Real Spanish Food – Fideuá

I was honoured and excited to be invited for lunch by a Spanish friend, Vicente. He had often talked to me about his recipe for Fideuá – a Valencian dish similar to paella but using pasta instead of rice. As is usual in Spain we were blessed with glorious sunshine and we arrived to some welcome ice cold beers, and luckily early enough to watch the master at work. The huge gas fired paella pan was lit and a very, very large quantity of olive oil poured in to heat up. Vicente was making a chicken version of the dish (it is traditionally fish based) and once the olive oil had come to temperature a big bowl of diced chicken thighs were thrown into the pan. He told me that he always uses chicken thigh as breast has a tendency to dry out. I totally get where he is coming from, as I too prefer that cut of meat when making curries or stews. As the chicken sizzled away in the pan he kept moving it around to stop it sticking and to make sure the pieces were well sealed and coloured. Once he was satisfied with the chicken he scattered in a large amount of Spanish hot paprika, and oh my, the smell was just amazing!

The rich, deep red colour of the paprika glowed under the Spanish sun...

It really is a moment when the food of a country perfectly suits its environment…it looked, well, beautiful. Again he moved the chicken around in the pan to cook through the paprika so that it loses its harshness, then he was ready to move on to the next stage. In one bowl he had some finely diced tomatoes with garlic and in a second bowl he had his ‘secret ingredient’. All he would say was it was mainly blended roasted red peppers, it smelt divine and the colour matched the ochre red of the paprika. The two bowls were poured into the pan, sizzling and popping as they were quickly stirred in with the other ingredients. Then in went a litre or two of chicken stock, quickly followed by a few packs of fideo (a short version of vermicelli). A good mix later and the pan was covered with foil and left to cook the pasta through. But it wasn’t quite over yet…Vicente called me over and earnestly explained that once done it is important to mix up the finished dish in the pan before serving. You see as with paella, it is the thick crispy reduction at the bottom of the pan that has the most intense flavour. It would simply be a crime to serve a Fideuá without making sure everyone got their share of it. It was such a privilege to be fed so well and my thanks goes out to Vicente and his family for their wonderful hospitality. As I am sure you can imagine the dish did not disappoint, rich, delicious and flavourful. It’s definitely one for my recipe book…I will just have to work on my very own secret ingredient… Remember to share in the comments below your experience of Fideuá or any other interesting Spanish dishes you have come across. Michael Robinson