Confessions of a Sugar-Free Foodie

Paella Problems

June 23, 2017 at 5:44 pm Leave a comment

So last weekend I woke up with a wild hair to make Paella. I’ve never done it and was feeling a craving for some seafood.  I knew enough that I needed a paella pan. So off to T.J. Maxx Home I went. And as luck would have it, they had a paella pan for $20.

Next stop, Kroger to get the seafood and other yummy ingredients.  My family isn’t huge on mussels, but I needed some for the broth and visual. They were sold by the pound and the seafood counter had a big bag of them.  When I asked the clerk for six mussels, he told me he couldn’t break the bag.  10 minutes later the store manager arrived and really couldn’t provide a good reason for not breaking the bag to sell me six mussels. Unfortunately I had to pull my “corporate office” card to get him to do it.  It was a coaching moment. I explained to him how our customers are expecting great service when they come to our stores and our associates need to feel empowered to satisfy them using Principle Based judgement.  His role as store management is to set the tone that within reason, they can take care of the customer and the store leadership will provide feedback on whether or not the decision made was a good one.  Hopefully the next customer wanting a handful of mussels will walk away smiling.

Everything was going as planned in the kitchen. The smells and sights were everything I expected. I watched a tutorial online at PaellaPans.com and learned about soccarat which they describe as “the bottom layer of rice yields a golden caramelized crust, called socarrat, you know you’ve reached the pinnacle of paella greatness.” My mission was to get a good layer of socarrat. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful and ended up burning the bottom of the rice and the dish.  Luckily, there was enough salvageable rice to enjoy the meal anyway …. just no socarrat.

Paella pans are thin by design so I’m not surprised I burned the rice.  The bottom of the pan was scorched.  So, I soaked it in ammonia for a few days to loosen the charred layer.  To my surprise, when I started scrubbing, a layer of pan disintegrated exposing metal. Pan ruined.  What’s a woman to do? Go online and purchase a REAL paella pan.  And that I did.  Stay tuned to find out how my next attempt goes. Hopefully I will be able to achieve this masterpiece.

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