One of my favourite things about Spain

I am blessed to have married a Spanish girl and for nearly 20 years we have been visiting her parents who have retired to the Valencia region of Spain.

We enjoy fabulous home cooking and one of my favourite dishes has to be Paella. Made from fresh local produce sold in the village market held every Friday.

Paella is a dish that developed in the Valencia region and has become synonymous with a multitude of different recipes based on vegetables, rice and various meats and/or fish.

Rice was introduced to the Iberian peninsula by the Moors and was first cultivated in the Valencia region. Indeed, unlike most Spanish words which have their origins in Latin, the Spanish word for rice, ‘Arroz’ was derived from the Arabic word.

It is thought that when the locals first cooked Paella, they would have used what meat was available to them and as importantly what they were able to afford such as snails and rabbit.

Today, chicken and various seafood such as prawns and mussels are more commonly used.

The ingredients are cooked slowly in a large flat based pan called a ‘Pallera’ which come in a huge range of sizes from 8 inches (20cm) in diameter upwards to over 9 feet (3m); the latter would be used by whole communities to cook for the local populace when celebrating a fiesta.

Needless to say the end result is delicious particularly when accompanied by a great local wine!