Original subtitles

♪

Spain is surrounded by water.

We have two seas and an ocean.

The Cantábrico, the Mediterraneo,

and the Atlantic Ocean.

And the fish is very present in our menus.

I'm making calamares a la romana,

which is basically deep fried squid

coated in egg,

and with a bit of lemon on top. It's delicious.

I really love calamari because

it can have this perfect texture.

If you cook it good like a-- (Imitating sizzling)

it's always a shock, so you need your oil very, very hot.

And also, we have these funny tentacles. They're delicious.

You can make like a fake moustache, and things like that.

They say never play with food, but you must have fun with food

all the time because food is beautiful.

♪

First thing's first, calamari and flour,

cause that's going to help the egg to get-- (Whistling)

together with the calamari.

Don't be very excited.

Don't put them all at once because you want to fry them

slowly, otherwise, the temperature in the oil

is going to drop down and it's not going to fry nice.

♪

You see? It doesn't take much long. This is almost ready.

The important thing is that your oil is very hot

so the calamari is going to be super tender.

♪

And this is going to give-- (Whistling) the hit.

A little bit of lemon. Oh, my god, I want this.

Pinch of salt.

Little bit of pepper. Not too much,

because you want the lemon to enhance.

They're perfect.

And this, my friend, is an awesome snack. But guess what?

It's about six, you have to wait for dinner around nine,

you're hungry?

Bocadillo de calamares is going to do the trick,

but that means we need aioli, so.

This is one of a Spanish mother's sauce.

It comes from Catalonia,

but it's popular all over the country.

Very simple. A few garlic cloves.

Depends how hot you like it.

I like it very hot because I'm Spanish.

I'm going to use just one egg.

Few drops of vinegar.

And a pinch of salt. Easy stuff.

(Food processor whirring)

♪

Mm, that's exactly what I was looking for.

It has the kick,

and now I'm making my bocadillo de calamares con aioli,

which is basically a calamari sandwich with aioli

and a little bit of parsley.

♪

I can't wait to eat this.

Mm.

It's so good.

It's spicy because of the aioli,

it has the texture of the calamari.

The parsley, just chopped.

Always chop your herbs before using them.

And the bread is crispy.

What else can you ask for in a sandwich?

♪

♪

TIGRETON: First, I made some nice calamari

and now I'm about to make romesco de peix,

which is basically a stew made traditionally by the fishermen

with seafood. Lots of seafood.

As the base of my sofrito,

I have onions,

garlic, red pepper, green pepper.

Of course, bay leaf.

And a hint of smoked paprika

because in Spain, we love paprika so much.

There is no sofrito without tomato.

Always fresh.

And some potatoes that will give that consistency to the dish.

♪

A little more salt more salt.

And since I'm cooking a fish stew, why not?

Mm.

Sharing is caring.

One for me, one for the pot.

And it's important to let it reduce.

Reduce it to a third because it's going to concentrate

all the sugar, evaporate the alcohol.

Azafrán, saffron. We're big producers of saffron in Spain.

But I want to show you a trick.

You have a little bit of hot water, you put some saffron,

and let it rest for a while.

Guess what? The saffron is going to release all its perfume,

all its colour, and all its flavour.

And that guy, this,

it can reduce at the same time as the wine.

I lose the acidity of the wine, so now the potatoes.

The potatoes are going to give texture to my stew.

♪

I like to make my own fumet,

which is basically a fish broth.

You can always go to your grocery store and buy it.

Or even clam juice is going to do the job.

So I'm making romesco,

and in this particular dish,

it's going to act like a thickener.

I will add it at the end, so it's going to make this stew

really, really, really yummy.

First thing, golden brown garlic.

♪

(Sizzling)

♪

By deep frying these ingredients,

I'm enhancing the flavours.

(Food processor whirring)

A little bit of oil.

(Food processor whirring)

The oil is going to help to get all the flavours together.

And a nice time for the peppers to go in.

(Food processor whirring)

Mm. This is so good.

I can taste the almonds, the hit of the vinegar,

the roasted peppers,

they have that smokiness. So good.

Now, check it out.

I'm using this for the stew.

You see how the texture changed?

And now, I can not cook seafood stew without seafood.

Mejillones, (Speaking Spanish), camarónes.

My mussels, my halibut, my shrimps.

And now, I'm going to poach the fish

and I'm going to open the mussels in the same stew.

So I'm going to collect all the juices in the same pot.

Big cubes because if you cut it too small,

they're going to overcook easily.

♪

Me gusta la gambas. I like camarones, shrimps.

♪

Few more minutes.

Let those babies cook.

On the final lap. I'm ready.

I taste the-- I smell the saffron. See?

The colour of the potatoes have changed because of the saffron.

The mussels, they've started to open. Da, da, da.

Oh my god, I'm so excited. This is ready.

Yeah, baby.

We'll give it a bit of (Unclear).

A little bit of parsley on top.

This smells so good.

The parsley on top, the fish,

the seafood, the potatoes, the peppers, the romesco.

That's a real romesco, that base.

And...

By poaching the fish,

by adding it to the pot at the last minute, it's just perfect.

It's not overcooked. It's perfect.

And the potatoes.

Mm. The potatoes, they have absorbed the saffron,

the fish stock, the wine.

Everything. It's amazing.

But what can I do with seafood, but Spain's most famous dish?

♪

♪

Paella is probably the most well-known dish

of the Spanish gastronomy around the world.

Every house, it has its recipe,

and everyone takes it so seriously.

I'm making seafood paella,

which is basically a rice dish

with lots of seafood, nice broth, and it's so good.

Good paella, it starts always with the broth.

The broth is super important.

So, let's roast some onions

and what's going to give the good flavour to my broth...

is those guys.

There is so much flavour in the shrimp.

Way more in the skin than in the flesh itself,

so all of this is going to go for my broth.

And this, I'm keeping it for the paella.

♪

I have the onion, the garlic,

the shells of the shrimps,

and puerro, the leek.

The leek and the seafood,

they go like this.

So, chop it roughly

because what we want is the perfume for our broth.

♪

The leek is meeting the shrimp.

And hear the sound?

That's the sound of flavour.

(Sizzling)

I don't want it to get too much colour, so guess what?

(Sizzling)

I've been obsessed with rice since I was five years old.

I remember the first time that I had a paella,

I was using the mussel shell like a spoon,

and I was eating the paella. (Growling)

I was so happy.

My broth is almost done.

It's beautiful.

Here's my trick.

I'm going to add a little bit of saffron into the broth.

And that's going to give the colour

and the perfume that I'm looking for in this dish.

So let's start the paella with the calamares.

♪

I love calamari so much.

I like to cook it always from the beginning.

If you're going to add to your paella, calamari or cuttlefish,

always from the beginning.

When you're about to add your shrimps and your mussels,

at the end. And if they're clams?

At the beginning, too, because those guys, they're--

(Growling)

Super clam, you know?

They're strong and tough and they need time to open.

♪

First thing I'm going to do is cook the calamares.

What happens in the pan, it stays in the pan.

What goes in the pan, it stays in the pan.

This moment, it's the calamari.

♪

The sofrito is the base of most of our dishes,

especially in the paella.

The reason why I'm using tomato for the sofrito?

Our mothers, grandmothers, great-mothers,

great-great-great-great- grandmothers,

they've been doing forever, and it's the right way to do it.

When you cook traditional, you have to respect always

the learnings from your elders.

Guess what? I'm going to cheat a little bit.

I'm going to add a little more saffron

into the sofrito

because I love saffron.

And it's the right spice for the right dish.

Remember when I told you about the super strong clams?

Look what I have here.

I also have mussels, but the mussels, they're weak,

so they will open way faster.

The clams, they take longer.

And slowly the clams, they will start to open.

(Imitating creaking)

And then they release all the juices into the paella,

as the calamari did, as the shrimps will do,

as the mussels will do.

(Whistling)

Over and over and over and everything.

What happens in the paella, it stays in the paella,

like when you go to Vegas.

(Sniffing)

I can smell the saffron with the tomato.

The clams have started to open.

It's almost time to add the rice.

♪

♪

I'm making paella and now my broth is ready.

I can smell the leek, the tomato, the skin of the shrimps.

By doing my own broth, I can control what goes in there.

So now, for the rice, the most important part.

I have here beautiful Spanish bomba rice.

As you can see, it's a short grain and thick.

It's going to absorb way better the flavour.

If you don't have bomba, don't worry.

You can go with carnaroli or with aborio,

which are Italian varieties that I'm sure you'll find

in your local store.

First, I like to bring the rice together with the sofrito.

And the broth, it has to be boiling.

The clams, they're about to open,

so all the flavours, they're getting together.

♪

The fish that you have to use all the time is red flesh fish,

white. Never go for blue.

Blue, I mean like tuna or sardinos.

(Shuddering) Those, they go terrible with the paella.

I'm going to poach this fish into the rice

and it's going to release the juices with the rice,

and it's going to absorb all the juices from the sofrito

and the broth.

Show it a little bit of love.

So, look, I've got some shrimps, some mussels.

The clams, they're already open.

They released their liquor, their juice.

This fish is going to cook pretty soon, too.

It's going to be awesome. We have here a super nice dish.

♪

My job is done.

I'm not going to touch it anymore.

I can tell how it is underneath from how it smells.

A few more minutes and this is ready.

So you have to wait a bit.

Why not treat yourself?

Mm.

Look at that, a paella. My favourite dish ever.

The clams have opened. The mussels, too.

The rice is cooked.

My chef, he said all the time,

"Serve a little bit of rice because the first serving,

it has to be al dente,

so the second one is going to be so perfect."

You see all the crust at the bottom?

Check it out.

That's called socarrat

and I saw arguments, literally,

at the table, to who eats the socarrat. It's a real treat.

See all the socarrat? The paella is all about the rice.

All the flavours go into the grain,

so the real vedette is the rice.

So, I'm going to start with this and after,

I'll get my second serving.

Oh my, man, I can't wait to have this.

Mm. Mmm!

Remember what I told you before about me at five years old

eating the mussel-- using a mussel as a spoon?

I'm this boy 30 years ago,

right now doing the same thing.

Paella is a very social dish.

It's good to have with the people you love,

especially in Spain, we do it on Sunday

because on Sunday is when all the family get together.

Or you can do it with your friends.

Or maybe you're building up a new family

and you have it with your wife or your husband.

Mm.

Now, I'm at home.

Salut.

♪