Julita’s paella: The dish that feeds and delights a crowd
Over the weekend, we hosted some visiting friends for a dinner, and Martha reached for a true family favourite for the main course: the paella recipe she learned from her mother.
Julita Muzychka moved from Spain to Canada in 1960 with her Ukrainian-born husband Stefan. She was a pediatrician; he taught languages at Memorial University. Martha, the first of the four children they would raise in St. John’s, arrived the next year.
Through the years, Julita would make an incredible paella — a mainstay of Spanish cuisine, it’s filled with rice, vegetables and meat. Traditionally, it often has seafood, but my allergies (so much for being a Newfoundlander!) meant that our family dinners are fish-less.
Julita died in the fall of 2023. She was 93. We miss her dearly, and our house is filled with memories of her.
It’s not an understatement to say that paella is another way we remember Julita and her love for Spanish food and culture.
We’ve been asked over the years for a paella recipe, and for this post, I’m delighted that Martha put the following together.
I have made my mother’s paella recipe for many years now, but while everyone who has eaten it has loved it, and I have shared the recipe freely, in my heart I knew it was not quite the same as hers. Tonight I sat down after supper, and wrote down every single step to make sure it was exactly the same.
Ingredients
.5 onion, chopped fine
.5 green pepper, chopped fine (I don’t care for green pepper so I leave it out)
.5 red pepper, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
3 tbs olive oil
1 carrot, chopped very fine
1 stalk celery, chopped very fine
.5 cup green olives (black or brown will do too)
6 chicken thighs, cut in halves or quarters
2 pork tenderloin cut into thumb size strips
1 4-6 inch piece of chorizo, cut into thin slices
6 cups chicken broth or water
1/2 cup to one cup white wine or water
2 cups paella rice or any short grain rice (don’t use arborio)
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 teaspoon turmeric or saffron (hard to come by in some places)
1/2 teaspoon pimenton (smoked paprika)
1 cup green peas
Six to eight 3-inch long strips of red pepper
To make:
1. Sear the chicken and the pork to seal in juices. Set aside.
2. In a large shallow pan (with two-inch sides), saute the onion, green and red peppers until the onion is translucent, over low heat.
3. Add the garlic, and keep it over low heat as you don’t want to burn it.
3. Add the carrot and celery and continue to cook slowly. Add the rice. Stir the rice and heat until fragrant
4. Add the chorizo and then the broth. Keep it at a low simmer.
5. Add the meats, peas, and olives. Stir gently and nudge the chicken around the pan to distribute it evenly. Add the red pepper slices in a sunburst shape.
6. Cover and let it cook gently for 20 minutes. DO NOT STIR!
7. At the 20-minute mark, check the rice for doneness. You want rice that is yielding, but not al dente or crunchy and not mushy.
8. If your rice is dry but not yet done, add up to a half cup to one cup white wine or water to the rice. Cover and check again in five minutes. If your rice is too wet, take the cover off and let it cook another five minutes.
9. This serves six.
NOTE: If you want the meal to be totally Spanish, you can start with gazpacho, add a green salad and crusty bread, and finish with flan. Sangria or a nice red wine is a good accompaniment. My favourite is white and specifically an albarino from Galicia.
You can make this a vegetarian paella by using a vegetable broth and omitting the meat. You could add other vegetables that can stand up to the 20 minutes cooking time for the rice.
You can make this a seafood paella by adding a cup of deveined shrimp, a dozen well-scrubbed mussels, and a cup of well-washed clams at the point that you add the rice.