Paella Cooked Over an Open Fire

It's been almost a year since my Paella on the Beach (A Fantasy) article. I have been seeking an opportunity to cook paella over an open fire ever since being seduced by a story in one of my long lost Time Life cookbooks in the eighties. The origins of the dish have been explained in more detail in my earlier article (above) but it is enough to say that it was originally an inland dish in Spain, cooked by farm workers for lunch over an open fire, and made with whatever was available.

The experience began with us taking a short weekend camping break to the New Forest. This meant travelling 'light' and making the decision NOT to take the ever faithful 'go anywhere weber'. We were to rely on the butane fuelled camp cooker for everything. On the first night I realised my cock-up. I had a mis-matched gas regulator, so no camp cooker, and no other means of cooking anything for the weekend. I realised this just after we finished setting up camp on the Friday afternoon before making our way to visit some family friends for a meal not too far away.

The general air of panic subsided as I started to formulate a solution in my mind. This was focused around how on earth would we be able to cook breakfast the following morning. No gas, ok, accepted. No shops open early enough to get a new regulator in time to cook breakfast, accepted. A way out began to emerge.

We needed to get some diesel for the car and I thought that one of those (heaven forbid) disposable barbeques might do the trick, at least to get over the breakfast hurdle. So I fuelled up the Kia en route and collected two disposable barbeques and a 5 kg bag of lumpwood charcoal from the forecourt (hellishly expensive) to relieve the family's anxieties about breakfast on a campsite with scant facilites.

A few campsite rules were niggling as I was driving. No barbeques on the ground for example. So I asked our fabulous hosts that evening for a few bricks to keep the container of charcoal off the ground. We left with a large concrete block and two clay bricks. The obvious components for an impromptu DIY charcoal barbeque.

It was while I was cooking breakfast the next morning that I decided on Paella and how to make the most of the current barbeque setup.

The spirit soaked briquettes in their foil container had more

bark than bite. I was hoping to boil the kettle on the first intense part of the burn, and then follow by putting my pan on the embers to cook the bacon, tomoatoes and eggs. What a pain. A handful of briquettes (10 if I counted correctly) got hot quickly but not for long. The kettle took forever to boil and the breakfast was more stewed than fried, but it got me thinking about the rest of the day.

After a late breakfast we went into a camping shop in Lyndhurst for a new regulator and then to the coast so the kids could enjoy the beach. Nice and sunny but far too windy so we decided to go back inland to the campsite near Brockenhurst.

We gathered some provisions from Waitrose in Christchurch on the way. I had already by then revealed my intention to make paella at the campsite for dinner and what better a place to get the ingredients: (enough for four adults)

- Fresh clams (no mussels available)

- Cooked king prawns (shelled and easy to eat, raw variety too expensive)

- Chorizo

- Saffron

- 8 chicken thighs

- 1 large onion

- 1 Green pepper

- 1 Bulb of garlic

- Salt and pepper

- Basmati rice (2 cups)

- Water for the stock

- (forgot to get lemons but they would have helped)

Paella die hards will probably wince at my choice of rice. Traditional paella rice is firm and stodgy, where basmati rice is light and fluffy. I first used basmati rice because I thought that I had paella rice in the pantry when I hadn't. It's different, but it works really well. It allows more of the other ingredients to fill the bowl, and the rice is a richly flavoured but not overwhelming accompaniment.

The whole afternoon was spent in the sun at the campsite. Firefoodie heaven. I managed to stretch out the making of the paella for the best part of three leisurely hours.

I took the bones out of the chicken thighs for the stock and diced the flesh for the paella. Then I chopped up all of the vegetables and chorizo for the dish (with some help from our Kitty) and then prepared a structure from the 3 brick items for the fire.

The breakfast episode taught me that extra charcoal was the answer to the measly fire from a disposable barbeque. I piled up a good kilo or more of lumpwood charcoal on top of the alcohol soaked briquettes and constructed a brick home for the tray of charcoal that would also suit my paella dish. The large concrete block formed the base and the two bricks were placed either side as supports for the handles of the pan.

To cook paella this way, first you need to make a good stock. This takes lots of heat and a fair amount of time. I got the chicken bones, some of the garlic, half of the diced onion, a few pieces of the diced chorizo and some salt and pepper for the first stage of the meal.

The extra charcoal worked and the pan was good and hot. I browned off the bones and other ingredients in a dash of olive oil, and slowly added enough water so that I would have about 4 cups of stock. After half an hour or so, I removed the bones and discarded them before transferring the stock and all the bits in it to another pan and set it aside.

Then the remaining vegetables, saffron and chorizo were browned in the paella dish over a high heat from the charcoal before I added the diced chicken thighs. After about 10 minutes, I added 2 cups of rice and 4 cups of the stock prepared earlier. Then the clams and prawns were laid on top, the pan was covered with foil, and then checked every now and then for the next 30 minutes or so before serving.

Towards the end the cooking needs to slow down, so I removed some of the charcoal from below as my fire was still a bit too hot.

This meal went down a treat and my paella over an open fire fantasy was finally fulfilled.

(iPhone photography by Kitty)

Paella On The Beach (A Fantasy)

Imagine my horror. I’d been fantasizing about a beach barbeque in the Var for months. When we arrived for our summer holiday in the south of France there was a total fire ban in the whole region.

My sister in law and brother in law (Ali and Jared) were there for some weeks before us and described the view from their elevated campsite. They saw a large section of forest ablaze less than a kilometre away and the fire appeared to have engulfed a house. The whole campsite had to be evacuated and they were lucky that the fire was controlled before it spread across the road.

We witnessed the charred scar on the hillside each time we drove in or out of the campsite. It was a sobering experience, even for a seasoned pyro like me.

I had planned to have at least one beach barbeque during our holiday and deliberated long and hard as to what it might be.

Eventually, I recalled yet another early 90’s Time Life cookbook (Spain this time) where I learned of the origins of paella. Originally cooked on embers in the fields by farm workers in Valencia, it contained simple local ingredients such as rabbit, snails, garlic, vegetables and of course rice and spices. Perfect before a long siesta in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

Enjoy this mixture of fact, fiction and fantasy, made almost real by these written words.

This is what I would have done.


PAELLA ON THE BEACH (A FANTASY)

I arose as usual around 8am, before the sun found its way to our side of the hill. I had become addicted to striding my way to the top each morning to enjoy the view from Gassin down toward St Tropez for a few minutes before running back down to arrive at the shaded campsite almost an hour later and before anyone else was awake.

Back in the coolness of the west side of our hill, I sat at the outside table and began to prepare my list of things to pack for the evening paella on the beach. The internationalised version; seafood, chicken, vegetables, spices and rice.

FOOD to pack

- 2 cups of paella rice
- 5 cups of water (1 litre)
- Some olive oil in a small jar
- 6 chicken pieces (thighs or legs)
- Chorizo sausage
- Bulb of garlic
- 1 large onion
- 2 capsicums
- 2 tomatoes
- Saffron
- Handful of small live mussels
- Handful of raw prawns
- 2 lemons

EQUIPMENT to pack:

- Paella pan (beloved)
- Grease proof paper
- Newspaper
- Kitchen paper
- Lumpwood Charcoal (about 2 litres of large pieces)
- Matches
- Opinel knife
- Small chopping board
- Spoon
- Forks

Each night, the sun was setting around 8:15, and by 8:45 it would be pretty much dark. Any wind, by this time, seemed to just conveniently disappear.

I added to my list:

- 7:15 – Light charcoal
- 7:35 – Add chicken, onions, chorizo and saffron
- 7:40 – Add tomatoes, capsicums, garlic and water
- 7:55 – Stir in rice and cover
- 8:10 - Lift cover to add mussels and prawns, cover again
- 8:20 – Remove cover and serve into grease proof paper cones

We spent the morning at the market at the nearby perched village of Ramatuelle, the perfect place for me to gather up the necessary bits to pack into the cool box back at the campsite before departing to the beach.

I had been waiting for this for so long. I wrapped the paella ingredients in foil parcels and carefully packed them in the cool box with the usual selection of bagettes and salads, a few little beers and a bottle of local rose.

We arrived at the beach at Pardigon at around two and set up camp for the day. While the kids mucked about in the sea and sand, my wife Sara and I lounged beneath the umbrellas with our books.

By six, we would normally be packing up after a 5 o’clock drink at the beach bar, but tonight would be different. We started noticing the usual casual exodus as the evening approached; my cue to set up the little domed barbeque that Ali let us use when we stayed in her caravan. It was about 12 cm in diameter, had tripod legs and a bright pink domed lid. The bowl made a perfect base for my steel paella pan.

I started by placing the charcoal over a pile of sticks and leaves the kids had collected earlier for tinder. The tinder caught instantly and before long the charcoal was crackling gently as it started to turn slowly from black to white.

With my Opinel I cut up the chicken (keeping the bones for the stock), onions, chorizo, garlic and vegetables on the chopping board on my lap while I waited for the charcoal to reach the right temperature.

A charcoal or wood fire is perfect for paella. The embers start off hot so you can cook the meat, onions and spices and prepare the stock. They then slowly die down which allows the other vegetables and the rice to cook more gently until the meal is ready to eat. For paella, it’s important not to use too much charcoal as it burns hot and can take a long time to reduce in temperature.

About 25 minutes later I started browning the chicken, chicken bones and chorizo chunks with the saffron and onions over the hot embers in the olive oil, then added the chopped tomatoes, garlic and capsicum, gradually adding water to prevent the food from sticking and to make the stock. I then removed the bones, added the rice and gave it a good stir.

To prevent the news print being in contact with the paella, I laid a few sheets of wet kitchen paper over the rice before soaking 5 or so sheets of newspaper in sea water and laying them on top, being careful to fold up the corners so they didn’t burn from the heat of the embers below.

The fire subsided gently as I had hoped. About 10 minutes later I lifted the paper cover and laid the mussels and prawns on top of the rice. Some time later I started to see lumps appear in the newspaper cover as the mussels steamed open. I lifted the wet paper cover and voila, perfectly cooked rice, vegetables and seafood. And, there was still enough light to savour both the look and taste of the meal.

I tore the grease proof paper into 30 x 30 cm pieces, folded each in half, and half again and then opened the folded paper into a cone in the same way I remembered making filters in chemistry at high school. A sheet of folded newspaper loosely wrapped around the outside added the necessary insulation before spooning the piping hot paella into each cone and topping off with a couple of slices of fresh lemon.

The smell was incredible. A steamy blend of saffron, chorizo, vegetables and sea food with freshly cut lemon.

I ate with my hands, savouring the texture, aroma and taste of each mouthful with sticky fingers that were later cleansed with the remains of the squeezed lemon slices.