Mediterranean Restaurant Mayfair
Spain has a lot to thank the Moors for – not least paella. Moors from North Africa created elaborate irrigation systems to channel river water from the mountains into paddy fields where they grew rice. They’re also credited with bringing saffron to Spain, a spice that is integral to paellas.
Like Britain’s Cornish pasties and fish pies (scraps of fish eked out with milk and potatoes), paella was a workers’ dish born out of economic necessity. It was originally made over an open fire in the field, and there are still some purists who insist that an authentic paella should consist only of the original ingredients: rice, snails and green beans.
Mediterranean Restaurant in Mayfair
Paella Valenciana
Today, Paella Valenciana is a national dish that emerged out of Valencia because that is where the rice – around 120 million kilos a year – is grown under the watchful eye of the regulatory council of the D,O. Arroz de Valenzia, which guarantees the grain’s point of origin.
Amazingly for all those who thought rice came from South-east Asia, Lake Albufera south of Valencia includes 14,000 hectares of paddy fields – and rice has been grown in Spain for a thousand years.
Fields are fertilised in February and flooded in April after which rice seedlings are planted in straight lines by workers who move backwards to avoid treading on the new planting. In the summer, the fields are laboriously hoed and the harvest is in September.
All of the rice grown close to Valencia is organic, and there are several cultivars the best known of which are bomba (the paella rice you’re most likely to find in a UK supermarket), bahia and senia.
If you want to try Paella Valenciana it is on the menu at El Pirata, Mayfair’s neighbourhood tapas bar, and it’s served with chicken – not snails.
