Spanish Rice Dish Called Paella

Every country has its own speciality of rice dish. In India, we enjoy Biryani, Indonesians like Nasi Goreg, Chinese like fry rice, Thais like Khao paat, and Spanish like Paella All the rice dishes have common ingredients of vegetables and meat of your choice, but the only difference is the method of its preparation. Even the utensils differ from country to country. It could be a deep pot containing layers of coloured rice, covered tightly, and cooked under steam, or it could be opened wok to simply stir fry the rice with mixed veggies and meat. Spanish use a huge flat pan. Vegetables or meat stock is separately made which is used for boiling rice instead of plain water although some may just use veggie or chicken cubes. My niece made for me veggie paella and it was quite delicious. She put 2 tablespoons of olive oil and fried the ground paste of one large onion and one teaspoon of crushed garlic. Next she added one tin of Soya bean chunks and stir fried till light brown. She then added assorted veggies such as carrots, beans, mushrooms, corn, green peas, red and green capsicum, tomato paste and also tomato puree. When she saw the oil bubbling, she added five hundred grams of par boiled rice, and then added veggie cube, five glasses of water, paella powder, saffron strands, perejil powder and salt. She covered the pan with foil and steamed it till it was tender. For garnishing, she put slices of lime. Non vegetarians use chicken, pork, clamps, octopus and shrimps Spanish can’t eat chillies, not even a pinch of chilli powder; I find their food very bland. Thank Gawd, I carry my own bottle of chilli sauce in my purse whenever I go dinning in a Spanish restaurant.

15th August .A Day to celebrate

The Indian club of Tenerife celebrated ´Independence Day´ by saluting to the national flag, singing national anthem, putting up a small variety entertainment show and then enjoying a lunch party. But, here I am, staying far from NRI society, surrounded by the population who are not even aware of my big day. But they have a holiday too and they are celebrating their own festival which is important on their calendar called ´Dia de Candelaria´ To celebrate this day I am invited for a swim and Paella (Spanish traditional rice dish) to our club. The weather lets me down by hiding the sun behind the clouds and it is too cold to swim. Most of the members, who are dressed to swim have just wrapped themselves with scarf or towels and are waiting for the paella to cook. There is a small cubicle near the pools where the cooks are busy preparing two big pans of rice dish that contains pork, chicken, and sea food. It takes them two hours to prepare the dish. I spend my time, walking around the pool, chatting with different people as I pass by their inclined seats. There are various people playing basket ball or tennis on the other side of the pool. In the children’s area there is inflated outdoor equipment where children are enjoying jumping and sliding down the soft corners. It is nice to meet so many people, most of them I am meeting after a long time. Spanish are very friendly people and they can never run out of conversation. Just by nodding my head, I can assist them to continue their long, long stories. When I am tired of walking, I come and sit closer to the cubicle. When the paella is ready, they announce it on mike and a big serpentine line crawls towards the cubicle. One gentleman brings my share to the table which is served with bread and beer. Paella is very tasty for Spanish palate, but for me, it is bland because there is neither chilli nor any spice at all. But still, I nod my head in affirmative when the Spanish lady, sitting next to me, sweetly asks me, “Te gusta? Muy rico. No? ¨