Paella

     Paella is actually pretty easy to make. There are very few exotic ingredients, a special pan but the cooking is quite easy. What is hard is making it great. I would say that less than half of the times I have made it I have achieved socarrat. Socarrat is when the rice makes a tasty crust that caramelizes the rice and makes it crunchy and sweet. Last time I added to much water during the cooking and it stayed too wet. Another time I am sure that the grill was not quite hot enough. When I was in Spain in 2012 we went to the fantastic restaurant in the Mercado de la Boqueria. We had a wonderful meal. However we had three kids and a very short attention span and had to hurry their paella. They were horrified and now I understand. Triste.
     I used Gourmet's Grilled Lobster Paella recipe but I replaced the lobster with shrimp. I think is looks great and tasted good but not great. I will do better next time. I still have lots of summer left.