As you might have remarked by stalking our Instagram I've been experimenting with the famous dish paella. This summer when visiting Palamos the dream kicked alive to master this very classic Spanish dish. After several tries, I can say that I'm still very far away from mastering it.
As probably a lot of you I've eaten many many paellas throughout the years. The variety of sorts of paella is wide. You can either have one with chicken legs, pork sausages, and shrimps or one with octopus tentacles, squid, and langoustines.
This is what makes paella a typical Spanish dish. You use the ingredients that are season at that and the proportions you're feeling like. Key ingredients to make a paella are Bomba rice grains (arroz bomba), some sort of stock and well... that's it! The rest is for your interpretation.
If you search for paella on Google most recipes you will stumble upon are with chicken, shrimp, chorizo, mussels, and saffron. I find this too overwhelming. Too salty, too fatty, and unfair for certain ingredients. And so I began to wonder: 'What is the traditional paella and where does it come from?'
¡Y aquí Vamos!
History
As with many of the histories of certain dishes or ingredients, there are multiple theories. This is because occasionally records can't be found so assumptions have to be made. Another reason for uncertainty can be created by folks who can't accept the truth and so they bend it to their liking. In my opinion, the last reason applies to the history of paella and I will tell you why.
Valencian History
Paella fanatics will tell you that paella originates from Valencia and this is indeed the birth city of paella. The inhabitants of Valencia, or Valencians, speak Valenciano. This is a mix of Catalan and French words.
Paella translates in Valenciano to a frying pan. This sounds logical because the Latin word for frying pan is 'Patella', the French 'paelle' and the Spanish 'paellera'. The Valencian word thus became a mix of these three.
If you would ask a proud Valencian the history of paella he would tell you the following: Around 1800 Valencian farmers from the countryside would have invented the dish when preparing lunch. They came up with it by dumping everyone’s leftovers, mostly vegetables, from the day before in a big baking pan and combining it with round rice grain. The farmers would then leave it for a couple of minutes and eat.
Transformation
The dish got elevated around the year 1840 since taking trips to the countryside became a thing for the rich bourgeoisie of Valencia. These rich hikers remarked on this dish and brought it to the city with them.
The rich then elevated it by adding the products chicken, pork, and saffron. This, indeed, is known today as paella Valenciana.
There is more…
The story above is theory one a.k.a. the Valencian theory. It is a very believable theory but I have one problem with it. When writing the theory I found it very hard to believe that it took people in Western Europe until 1800 to dump several ingredients in a big frying pan. For comparison, dishes like Swedish meatballs, cinnamon buns, and Beef Wellington already existed in these times.
With this in mind, I began to dive deeper and stumbled upon a second theory.
Moorish History
This theory originates not 100 or 200 years before theory 1 but 1000! That's more like it...
In 718 three armies of Moors arrived in Valencia and conquered the city. The center of Valencia became an Islamic community since the Moors stayed in the city walls for five centuries long.
During this five-century long stay, the Moors brought their own culture to the city and build palaces, mosques, and baths. The Abd-al-Malik (Admiral Baths) is the only building still standing in Valencia that reminds us of that time.
But history is not always reminded because of buildings but also through dishes, ingredients en drinks, as we have discovered in the past year.
The Moors certainly imported the round rice grain and saffron to Valencia since they cultivated this in the Maghreb. According to Moorish legends, paella was created by servants who worked in the royal palaces.
Baqiyah
Moorish kings and aristocrats gave big dinner parties where dishes like Cataplana, Gazpacho, and Conejo en salmorejo were served. The leftovers of big feasts would end up with the servants who called it baqiyah.
The servants would fry all the leftovers with the round rice grain in a large pan. A stock of saffron would also be added. Saffron wasn't seen as a luxury product at that time, which might sound strange. It wasn't even that regular to use saffron in a dish but that's a story for later...
And so paella was created. When Valencia was retaken during the Conquest of Valencia by Jaime I, the Moors were allowed to stay for several years. The dish paella passed on to the new citizens of Valencia and lived on.
Conclusion
Both theories are doubtful in their ways. The Valencian theory is untrustworthy because of its time. For the Moorish theory, we’re still missing a direct reference point to the dish paella.
Either way, the dish brought two different cultures together. The Moors brought rice and saffron, the Valencians elevated it by using products like chicken and seafood. But most important, paella is a dish that brings people together.
Whether you were a servant of a Moorish king, a poor farmer in the Valencian countryside, or a rich Valencian citizen. Paella was never eaten alone. Nowadays it’s still a dish you share with friends and family, as every dish should be.