Arroz a banda recipe

On this occasion, we bring you a purely Alicante rice from the Mediterranean coast, where the best rice dishes in Spain are eaten. The Valencian banda rice is nothing but a unique and incomparable dish recognized by the best lovers of gourmet cuisine in the world, it is cooked in a good broth (fumet) of whitebait, that is, of rock fish and galleys or prawns. All the ingredients are fresh, since the success of this rice is related to the quality of the broth.

So that you don’t know it just by name, we explain how to make arroz a banda step by step. A recipe that you can prepare at home and enjoy in a great family meal with friends and loved ones. Do not miss it and keep reading!

Ingredients to make Arroz a banda:

• 700 grams of whitebait, rock fish and crustaceans
• 1 tablespoon of salmorreta
• 2 dessert spoons of salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 15 units of black pepper balls
• 1 pinch of saffron threads or food coloring
• 1 cup of tomato puree or grated
• 1 unit of sweet onion
• 200 grams of fresh or frozen cuttlefish or cuttlefish
• 200 grams of fresh or frozen peeled shrimp
• 8 handfuls of bomba or round rice (2 handfuls per person)
• Aioli sauce for accompaniment

How to make Arroz a banda:

1. To start with this arroz a banda with alioli, prepare a mixed fish stock with whitebait, galleys, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, saffron and one of the teaspoons of salt.
2.  Boil with a liter and a half of broth for an hour. If you make the fish broth in a slow cooker, 35 minutes will be more than enough.
3. Tip: if you crush the remains of the fish when you strain the broth, you will get all its juice and it will gain in intensity.
4. Sauté the peeled prawns and the squid in pieces with a drizzle of olive oil, stir and prepare the crushed tomato.
5. You can grate a couple of well-ripened tomatoes at the canned crushed natural tomato stand, but never fry them.
6. Trick: use a low and wide frying pan or paella pan for this Valencian rice band.
7. Add the tomato to the sauce together with the prawns and the squid, have it over medium heat and sauté for two minutes, it is not advisable for the tomato to dry out too much. If necessary, lower the burners.
8. Add a large spoonful of salmorreta.
9.  Stir, it will take a bit to dilute this paste, but it doesn’t matter because in the next step you will finish dissolving it without any problem.
10. Tip: if you don’t have salmorreta, you can use ground dried pepper, sautéed garlic and chopped parsley.
11. Add the fish broth or fumet, stir and let it begin to boil for a couple of minutes so that each flavor of the ingredients finishes integrating.
12. For this amount of rice, that is, 8 handfuls, about a liter of broth is needed, but more can undoubtedly be added, depending on the absorption of the type of rice.
13. Once it boils for two minutes, add the rice and give it another point of salt if necessary, stir a little and let it cook over high heat without stirring.
14. Approximately, it will cook in 20 minutes, but taste the grains of rice and give it the doneness.
15. Tip: a good habit for this type of paella is to let it rest covered after removing it from the heat for 5 minutes.
16. Once the resting time is over, take the rice a banda to the table so that everyone can distribute it on individual plates. You can also eat it in the paella pan adding a little alioli.