Can I Cook Paella Like a SPANISH CHEF ? 

Hi Alex! I’m Spanish and I do have some experience in Valencian kitchen. Its impressive how well you have been able to canalize the information and make a proper Paella at home, in a pan, with no fire, and socarrat (which isnt easy at all). If you want some comments that may be helpful, here they are. - the saffron mix with hot liquid is genius, and I have seen some top tier Spanish chefs doing it as well. - There is meat paella, and seafood paella (and other combinations). For seafood paella, often cooks use the heads of prawns, shrimps, langoustines… to make the stock richer in flavor, and deeper in color. When straining the stock, make sure to crush down everything inside it (including fish bones). Some chefs don’t even strain it, but just blend all of it together :) - When making paella at home, I’d say it is important to cover it in a cloth when its done cooking for 5 minutes, so that the stock that is left reabsorbs and you get a more dry result. Often, paella that has been sitting for a while is even better and more flavorful. Finally, I think you have done the socarrat really well, but my tip would be to not get obsessed with it. Often, foreigners focus too much on the “socarrat” as they believe it is the main indicator of success. In reality, the priority is the rice, and when you have a good technique often socarrat comes naturally. It also depends in not putting a lot of rice (maybe you have realized that in Spain, the layer of rice is super thin and often doesn’t get to the edges of the Paellera (pan). In general I feel like youve done a great job. Im living in Paris right now, so if you need any Spanish tips I can help! Hahahaah

A Frenchman speaking Spanish whilst making Italian handgestures....Never stop being this awesome Alex.

I am from Spain and that looks like an amazin paella. Keep in mind that paella is one of those dishes that you cook on a sunday when your family and friends are coming to eat. Everybody thinks that their paella is the best, and every paella is imperfect. Yours looks delicious.

Persian here. If you want to maximize your saffron flavor, "brew" it cold. Pour cold water over the grounds and refrigerate for a day. It will take longer to infuse but will be much stronger.

As a Persian, I approve of your saffron blooming technique. The grinding and blooming of the saffron make an enormous difference.

You are walking into a potential minefield with this series, mad respect from a Valencian and I can´t wait to see this journey unfold!

I'm from Valencia and the word "socarrat" is actually a word in valencian language that means something like roasted, thanks for sharing our culture!

Alex, the pimenton should go before the tomato, it's important that the pimenton is toasted but not burned, once toasted, add the tomato that hydrates again. Thank you for so many hours of fun.

It's important to bear in mind how brave Alex is. If mishandled, this episode could lead to a war in between Spain and France, again! and the decomposition of the European Union. So I'm going to say something in Spanish: "Alex los españoles te queremos y te apreciamos mucho, eres uno de los mejores youtubers culinarios que existen en el mundo. Nunca dejes de ser como eres y continua con tu buen hacer. Un abrazo desde Barcelona". 😘

Congratulations. It's the first time I see someone in RU-vid making a paella similar to my grandma's paella. Thanks for showing to the world what an actual paella is!

I think you are very brave to make all of these traditional recipes, since it tends to gather thousands of people with different views thinking their version is right just because their mama made that way. Or fighting over details that hardly matter or things that it's just a matter of taste.

Hola Alex, great Paella :) as a German living in Valencia/Alicante I have also been taught some tricks around making the perfect rice/paella. For a good rice, you may also look into the province of Alicante (which is part of the Communidad Valencia). From there a lot of "Arroz a/del..." are coming from (they are not called paella) and they are made a little different but very tasty (or even more?!). Firstly, you create the broth with fishheads, spine, and like others pointed out prawns-head. The second ingredient is the sofrito or salmorreta - which you prepare seperately in the pan (using garlic, onion, tomato, bit of parsley) and give it to the broth at the end and strain it. This will go into the rice, the rest of the process is similar. There is the version of arroz del senyoret (rice for the lords/gentlemen) with all seafood cut into pieces, to avoid dirty hands :) My personal favorit. And some like it even more - the pasta version of it - fideua. Try it! adéu - Nico

Paella is at once, the simplest and the most complex dish that I cook. It has taken me years to get where I am and I still have a lot to learn. I live in Kansas City, USA. The only way to get paella here, is to make it yourself. The only paella I have ever had is my own. Thank you for this series. Your skill, knowledge, and especially your insight are much appreciated.

Alex, having watched you for years, this video feels like a culmination of your acquired skills as a home cook. You truly analyzed, researched, used and honed the variety of skills I've seen in many of the series you created. Your choice of pan, technique, heat, flavor, timing and of course ingredients.. puts you at another level. Your hard work, joy and pursuit of knowledge is paying off. Thanks for sharing!

Im Spanish and Im blown away by how good your paella came out, Alex. Congratulations on obtaining such a great result and thank you for letting the world know what a true paella looks and taste like.

Don't ever stop Alex, 'never ever stop'!!!! These deep dives you share with your viewers into various cuisines, dishes, ingredients, and the passion you exude is truly infectious. Thank you!

Happily surprised. Yes you can! Finally a non-spanish youtuber cooking a paella as it is supposed to be 👏👏👏

As a Valencian, I honestly thought you were going to do something crazy like many I see on the internet with paellas, but I think you are one of the best paellas made by a foreigner in a long, long time. Congratulations. Nice video and Thank you for showing our culture and gastronomy.

That paella looks positively mouthwatering. Loved the video! Cheers!

I really appreciate you not buying a paella pan. Keeps this helpful for people who want to recreate the same success at home. As much as I’d enjoy you cooking paella on a proper, massive pan over an open fire, this is more educationally valuable. Excited to try this myself!

As a basque person, I appreciate this and would love to see you make bacalao as well.

I'm from Valencia (I like Casa Carmela a lot too by the way) and I must say you did a really really great job. It's so depresing to see what some cooks out there call Paella, even in Spain on touristic places it's so bad. Congratulations and respect I will see if I can catch some receips from your channel.

Seriously love your channel it's so cool how passionate you are. A joy to watch.

I'm glad to watch Paella series!! You really work hard and put passion into your videos! Love your channel

Greetings from Spain, the paella looks very good. On behalf of all Spaniards, I have to thank you for your great communicative work, really teaching what Spanish food is like. I hope this helps many foreign people who visit Spain to avoid being deceived by one of many establishments that serve this "tourist paellas".

I’ve cooked and re-searched paella recipes for years now, and knew about the socarrat - which I was surprised that you didn’t mention in the original video at the restaurant. But the fact that you did such a deep dive, even showing the cooking temperature levels through the different phases of the process, really blew me away! Bravo Don Alex Alex 🙏🏼

Merci beaucoup! As a Spanish and a self taught foodie, this is by far the best paella video i´ve seen, not only coming from a non Spanish person, but also in a general perspective. You really break down the principles of the dish, wich you can apply to any variation. Thanks for helping others to understand and enjoy this often neglected dish. Salut!

Congrats on 2m subs Alex, your videos are incredibly entertaining and well made. I love the way you articulate your thoughts throughout the whole process, you have earned this success man.

Almost perfect, However u missed the last step, and very important one... U have to let the rice rest for a few minutes, it is very important because this way u let each rice grain to fully absorb the remaining broth and also the top rice will infuse with the malliard reaction at the bottom. I think this is the best aproach to a real paella from a non-valencian guy that I ever seen. Congrats. PD: If u want to explore in deep the paella world I recomend u to watch this guy @ChefAmadeo

Alex, as an Englishman who speaks the bare minimum of Spanish, French, and Italian, seeing your beautiful amalgamations of all three cultures’ cuisines bring a tear to my humble eye. Well done, and keep doing what you’re doing.

I’m late to the party but I’m so glad to find you! You’re fantastic! I look forward to all the videos I’ve missed!

I love how you respect culture of spain and all other countries, thank you for the work and great vídeo

This is called Arroz a banda and is a paella dish very popular in the Alicante area. And let me tell you, you have nailed it (you can tell from just looking at the color and texture of it). Usually, chopped sepia and calamari is used, but anything goes really (lobster, shrimps, bogavante...) edit: and yes, the Valencian "bomba" rice is very important for any paella as its the grain that absorbs the most amounts of liquids and thus flavour

I love Paella. Had a few times and did not know it was so complex. Good video Alex.

Haven't watched Alex for years but glad to see that he still does videos.

Oh man! This looks really good for a first! Few things though: - i beg you to try the original paella valenciana. There is no garlic in it. The chicken and rabbit with tomato and pimenton give the taste. Also if available the snails add a lot to the flavour. At the end, the ultimate thing that is missing for it to be a real paella is the people gathered together to share this meal and the criticism from tour guests. Valencians are very passionate about this and the critic is a true part of the experience.

There is an aspect of paella that I love and think is missing from yours if you want to level it up one last time, that is smoke. When we make paella at home, we do not have access to a wood burning stove at home but we do have a smoker, we will smoke our shellfish/vegetables/meat or whatever we are having in the smoker to impart that wood smoked flavour. Yours looks delicious all the best.

Now I'm hungry again! Great Video as usual, keep up the good work, I really love to see how passionate you are about cooking, you are an inspiration for me!

Just made it. Had to get all the ingredients. Turned out fantastic. Will do again later for the family. Thank you so much for the video.!

Hi Alex! Someday try also the classic Paella Valenciana as well! I know seafood is more impressive but the classic Chicken and Rabbit combo is to die for as well👍. This Paella also looks really nice! Specially for a 1 portion

I came into the comment section expecting the spanish inquisition.

i love watching alex it’s just such a comfort channel

You nailed it first time! No angst? No suffering? No drama? No follow up? Amazing.

Hi Alex, as a Valencian Who loves cooking rice and subscriber of you channel I must say that you did again a great job in your fiesta paella! 😊 The world of cooking paella has a lot of controversy and each one has his own tricks and techiques. But if I may, I would to share what is the most important to me, the socarrat: The socarrat is what gives this extra flavor and texture that you felt in the restaurant. And this is thank you to all the greases (animal/vegetables) left in the sofrito (when you fry all vegetables / meat / fish in the paella. So my recommendation in that when you are in this step, much more important if is a meat paella, that yo do It with LOVE and patience and fry everithing very good adding first the ingredients that needs more time to get all this flavour in the base of your paella. To have a perfect socarrat try to keep a very thin layer of rice, this means more socarrat and less overcooked rice. About watter quantity, even you use allways same bomba rice, ratio depends on the diameter of the paella recipient, simple phisics, more surface water evaporates faster... Which tipe of fire you're using etc... This is all about try and miss and mastering... One trick if you got short of water is covering it when you take It of the fire and let it sit for some minutes. So Hope you find my opinion helpful. Peace&love 👌

There are two main ways to cook a traditional paella the Alacant and the Valencia. Valencia paella makes the broth in the same pan that you are going to cook the rice (fry first the meats then the vegetables make the sofregit then pour water and let simmer. Once the broth is made you put the rice and it boils. The Alacant way is more like you have done here fry the rice then add the broth that you have done elsewhere. Main difference Valencia is simpler and the rice is boiled and Alacant the rice is fried first. Being your first paella is welldone (the rice may be a bit undercooked). Try other paella recepies and avoid chorizo.

Outstanding Alex! I am going for it! Thank you!

I made this dish tonight with your inspiration. It turned out so amazing I love it

Arroz Bomba is the "easy mode". Rice will let you make mistakes with the timing but will not absorb the flavour as well as any Sénia or derivative rice.

I love the humility Alex shows when exploring the cuisines of other countries. Gordon Ramsay should take notes. 😝 About socarrat: before rice cookers, Japanese people used to cook rice in big cast iron pots. My Japanese mother remembers that time and told me that she and her siblings fought over who got the crunchy bits at the bottom of the pot. Any discussion of socarrat brings back memories of my mother telling me those stories.

spanish cook here. Man, thank you for this 2 videos about paella... i love making paellas, and i have an obsesion for socarrat. But i allways hated how 95% of restaurants do and sell paellas... for them is just yellow rice, overcooked ofc, no flavor, full of stuff but not a thing to remember or enjoy... So thats why i have to tell you again, Thank you because u are spreding the love paella deserves

Fantastic, as always! Love your work, Akex! Thank you for sharing

Hi Alex, are you ok? :) We are missing You!

Is Alex okay? This has been a long time since he hasn't posted a video. I miss his videos.

Beautiful work on this video, Alex! I look forward to trying this out soon. Now I need to find Valencian rice...

Great work, you took it seriously and with passion. I'm too experienxing with paella and this video is very very useful. Thanks

Mad respect for this series. I really recommend you to buy a true and heavy steel paella, like the ones of Pata Negra. You can archieve similar results with a pan like the one you have, but in the end, the only way to have the proper rice distribution is with a true paella pan. Not only for the different layers of rice, but also because of the heat distribution, which helps with cooking and evaporation. Also, for this type of dishes, seafood paella, fideua and similar, you should search the "salmorreta", a mix of fried ingredients that kicks up the flavour of your sofrito and your rice in the end. There are an almost infinite quantity of salmorretas, each one for every type of rice that is not the traditional paella of chicken and rabbit. Keep on, as a Valencian, I'm very eager to see where this goes.

As a Spanish, I can tell you that my mother could be proud of you. Great Paella!!

hola Alex, tu réalise là un très joli travail ! je suis ta chaine depuis longtemps et j'aime beaucoup ton approche des choses, tjrs très enrichisante. j'ai travailler longtemps dans divers restaurants dans divers pays à travers la planète et je retrouve chez toi les mêmes conseils que j'ai pu recevoir de mes différents mentors. bravo, continus comme ça

Dear Alex, I'm Spanish and I have to say that you nailed it. That socarrat looks awesome. Congrats!

The pimenton should go in first, but it certainly looks delicious. And indeed, that rice is magnificent.

"Today, on Not-Spanish Guy Cooking..." XD

Great job Alex! educational and entertaining.

I love your attention to the detail. Awesome channel and never fails to make me hungry 😁

Well, I´m Spanish, and I can say that even if you didn´t use the original paella pan ( paellera) you adapted well. In the end is more of a tradition to cook for everyone than to be exact using the perfect object. And the result is wonderful. Remember that the perfect Paella will always be a hard one to achive,. Many villages around Valencia and Barcelona do it way different, so as long as you liked it, should be fine. Superb job pal.

I love paella and everything about Spain for that matter, but unfortunately I've only had this awesome dish in Italy. This recipe though sure looks tempting.. the outcome so mouth watering, way more inviting than what I've tried so far here in Italy.😋

Alex, as spanish guy who ate Paella almost every sunday, and also loves to cook. I gotta say, you did an amazing job there. Respect

Thank you for the recipe and video instruction.

Been a while now. Is Alex ok?

Spanish chef here. Your paella is pretty good for the equipment you have, it's quite similar to modern approaches to paella by chefs. It has nothing to do with a traditional paella tho. The most famous one is "paella valenciana", where you make the broth in the paella pan just before including the rice. Tipical ingredients are: rabbit, chicken, green beans, artichoke, garrofo beans (kind of lima beans)... Anyway, this kind of dry rices are made in a lot of places in Spain, along the mediterranean coast. In Catalunya they make it similarly but with a very caramelized and dehydrated onion, in Alacant they make rices like "Arroz a banda". I encourage you to research about that and keep doing what you do in all your series. Thanks and forgive me for my english!

You did it! As valencian i tell you: congratulations. Thank you a lot for understand and show how is it.

I was in Spain very recently and had real paella for the first time and it was really a whole new experience

What has happened to Alex? He hasn't posted a video in two months? Is he okay?

A particularity of Paella Valenciana is that you don't make a broth before hand. You cook all of the ingredients directly on the pan and then you add water to them and make the broth in the pan right before you add the rice. You will have a much more flavourful result that way. Also, pro-tip, us Valencians are very sensitive about the "toppings" that go on paella, making a simple paella valenciana is the best way to go. I can't wait for the rest of this series and watching you learn about the rich tradition of Paella! Edit: For anyone trying their hand out at making Paella, never use a non-stick pan! your rice will not cook properly and you will never get socarrat. Try and get a paella (pan) if you can so that the heat is very evenly distributed and make sure to only add a very small layer of rice.

what an amazing and apealing dish you have cooked, i wish i could taste it. congrats Alex.

You make it shine a lot. Straightly nominated to my RU-vid recipe of the years list.

Oh yes, Alex’ favorite activity: Provoke Southern Europeans by making their food

2 months and no videos…wtf???

Your video has arrived to Meneame (similar to reddit but only in spanish) AND YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ROASTED. Congratulations. You have done well enough that NO ONE have fully complained

You truly love your craft. You make me want to cook, and cook, and cook, Wonderful.

Why do you blur it on the thumbnail. That's actually so cheap.

You clearly take your business seriously, many thanks for taking us through the Paella algorithm.

Well done Alex, congrats to your 2m subscribers as well. Greetings from Germany :)

I adore the bags the rice came in. I want a poster of it on my wall

A beautiful result! Compliments chef.

I think all your Spanish followers are very happy with your paella! Your Spanish speaking skills are also cool :)

As a spanish person, I can say to you that you just did an amazing job extolling the Mediterranean gastronomy with such an amazing work of art, and also respecting the traditions of both the dish and the culture.

That looks absolutely amazing!

Almost flawless execution. Well done.

Stunning. Merci, cher Alex.

Hola Ales, has cocinado una paella buenísima te felicito!!! al final lo de menos es el recipiente, lo has hecho mejor que muchos sitios españoles donde he comido paella... Enhorabuena!!! 🍀🍀🍀🍀

Hi Alex! , I'm from Valencia and here we use the heads and the shell of the shrimp to do the stock, and by the way we call that stock "Fumet". Thank you very much.

is good to se a foreign chef cooking a traditional spanish dish with so much respect for the recipe and so much care and dedication. I remeber when I watched a video of an american chef cooking an spanish omelette, and he ended with an omelette that looked like It was made by my mom. I felt the same energy in this video.

Man you are exactly as crazy as the chefs i am friends with in real life!! Love those guys, keep up the great vids!

Impresionante. Gran trabajo.

Love that you are doing this.

Well done Alex, you got the principles of a “perfect paella” perfectly described and the final result looks really good indeed! As an experienced paella cook myself, I’ll recommend you to try this next time: instead of 10 min + 10 min + 30/60 seconds high heat, do 10 min + 8 min + 30/60secs and then, cover the pan with a clean cloth (not soap or softener smell from the washing machine), and allow it to steam and rest for 3 to 4 minutes. You will see the difference.

That looks amazing!! I challenge you to do migas de pan or migas de sémola, it's probably my favourite spanish dish 💖

I think this point of time, that Alex is like a RPG player that can't complete the major quest ( pasta series) so Alex going to finish all of the side quests (from Eclair to paella) to elevate his levels just so he can finish the pasta series.

The close-ups of the rice grains remind me how people in Valencia will examine your paella before eating it. I half-expect friends to pull out a jeweler's glass to inspect my paella.

Your videos are my therapy, Alex 🥳