Last Updated on October 23, 2023
The Finest Spanish Rice Dishes in London
How did you celebrate World Paella Day? While I honestly can’t claim to have diarised the date, an invitation to Arros QD was one not to turn down – especially when the celebration lunch included a Paella cookery demonstration from Quique Dacosta, the seven Michelin-starred chef patron of Arros QD and Iberica in the UK and of a number of very special restaurants in Spain.
In any case, Arros QD is one of my favourite Spanish haunts in London – a restaurant specialising in rice dishes cooked over wood-fired stoves, a place where the paella is like nothing you’ll have tasted in London before – and perhaps not in restaurants in Spain either. Quique’s take is that authentic Paella Valenciana is a family dish, one where the recipe is passed down through generations and one which relies on a rich stock, a selection of specific ingredients – bomba rice, tomato sofrito, rabbit, chicken and beans. No seafood and especially no chorizo.
To make a paella, you heat oil in a paella pan, then fry your meat briskly. Once that is golden brown, add the rice and vegetables and turn the heat down while you continue frying for a minute or so. Next, add tomato sofrito and continue to fry for 45 seconds.
Then add hot stock, bring to a boil and simmer for 6 minutes. You shake the paella pan gently to heaven out the ingredients and season to taste at this stage. Then lower the temperature and continue to cook for 7 minutes or until the stock has evaporated. Right at the end, you turn the heat up and cook for two to three minutes to create the ‘socarrat’ caramelised bottom. Like many recipes, you then let the whole thing rest for a few minutes before serving.
Cooking an authentic paella isn’t complicated, but it does need an excellent veal stock and careful cooking. In the restaurant, after our welcome glass of Agua de Valencia (which turns out to be not water at all but orange juice, cava and vodka!), we watched Quique juggling a series of paella pans to make a range of Spanish rice dishes for us.
And, we sampled some of the other dishes that you can enjoy at Arros QD. Unexpectedly (because it sounds far too healthy) we particularly enjoyed the Valencian kale salad
My own favourite rice dish was the Txangurro rice, a fusion dish which uses brown and white crab meat and kimchi foam to create a really special celebratory dish.
And we loved the apple pie
We went home with cans of stock and sofrito, a paella pan and a large bag of bomba rice. I’m up for the challenge and will be trying my own paella in the next few weeks – and sharing the recipe and photos when I do so.
In the meanwhile, if you are now craving authentic paella, do visit Arros QD – it’s quite a special experience.
Arros QD
64 Eastcastle Street
London
W1W 8NQ
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