Paella & Tortilla

This week, ISA organized a free cooking class at a local restaurant for students interested in learning how to cook traditional Spanish food.  Here are the recipes we learned and pictures of everything we made!

Paella de verduras y marisco (Vegetable and seafood paella)
The most popular seafood Spanish dish, coming from Valencia in the south of Spain.

• Rice (Arroz) - 400 grams
• Tomatoe (Tomate) - 150 grams
• Fish broth (Caldo de pescado) - 750 grams
• Squid (Calamar) - 500 grams
• Crayfish (Cigalas) - 500 grams
• Shrimp (Gamba) - 500 grams
• Salt (Sal) - 1 gram
• Saffron (Azafrán) - 1 gram
• Garlic (Ajo) 1 gram
• Green & red peppers (Judia) - 150 grams
• Oil (caldo)

Preparing the ingredients

Directions

1. Clean the seafood; chop the vegetables. 
2. Heat oil in a paella pan, then fry the shrimp and crayfish for about one minute.  
3. Once they are ready, take them off the heat and put them aside for later.  
4. Using the same oil, add the squid and fry until it is golden in color.  
5. Now, add the tomato and the finely chopped onion, and continue to fry.
6. Add the rice, stirring and sauteing all the ingredients together. 
7. If it is not available, the saffaron can be replaced by a pinch of dye (to make the dish appear red in color).
8. Let paella cook for 10 minutes, adding a pinch of salt.
9. Finally, add the shrimp and crayfish with the rice and let cook for 5 more minutes, until all the broth has evaporated.  

So it's actually just seafood and vegetables and rice all cooked together in oil and with spices...YUM!

Somer, cooking the Pealla

Up close

The final product!

Tortilla de patata Española (Spanish Potato Tortilla)
In my opinion, one of the most basic and common dishes in this part of Spain!

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• 500 grams of potatoes (patatas)
• 100 grams of onion (cebolla
• 1/2 liter of sunflower oil or "soft" oil

Directions

1. Chop the onion and slice the potatoes into thin slices
2. In a pan with hot oil, fry the chopped onion. Once golden, remove from heat and set aside for later.
3. In a pot, boil the potatoes in hot water with lots of oil. I swear, you cannot have enough oil in this dish.
4. Let them cook for about 20 minutes, until they are soft and mushy.  Stir the potatoes and add the onions and a pinch of salt.
5. Strain the potatoes and pour the liquidy mess into a separate bowl
6. Beat the eggs and mix them in a bowl with the cooked potatoes and onions.
7. In a smaller, flatter pan, pour the mix into it so it can fry, like a giant, fat pancake
8. The trick is to flip the tortilla when the bottom has been cooked (see the pictures below)

Basically, it's potatoes and eggs mixed together and fried to make a fat, oily tortilla. 

Thin potato pieces are crucial!

Letting the potatoes cook

Separating the potatoes form the oily water

Frying the tortilla 

Flipping the tortilla onto the plate from the pan

FInished product!

Finally; we ate! Tortilla, paella, and gazpacho! Enjoy!