Barcelona Cuisine | El Rey de la Gamba

Presenting El Rey de la Gamba or as it translates in English, The King of Prawns; the Catalan seafood restaurant which officially wraps Barcelona cuisine week here on III. The open air terrace where rows of white linen table clothes and metal chairs backed by red fabric sit under a large tent is located on Passeig de Joan de Borbó which borders the harbor of Barceloneta. The trip certainly wouldn't have been complete from a culinary perspective if we didn't get ourselves some traditional Seafood Paella! While pretty much every other restaurant on Las Ramblas serves this dish, which embodies a serious mass touristic appeal, we had a couple spots in mind in the Barceloneta neighborhood and were hopeful to get a really good batch!This restaurant ended up being a spontaneous choice. That night we had some minor issues with our map (the road we needed to find was not on it), got lost in a sketchy 'hood (the type of spot we did not want to look lost) before ending up on Barceloneta's main drag, starving and a little defeated. El Rey's location, beckoning neon sign and giant seafood posters indicated a tourist trap, but we decided to go for it. Our disingenuous waiter had a friendliness that felt forced, which might not have been so bad if it was consistent! Other times he seemed to be annoyed by our presence, and his attitude was rather lethargic.That being said, we still managed to get cold beers and hot food in a respectable time frame! The iconic Catalan tapas to begin the meal, Pa amb tomàquet was essential, per usual. The fresh tomato and fruity olive oil punctuates so perfectly each crevice of the hearty bread. Gosh I love this stuff. (Or couldn't you tell?) I've been eating it by the plateful! When in Spain....And then came the piece de resistance, a ginormous pan of Seafood Paella with paprika and saffron infused rice, studded with bright green peas and soft set mini potatoes, dusted in fresh parsley and served with lemon wedges.
The bomba rice was wonderfully flavored and executed to a perfect tenderness. Its liquid absorbing capabilities are what make it ideal for paella, the grains expand substantially to become fluffy without being sticky. The bottom layer becomes slightly toasted, adding a welcome textural contrast. Admittedly, I felt the seafood could have been a little more substantial. The mussels freshness paled in compared to the plate we had at Tapas 24. However, we were still delighted by the pan of food overall. We relished the experience, savoring every tender shrimp, juicy prawn and briny clam.

I wouldn't peg El Rey de la Gamba as a restaurant you must visit, especially since you can get paella almost anywhere. However, for us, it was simply meant to be! Definitely do some research, have a trustworthy map on hand, and whatever you do, don't miss out on this iconic seafood and rice dish if you travel to Barcelona!

Well my friends, this officially wraps Barcelona cuisine week; what a delicious journey it has been! I plan to incorporate a couple of fun photo montage posts of the city sights before saying goodbye, and then, it's onward to the final destination of the trip, San Sebastian!

Silent Madrid | Graffiti to Grand Via

Paella for the Sea Fearing - Coast to Coast Challenge 2

It's time for another recipe chosen for Bakespace's Coast to Coast Cooking! This time we chose Paella which can be made in so many ways to please all palates. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that Steve and I are the rare few Italians that do not like seafood. We like fried calamari and sushi and I'll eat tuna salad but that's about it. So my version of paella contains chicken and chorizo. It's very similar to arroz con pollo but the chorizo gives it a totally different and fabulous flavor.



I learned a few things while researching paella recipes and ingredients. There are different types of chorizo, raw which is like Italian sausage, dried which is like soppresatta. They come hot and mild, portugese, spanish, etc. I used dried spanish sausage called Palacios. In my area this can found at Kings Supermarket, Wegmans Supermarket and Fairway Market. I used one package of it which I think was only about 1/2 pound. It's less than the recipe called for but was so flavorful that I don't think I would have needed any more. The rice that should be used is a short grain spanish rice called Bomba or Valencia. I could not find this anywhere so I used Italian short grain rice called Arborio. This rice is usually used for risotto. I'm not really sure why a long grain rice can't be used for this. I think that it would result in a drier rice which is what I was looking for. Next time, I will try it that way,



The recipe that we used is Paella a la Valenciana. This is a traditional paella recipe that we started with. As always in these challenges, we get to make these our own and change them in any way we see fit. I decided to look for another recipe that doesn't contain seafood and found one by Paula Deen. I followed her recipe and then threw in a chicken breast for Steve and some spanish olives at the end. I didn't use the lemon, I just didn't think I'd want to mask the flavor with lemon. I served this to Steve's family and it was a big hit. I'm glad I got to try this out!



Check out how all the other participants' recipes came out! Spryte and Dani even have guest bloggers who participated in the challenge. Click their links to see them all.



Shane from Culinary Alchemy



Spryte of Spryte's Place



Danielle of Cooking for my Peace of Mind



Monica from Alaskan Dermish in the Kitch





Spanish Chicken and Chorizo Paella



by Paula Deen



Ingredients:



1/4 cup olive oil

1 chicken, cut legs, drumsticks and thighs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 large onion, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes

4 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 pound Spanish style chorizo links, cut into slices on the bias

2 cups short-grain rice (recommended: Valencia or Arborio)

Pinch saffron threads

1 cup fresh or frozen green peas

Lemon wedges, for service





Directions:



Heat a paella pan or very large, shallow skillet or pot, preferably with 2 handles over high heat.



Cook's note: A large cast iron skillet would work here.



Pour in the olive oil and let it heat up. Season the chicken all over with salt, pepper and paprika. Sear in the olive oil until browned all over. Transfer to a plate with tongs.



Lower the heat to medium and saute the onions and bell pepper until softened. Stir in the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and chorizo. Bring the liquid to a boil and then stir in the rice and saffron. Add the browned chicken pieces. The rice should be completely covered with liquid. Cook the paella without stirring for 20 minutes. When the liquid has all been absorbed, pour the peas over the top of the pot, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a kitchen towel. Let stand 5 minutes and then serve with lemon wedges.