Food Lab: Paella Pan

"Paella PAN? That's not only not a dish or an ingredient, it's a single tasker! I thought FL was constitutionally against single taskers!"

Weeeelllll, we largely are. But sometimes they are the only way to get the desired result.

Chef Spouse and I are paella consumers but not paella creators. Mad Kitchen Scientist, on the other hand, has a Green Egg. Which is an excellent tool for making paella, assuming you have the correct pan.

He's tried a variety of different paella formulations in a variety of different pans on both the Egg and the stovetop, and while the paella has always been tasty, he's never managed to achieve the perfect socarrat.

Was a paella pan the answer?

Um, yes.

Since we were going for Very Traditional paella, Chef Spouse and I were tasked with sourcing the rabbit from one of our local poultry vendors.

Mad Kitchen Scientist made a bomb-ass sofrito, following Jose Andres's method, and procured the bomba rice, cured chorizo, piquillo peppers, and some lovely mushrooms.

The actual making of the paella was relatively simple.

Break down the rabbit.

How many Elmer Fudd jokes were there?

Infinity

Brown the rabbit, then partially cook it stovetop (which also provided some rabbit stock, which definitely did not go to waste).

Brown the mushrooms, peppers, rabbit "bits," and chorizo, and assemble the rice, stock, sofrito, and saffron.

Fire up the Egg, heat up the pan, toast the rice in olive oil, and then add all the ingredients (other than the stock and big rabbit pieces).

Add the stock and the rabbit and cook ~20 minutes

¡Come!

Check out that socarrat, y'all!

For our next trick? What ELSE can you do with a paella pan? Yes, we're taking suggestions.