with some crisp acidity, and since we've got a heavier food here, with the thick rice, we want something with a little weight to it.