05-13-2024: Market and Cooking Class

Our final day in Sevilla, and the end of our four week trip. I’m definitely ready to head home. Always nice to go on an adventure, but even nicer to go home.

Christine was still feeling poorly this morning, so she opted to get some rest and stay in the hotel. Some of the group joined Lucia in a walk to Triana Market to pick up some items for our cooking class this evening. We are learning to make paella.

Again, a beautiful day in Sevilla, but very hot and humid, so walking to the market was not exactly pleasant. We were all happy to be out of the sun when we got to the market.

The market wasn’t as big as I expected, not nearly as large as the market we visited in Rome. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful place. First of all, being in Triana, a ceramics mecca, there were so many wonderful tiles all over. Most of the stalls had beautiful tile signs overhead. And the colors of the vegetables just added to the visual delight walking around the market.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed eating is Iberian ham which comes from the hind leg of an Iberian pig. However, reading about this meat gave me a little bit of a sick feeling. It’s illegal to import Iberian ham into the U.S. because none of the slaughterhouses in Spain conform to U.S. food safety standards. I’ll just leave it at that, but it sure is tasty. Meat shops have several pig legs hanging up and when someone wants to buy some jamon, the butcher takes down a leg, puts it it this holder, and slices off very thin long slices.

After the market we strolled around Triana for a bit. One of the tourist attractions is a statue of a bullfighter who has an opening through his chest. At the right angle, one can see the bell tower of the Sevilla cathedral through the opening, representing that the heart of the bull fighter is Sevilla.

There were some nice photo ops crossing back from Triana. The jacaranda have been glorious.

During the afternoon back at the hotel, it was time to get ourselves packed and organized. We need to be up at 4:15am tomorrow to get to our train that leaves for Madrid at 5:50am. With our cooking class this evening, we didn’t want it to be a late night, so we got ourselves about 95% packed with a plan made for in the morning.

We then went down to the bar in the hotel to have a drink while waiting for our group to gather. One of our group was already there, Dennis, who is a retired white collar crime prosecutor. He is having a tough time in life since his wife died 5 years ago. His kids talked him into going on this trip in an effort to get him out of his funk. He seems like an interesting man, and we enjoyed getting to know him a little better. I’ve liked talking with him to get his take on the Trump trial since the issues are his expertise. He’s been following the testimony very carefully.

And now off to cooking class to learn to make paella. We all walked back to Triana for our class, which was in an area in the market. Leo, our instructor, was a good teacher and explained each step in the process. We made both a vegetable paella for our two vegetarians and a chicken paella for the rest of the group. We set about cutting up chicken and vegetables and Leo guided us through each step. It’s really a complicated process, or at least there are many steps. Paella originated out in the fields where workers picking vegetables would use whatever was available to add to their rice. Traditionally, chicken or duck, rabbit, and snails were used. Now, paella can be made with any kind of meat or seafood. Leo made a big point of saying anything but chorizo.

You start by searing the chicken. The chicken used are the de-boned thighs, legs, wings and some bits from the carcass, like the tenderloin and the oysters.

When that is done, it’s pushed around to the outside of the pan. The pan, which is the paella, is a large, flat-bottomed pan with sides that are about 2-3 inches high. It’s a round pan. Leo’s pans were sitting atop a two ring burner, one ring around the outside perimeter, and one around the center of the pan so that each area could be controlled. After the meat is pushed out around the edges, vegetables are added. You can use anything you want. We used flat green beans and added some other soft kind of beans, like very large butter beans.

Once those are done, they get pushed out around the edges and the minced garlic and onions go in the center. Then the smoked paprika (lots of it!), then a bit of oil. That gets cooked a bit forming the basis of the sofrito. Added to that is the rest of the sofrito, which is red and green peppers and tomatoes that have been cooked down and blended into a puree.

Next comes the broth that was made from the chicken carcass, but an important step is to grind up some saffron in a mortar and pestle, and to not waste any of the expensive spice, add a little of the broth to the mortar, stir around with the pestle, and pour that into the pan.

Then broth that was cooking using the carcass and bones from the chicken we cut up is added.

As you go along, the ingredients are stirred using a large flat utensil which is pushed circularly along the bottom of the pan. Leo said stir this way so as to not make waves which slop over the side of the pan.

Next comes the rice, a Spanish rice called bomba. How much? Leo showed us how to add the rice by pouring in an amount in a strip across the paella pan from side to side.

The rice gets stirred in using the circular motion. Once mixed in, Leo warned not to touch the paella pan again. A few sprigs of rosemary are charred and laid on the top of the mixture.

Cook on high heat for 5 minutes, then medium heat for 5 minutes, then low heat for 8 minutes. Not touching the pan ensures that you get the Socarrat, the crispy rice on the bottom.

We’re ready to eat paella!

We whipped up a quick gazpacho to have as a starter, which was so delicious made from the beautiful large ripe tomatoes from the market. And then we got to eat our paella. It, too, was delicious and we all enjoyed our paella along with sangria that we made. I think we’ll get the recipes, which I’ll appreciate, so I know the amounts of ingredients.

I think everyone had fun, but it got so hot in that kitchen. We were already warm from the walk over to the market in the 90+ day, and to stand around those two very hot gas-fired cooking rings, well, we were all red-faced and very warm. But it was a nice way to celebrate the end of our Roads Scholar week.

Back at the hotel, we said our goodbyes, as we were the first out Tuesday morning at 5:00am. We enjoyed getting to know our little group. I think we’ll have some ongoing contact with some whom we bonded with. Linda and Joel, a couple from Philadelphia, we really enjoyed.

So our four-week adventure in Malta, Rome, Madrid, and Sevilla comes to an end. We had a blast and everything worked out well with all our travel and places to stay. The only down side is Christine’s asthma attack that has triggered a significant respiratory problem. We’ll get her to the doctor when we get home.

So, unless we have a travel misadventure, that I’ll report on, we’ll be home 11:00pm May 14, after a 26-hour travel day. Thanks for coming along with us. We’ll take you along again on our next adventure!

2 thoughts on “05-13-2024: Market and Cooking Class”

  1. Loved your step-by-step pictures of making the paella! Good to see you both are enjoying traveling still!

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