Other Uses For Paella Pan | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TIP OF THE DAY: Other Uses For A Paella Pan

March 27, 2016 at 6:38 am · Filed under Food Holidays, Kitchenware-Tabletop

A paella pan from IMUSA USA. The delicious shrimp and bay scallop paella has lots of fresh spring peas.

Today is National Paella Day, one of our favorite foods. It’s a great party dish. It can feed a crowd. It can be served at the table or can sit on a buffet. It can be a special weekend dinner. Any leftovers can be microwaved for lunch at work—but it tastes just fine at room temperature.

Paella can be made on a stovetop or atop a grill. In fact, it was originally a worker’s meal, cooked in the field over a wood fire.

Here’s the history of paella, and a recipe for paella on the grill.

DO YOU NEED A PAELLA PAN TO MAKE PAELLA?

Paella pans—called paelleras in Spanish—were developed to meet specific criteria for cooking the dish. If you don’t have a paella pan, you can use a large skillet, of course.

Be sure that it’s a flat-bottomed conventional, nonstick skillet. If you want soccorat, the caramelized rice an the bottom of the pan which many people cherish, it won’t happen in a nonstick pan. (That said, there are nonstick paella pans for those who would rather not scrub the rice off the bottom of the pan.)

The major “pro” for the skillet is that you don’t have to buy a piece of specialized cookware.

Not surprisingly, there are more reasons to use a paella pan.

First is the diameter. Paella pans are very large so you can make a lot at once. Paella is usually served as a large family meal or for a party. It takes enough effort so that you want leftovers, too. A 15″ pan is fine for family dinners, and since the pans are made in one-inch increments (15″, 16″, 17″, 18″, etc.) the choices are staggering,

Diameter is important so the rice can be spread out to cook properly; a layer half an inch deep is ideal. Pans are made up to 50 inches in diameter. The jumbo ones are for restaurant use; but on a consumer level.

Another important criterion is even heat distribution.

In sum, the shape was developed over time to be ideal for…cooking paella!

OTHER USES FOR A PAELLA PAN

Beyond paella, the pan can easily substitute for skillets, griddles and baking and roasting pans.

Make breakfast. You can cook larger amounts of bacon, eggs, and pancakes in a wok than in most frying pans and griddles.

Fry or sauté fish and meat. A paella pan is much larger than a standard frying pan. You can fit numerous chicken breasts, chops, fish fillets or steaks, even large steaks, without crowding the pan.

Make stir fries. Don’t have a wok? Use your paella pan to stir fry.

Bake and roast. Need an extra baking sheet or roasting pan? Bake those biscuits or roast that chicken in your paella pan!

Serve. If your pan looks new enough, use it as a serving tray.

Use as a plancha. A plancha is a flat-top metal grill that gets very hot, enabling cut-up food or small items like shrimp to cook quickly. It’s the high-heat, quick-cooking Spanish version of a wok.

If you have other kitchen uses for paella pans, we’d love to hear them!

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