Transcript: Paella With Pela

Dinner with the Band
Episode: “Making paella with Pela.”

Sam Mason: Hi, I’m Sam, and this is Dinner with the Band. Today we are with the New York based band Pela. Today we are going to prepare Paella. We are going to make a cervice to go with this. We are doing Paella because I know you guys are really into ethnic food. You live with a Spanish woman?
Billy Mccarthy: I do.
Sam Mason: We call her a woman yet she’s the same age as us. Spanish woman, I envision her being like 65.
Billy Mccarthy: Yeah she’s my girlfriend.
Sam Mason: Oh, you can’t say you live with a Spanish woman and then it’s your girlfriend.
Billy Mccarthy: No, it’s not because she lives upstairs.
Sam Mason: It’s probably not the simplest dish to prepare, but we are going to make it simple. It’s going to start with chicken. We have a bit of chicken. And what we are going to do is, I’m not actually going to do anything. You guys, one of you guys is going to bread this. It’s going to be pretty much breaded and pan fried chicken that we are going to cook.
It’s going to go in the oven for about thirty minutes. Its just flour, it’s just going to pretty much, you know it’s kind of simple. Not too much. Then were just going to out it on the pan right there.
Billy Mccarthy: Can we get on that right now, is that cool?
Sam Mason: Get right on that. Yeah it’s cool. Were all cleaned up. Scalpel.
Billy Mccarthy: Gee whiz man.
Nate Martinez: Hey Sam, why are we breading the chicken?
Sam Mason: You know, because we are going to pan fry it and we want to get kind of a nice crust on it. You could probably do it without the flour, but, it’s my show. Just a little bit of oil in a pan, nice and hot. Alright this is going to be blazing hot.
So we can just sear these up. I am just going to get some color on these, were going to just brown them.
Billy Mccarthy: How long on each side?
Sam Mason: You know its probably going to be like three or four minutes we will wait and see what kind of color we get.
Billy Mccarthy: You know that’s the problem with chicken. I never know if I am cooking it, if it’s too cooked.
Sam Mason: You know what, we are going to out it in the oven, so that’s were. You’re really just getting flavor from just kind of cooking it here. And you actually finish in the oven.
Billy Mccarthy: Ah, so you get the crispiness and the uh. Alright. I am sort of not allowed in the kitchen when she is cooking.
Sam Mason: Alright so this is going to go in the oven now for about thirty minutes. And that will actually cook all this chicken through.
Now we need to deal with seafood. These are the mussels we are going to use, and these are the clams. Both seafood. Everything is alive here, hopefully. What I am going to have one of you guys do is, see the beard there? It doesn’t mean it’s a male, they all have beards. So what we are going to do is, I need you too…
Eric Sanderson: Are they hermaphrodites?
Billy Mccarthy: They actually are, I mean, I don’t hang out with them, or we don’t party together. If you pick them up gently they don’t close so hard.
Nate Martinez: They get scared.
Nate Martinez: Does that hurt?
Sam Mason: They get scared, there sharp.
Sam Mason: Now the key to rinsing shellfish is to get them in some cold water obviously. And let all the salt and the sand fall to the bottom, and then take them out of the water. What happened what’s the joke?
Eric Sanderson: This is crazy hard to get open.
Sam Mason: Yeah once you pissed them off they really close up.
Eric Sanderson: Here you try it, I want to see if this is a me thing or, ok you just made me feel small.
Sam Mason: No its ok, he’s a lot smaller than you. Alright so I am just going to run some water over these guys. I am going to assume that almost everybody on the planet has worked in some sort of food establishment. Is that true with you guys.
Eric Sanderson: Nate was a chef for many of years.
Sam Mason: Oh yeah when?
Nate Martinez: Uh, this is like, nine years ago, I was in Aspen, Colorado and I was working in the summer at this restaurant. I was searing some ahi and I dropped it in the oil. The oil was too hot, so the oil just came flying over my hand.
Sam Mason: There goes the skin.
Nate Martinez: Yeah and so I had to work the next six hours preparing for the party and seeing it through.
Sam Mason: Aw, the big blistery gnarly, that’s my good hand. That’s my strong hand.
Nate Martinez: The wait staff just brought whiskey in for me.
Sam Mason: Aw excellent, so if I burn myself I get whiskey for this show?
Nate Martinez: I think we got some, yeah a full bar what do you want gin?
Sam Mason: Alright so we have our mussels. We have our clams. A lot of seafood in this dish, so were going to, this is the squid. So what we are going to do with the shrimp is, I am going to have to guys clean it, maybe devein it as well.
Nate Martinez: What’s the deal with restraints, they don’t de, depoop it?
Sam Mason: Depoop it, man you know the lingo.
Nate Martinez: I know about pooping man, and my fuckin shrimp.
Sam Mason: I mean sometimes, it’s usually when you split them down the back, I mean there not filthy.
Billy Mccarthy: Filthy is not a good word to use on a cooking show.
Nate Martinez: Neither is poop.
Sam Mason: No poop is fine, filthy is bad.
Eric Sanderson: Poop is fine? That like a, high class term?
Sam Mason: Yes. I’m going to cut the squid while you’re deveining that.
Eric Sanderson: Hey Tom, I think I am going to need some help over here. I will get in here, messy work.
Tom Slavzovich: Well I’ve got to hold drum sticks later.
Sam Mason: Yeah we can’t have flying drum sticks. The next step is going to be to slice up this chorizo. We are going to actually sear off this chorizo. No oil, there’s enough anyways, let it render. It’s like bacon, its going to make a mess anyways. That just smells good. Ok so while this is rendering were going to actually go ahead and chop onions and garlic. And everything’s going to go back in. I love that smell. Smells like, Spain.
Alright so now we have Chorizo, nice and brown, were going to need to let it cool down slightly, and then we are going to add the onions and the Garlic. Let’s add the onions first, then the garlic, the bell peppers. Sweet bell pepper.
There’s something else we arte going to do right now. This is the saffron.
Eric Sanderson: Is this special saffron?
Sam Mason: No its not. Were going to take a little bit of water and saffron. If you just threw this in that pan right now, because it’s such an oily mixture it won’t get color. Saffron actually needs water to hydrate; this will get nice and orange. The longer you sit the more color you will get; we will let it go for like five minutes while this is…
Eric Sanderson: Is that more for color or for flavor?
Sam Mason: Uh, for both. Alright now were going to go rice time. Were going to stir the rice in. You want the rice to get coated in all that oil.
Eric Sanderson: This is great, it’s like a cooking show but you get to stand right next to the person.
Sam Mason: SO once this comes to a boil you can pull it off and just let it sit. See how much color we are getting out of it? Let is sit for a few minutes.
Were going to just go ahead and add some chicken stock. There we go. So the saffron has given off most of its color. Then we are going to add the parsley stems. This is paprika, about a teaspoon. Alright then we are going to cover it with foil and let it cook for about fifteen minutes.
Eric Sanderson: Why not put a lid on it?
Sam Mason: We don’t have a lid this big, man, I don’t have all the fancy equipment we have at a restaurant.
Eric Sanderson: Just asking.
Sam Mason: Were actually going to take it down to about medium. Alright fifteen minutes.
Alright now that the rice is almost cooked, we are going to start to add our seafood. We are going to take these clams, were going to just nestle them in there. Ooh, one just made a funny noise, which is kind of strange.
Eric Sanderson: A cry for help.
Nate Martinez: Yeah, I don’t want to go in!
Sam Mason: alright so we do some just like that, put this on for a bit until they open up, the chicken we had should be coming out of the oven too. Let’s see what we have here. Were just going to shop this up and put it in a bowl before we serve the paella with it.
Alright so actually we are going to go ahead and add some more seasoning. See these guys; once they have given up they will start to open.
Tom Slavzovich: That’s really sad.
Sam Mason: I know, once they have given up, once all hopes lost.
Nate Martinez: I don’t know do they fight for clams and mussels.
Sam Mason: I don’t know how it works with the cephalopods.
Nate Martinez: I think it has to have fur right?
Sam Mason: Well these have beards.
Nate Martinez: That’s true right.
Billy Mccarthy: Bearded clams.
Sam Mason: this is going to be a little strange, I’m not sure what were gong to do with these.
Billy Mccarthy: I have never heard that on a cooking show before.
Sam Mason: I will be the first. It’s really not going to take that long to cook all that seafood. But you want to get this nice kind of brown, toasted rice bottom.
Eric Sanderson: And that’s going to burn?
Sam Mason: it’s going to toast, its going to get dark. It’s going to get right before burning. I mean that’s the key to Paella, is to know when to pull the rice off.
We are going to actually garnish each bowl with chicken. Not too much, there’s going to be a lot of protein in this. Let’s see what we got here. So now what we are going to do is we are just going to spoon. Yeah that’s good. This is the hard part, delving out all the correct seafood. Get some chorizo on there, rice a little pepper. And then what’s going to happen is some more parsley, something like that. That’s pretty much going to be the rig.
And there it is, that is Paella for Pela.

Chicken
Flour
Oil
Squid
Shrimp
Clams
Mussels
Onion
Garlic
Bell Pepper
Rice
Chicken stock
Saffron
Parsley
Paprika