A jolly good paella

We believe that food should not be eaten just because you’re hungry, but because it’s a pleasure to sit around the table with family and friends and enjoy good food,” says Spanish chef Enrique Garcia Romero, who was in Mumbai this week to celebrate ‘Food and Wines from Spain’ at Tote on the Turf.

UNESCO apparently agrees with this social aspect of what makes for a great meal, because last month it added Spanish cuisine to its Intangible Heritage list. In fact, the Mediterranean diet as a whole, consisting of cuisines from Italy, Spain, Greece and Morocco, is now deemed a ‘cultural heritage’ because it “promotes social interaction, since communal meals are the cornerstone of social customs and festive events”,
according to UNESCO.

Home-grown for centuries
What sets Spanish food apart from other Mediterranean cuisines is the abundant use of garlic, saffron and spices. This makes it spicier than Italian food, and closer to the flavours that Indians enjoy.  Or, as Romero puts it simply, “It’s the best!”

“The ingredients are usually home grown or bred,” explains Noelia Piriz, food and wine development manager, Embassy of Spain. “The art of growing your own ingredients has been passed down generations.”

This “transmission of expertise” is another reason UNESCO granted the cuisine heritage status. “In Spain, 90% of food and beverage establishments are family-owned, and even today, they grow their own vegetables and breed their own livestock,” says Piriz.

She adds that her family is very particular about what they eat. “Even if he doesn’t breed it himself, my father makes sure that the patanegra he brings is all-natural,” she says.

Wining and chatting, with patanegra Patanegra is the leg of jamón ibérico (a type of black pig) that is served as an appetiser with wine. It looks like raan (leg of lamb), but is fatter and has a dark brown hue. It’s not cooked but ‘cured’ for 12 to 36 months.

“Jamón ibérico is not raised in farms. It grows in an open orchard where it feeds on acorns and grass. No processed food is given to the pig,” Romero explains. The whole pig is cured with salt and kept in controlled conditions (low humidity and temperature) for at least 12 months. This brings out the flavour of the meat.

“The longer the curing process, the better the pork tastes,” says Piriz. Romero meanwhile slices out wafer-thin slivers of the meat and passes the plate around. Hoping it doesn’t taste raw, I take a slice. My eyes widen as the meat melts in my mouth. “Slicing the meat is an art for which professionals are paid handsome sums of money,” says Romero.

Patanegra is considered ‘rich man’s food’ in Spain. When a family gets together for a meal, they start with slivers of pork to pacify a growling stomach as they sit for hours enjoying wine and a conversation.

A meal is a ceremony
Finally, the main course, the paella (pronounced ‘pae-ya’), a Spanish rice preparation with meat, seafood or vegetables, is brought in. A giant paella pan is placed at the centre of the table.

“On Sundays, three, sometimes four, generations of a family sit together with a paella pan in the centre. Each diner knows his/her place in the pan. You eat from your part only. If you don’t like something on your side, you place it in the centre. This centre is common ground and anyone can pick up the meat/veggies from there,” explains Romero.

“When dining in a restaurant in the city, paella is even shared among strangers. People know it’s rude to dig into your neighbour’s paella.

The paella has some similarities with our biryani, but the rice is different. “While Basmati is long grained, Spanish rice is rounded. But unlike Italian risotto, it isn’t pasty and the grains of rice, even when cooked, stay loose. Chewing the rice helps bring out its flavour,” says Chef Edward, Romero’s colleague.

The rich colour of the paella comes from saffron and paprika. But the most important ingredient — which gives the paella its distinctive taste — is the stock. It has to be heavy and nutrient. “In Spanish households, the stock is made from scratch with animal skeleton. It takes two hours to make the stock for a pan of paella,” says Edward.

Extra-virgin olive oil adds a distinctive flavour too. Paella originated in Valencia. Over time, variations of the dish cropped up all over Spain, each with its own regional influence. Originally made with chicken or rabbit meat, it is now also made with vegetables, pork or lamb. In the coastal regions, meat is replaced with seafood.

“Today, there are seven different types of paella. One recipe uses the ink of squid to give the rice a blackish colour,” says Edward.

The paella’s appeal dates back to the civil war in Spain in the 30s, when people would collect whatever vegetables and meats they could find and put together a rice-based meal.

Over time, it became a popular communal dish which fits in well with the passion that the Spanish bring to everything, from food to football.