Making your mark

Spanish rice is la bomba. Nicely rounded and pearly white the grain is just dying to be given a drink. Like a middle-aged Englishman on his summer holidays in the Costa del Sol – almost supernaturally white, paunchy/rechoncho and desperate for a beer – the bomba grain comes alive and “inebriates” itself with the stock in which it is cooked. 

Having enjoyed the delicious virginal basmati rice most of my life, the bomba is something of a revelation and positively hobo in comparison. Instead of staying to herself, she mixes it with everything in the pot allowing her starch to intermingle with the stock. 

Thrifty in price and nature, bomba rice saturates flavour and helps the overall texture. With heat, the bomba begins to release starch which creates a creamy consistence with the stock whilst at the same time the grain starts absorbing the flavours into its hitherto parched shell. That is what is so exciting about this wonderful rice it is incredibly friendly, fluids are exchanged. 

One birthday I was sent the most marvelous present of langoustines from Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The giver had hoped I´d eat them with gusto, panzatically, but my first thought was Arroz de langostinos. Making a small fumet with the heads and shells I made a sofrito  - which means to fry vegetables in oil usually onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes, and is the basis to most Spanish dishes  - of chalotes, peppers, garlic and tomatoes, added the bomba rice toasting and covering each grain in oil. After a minute or two I added a little white wine and once the alcohol had burnt off I started adding the fumet little by little and stirring constantly. I also threw in some broad beans and a few minutes before the end, the langostinos themselves. 

A great way to create delicious risottos or arroces in the Spanish style is to have a Marca. The idea is to reduce a group of ingredients into an intense fine paste over a long-cooking time and/or crushing. A classic Marca is with the leftovers from shellfish which are added to a sofrito and crushed into a paste. 

A Marca I am using at the moment for a delicious Arroz de Bogavante al Vermouth (rice with lobster and vermouth - in the photo above) consists of onions, red peppers, green peppers and garlic  - 2/1/1/1 ratios - all cut brunoise. Put all the ingredients into a pot with a little oil and caramilise the vegetables. Leave the vegetables to brown on the bottom of the pot as they release their sugars and then add a little vegetable stock to de-glace and deepen the colour. Continue doing this until you have a deep burgundy and the vegetables are very sweet. Then add a little vermouth and once the alcohol has evaporated add a little tomato (the canned tomato without lumps, or simply place in the blender for a minute) and let the tomato cook through. 

With this you have an instant kick start to any rice dish. Simply add one spoonful per person to the pan with a little oil and when it is warmed and beginning to caramlise all over again, add the rice, coating the grain for a minute or 2 followed by the liquid of your choice. 

The wise amongst you will make a big batch – 8 onions, 3 green peppers, 3 red peppers, half a head of garlic, can of tomatoes, glass of vermouth (or martini, or anything you fancy) – and then freeze it for when the occasion arises. Better still store the Marca in an ice tray, one cube per person.