It all started on a trawling fishing boat in Gandía at the beginning of the 20th century. The sailor whose turn it was that day to cook on the Santa Isabel the delicious seafood paella that they made with the discarded fish that they couldn’t sell, ran out of rice and replaced it with noodles. The fideuà was born. “There is another version that says that the fisherman did it on purpose because the boss loved rice, and since he was the one who ate it first and ate it in excess, he looked for an alternative to see if he didn’t like it as much and took less,” he explains. Amadeo Faus, owner of the Chef Amadeo restaurant in Gandía and a true institution when it comes to making fideuàs. “The invention went well, it was made on land and today it is our most emblematic dish,” explains the chef, the latest winner of the International Fideuàs Competition in this town so closely linked to the Borgia, which has been held every year since 1974.
In the traditional fideuà you cannot miss red shrimp, crayfish and a good monkfish, “but it will be the sofrito and the fumet that will mark the flavor.” That and the cooking times, or the proportions of broth and pasta. First cousin of paella, “in reality, if I had to cook for my father-in-law for the first time before making him a paella, I would make him a fideuà, you are less likely to have it go wrong,” says Albert Enrich, who together with Marta Cid They run the seafood cuisine of La mar salada and Can Ros in Barcelona. With these two experts we review the 9 mistakes that you should never make if you want it to be just right, melty, tasty and with loose noodles.
“When sailors started making fideuàs on boats there were only two noodles and they were for soups, 0 was very fine and 4 was thicker, that’s why they chose 4, but nowadays, when there are more ranges, we can also opt for a 3, although number two is already too fine and would be pasty,” explains Amadeo Faus, owner of the Chef Amadeo restaurant in Gandía and an expert in authentic fideuàs. “3 and 4 absorb the flavors very well, which is not the case if we choose a thicker one,” says the chef.
For Albert Enrich, owner of La mar salada in Barceloneta, “the best noodles are neither the thickest nor the thinnest, if it is very thick it will make it look like spaghetti,” points out the chef of this reference restaurant. Barcelona seafood cuisine, married to Marta Cid, heir to Can Ros, the mother house of his project and also another essential place for being a renovated century-old tavern born in 1908, recognized for its rice dishes. They toast the noodles a little with oil and two cloves of garlic to make sure they are not boiled or soggy. “Toasting the noodles is fine, but that is more of a rossejat, the authentic Gandía fideuà does not allow it because the noodle absorbs the juices more from the part that is not toasted, and we look for regularity and sweetness,” says Amadeo who adds them to the sauté and mix them well before adding the broth.
Note: If we want to make a rossejat of noodles, we will choose a thin noodle, which is browned raw until it changes color (without burning it) and at the end of the dish it remains pointed. According to El corpus culinari català, this dish does not have sofrito, only fish broth. The result is drier and crunchier than traditional fideuà.
“Fumet is key in fideuà. Or parts of a good broth with very fresh fish, you should never use one that is a little stale,” explains Albert Enrich, who buys whitebait at the Barcelona Fish Market daily. Although the RAE indicates that this word means small change and a mixture of useless or despicable things, it also indicates small fish. It was almost a discard because it was not sold at a good price and that is why it became the base of the broths that give flavor to the best rice and fideuàs in the Mediterranean. We found various species such as redfish, ribbons, snappers, mullets, rats, deers, croakers, brecas, pouts, scorporas, maidens, serranos, warts, spiders and some loose shellfish like galley. “It will always be better with whitebait than with monkfish or hake because it is tastier: if you want, put the head of the monkfish in the broth and eat the tail for dinner,” advises the chef.
The authentic fideuà from Gandía also includes whitebait “for its flavor”, the rock fish that they find every day in the fish market, although “if you don’t have it on hand you can use any other fish as long as it is cleaned well,” explains Amadeo, who He makes the fumet with a sauce of onion, celery, leek, tomato, paprika to which he adds the fish and water: “It has to be powerful, it will give the pasta its personality.” He advises not to boil it for too long a time (about 15 or 20 minutes) so that it does not take on a very strong fishy taste. “The fumet has to be powerful, it will give personality to the pasta,” concludes Albert.
The typical fideuà of Gandia, like a good dish born on a boat, is the seafood one, but “the varieties are another thing,” explains Amadeo, who himself prepares one in his restaurant with duck, meat fumet and with foie as a topping. ‘. Albert Enrich, who confesses to being anarchic by nature, opens the window to making meat fideuàs if we feel like it, for example with pork ribs, sausage and prawns, chicken and crayfish, “although never with red meat.”
This dish is made with monkfish, “a fine fish with a mild flavor goes very well, although it can be substituted by another with the same characteristics, or by sipia, squid…”. “Fishermen like my grandfather always made their fideuàs with fish that had broken, never with those they could sell,” he explains. Today monkfish is king although in his restaurant, Amadeo makes a cheaper one with caella, a fish from the shark family. They add it to the sauce after the onion and garlic, and before the tomato and paprika.
In La mar salada they prefer cuttlefish, squid, or canana “because they hold up well to cooking.” They can be marked before starting the fideuà or added directly to the sauce, which is done “and when everything is mixed with the noodles, well impregnated with the taste, you add the broth.” In Can Ros they also incorporate black trumpets at the same time, “an unusual ingredient that improves the result.”
The sofrito, along with the fumet, is key in the preparation of fideuà. “The sofrito has to have onion because it gives a honeyed touch to the fideuà, and garlic to give it a little spice,” explains Amadeo, who uses half a large onion for four servings and a tablespoon or two of chopped garlic. He also adds two tablespoons of well-crushed natural tomato and two of paprika, an essential element for the traditional fideuà, which must be careful not to burn: “As soon as you put it in, you have to add the tomato,” says the chef, who won in 2014 and 2019. the first prize in the International Fideuàs Competition of Gandía. The contest has not yet been able to celebrate the 46th edition in this semi-paralyzed 2020. “Chefs come from all over, from Mexico, the United States, Japan, a chef from China has even won a prize.”
At Barceloneta Albert Enrich prefers to put paprika only in the fumet. “You have to control the quantity because if you go too much it predominates a lot and can spoil the flavor,” says the Catalan chef, who is very eager to reopen tomorrow. There are those who grind the sauce well so as not to find pieces of onion.
In general, the rule indicates that you have to put two parts of broth for each part of noodles. “About 100 grams of noodles per person. But Amadeo makes it clear that the intensity of the fire has a lot of impact: “The less powerful it is, the less broth we will add and vice versa,” he explains, although in general we talk about two parts or two and a half parts of broth for one part of noodles. The Valencian chef puts it twice as much because in his restaurant on Gandía beach, which these days he can now receive diners inside “and we see joy again”, he has very powerful stoves. “If we do not control the quantities and the cooking, the noodle can become dry and lose its flat shape and curl upwards.”
The owner of La mar salada indicates that we must also take into account how large the paella we use is, that is, the evaporation surface. Therefore, making a fideuà for two is not the same as making it for four or five people. “The proportion of broth you need is greater for a small one than for a large one.” It is not about adding broth if we see that it is missing, it is better to do it right from the beginning. If the fideuà is for 5 or 6 people, “for each cup of noodles, we will put one and a half cups of broth instead of two.”
It is a big mistake that the heat is low once we have added the broth. The heat must be high during the 8 minutes of cooking the fideuà. At that moment is when Amadeo Faus checks that the salt is good and rectifies if it is not. “It’s better for it to be bland than salty, you don’t have to overdo it,” says this chef who started working in kitchens as a teenager and has been doing so for 34 years.
For La mar salada it is very important that the broth is hot when it is added to the fideuà, and they are not in favor of stirring too much, just distributing the ingredients a little.
Once cooking is done, lower the heat and cook slowly for 5 to 8 minutes (depending on the heat we have) with the seafood “so that it dries out a little but the broth is not completely consumed,” says Amadeo.
As for the final sucarrat so typical of Valencian paella, Amadeo comments that in this preparation it is not at all appropriate, “because we want it to be syrupy.”
When the strong cooking has finished, it is time to add the seafood. In Gandía, Amadeo Faus chooses red shrimp and crayfish (“we don’t put clams or other mollusks”) that they mark a little beforehand in the same paella where the fideuà is made so that it takes on its flavor. They leave it “slightly fried, whole and tasty” and reserve it until this moment. The seafood is introduced when we lower the heat, almost as a topping, and it is cooked with the fideuà for a few more minutes when we have lowered the heat.
Albert Enrich puts white shrimp in La mar salada (they leave the red shrimp for rice) and crayfish in the traditional Can Ros where Marta Cid’s grandfather still controls and advises his grandchildren. Seafood should never be boiled with fideuà over high heat because it will lose its texture and become overcooked,” he tells us.
In La Mar Salada they like to play with cockles, clams and mussels (“the razor is more delicate, because it has a stronger taste”) but they make sure that they do not have sand “since if they open and release it it ruins everything.” la fideuà”, they explain.
As for the final sucarrat so typical of Valencian paella, Amadeo comments that in this preparation it is not at all appropriate, “because we want it to be syrupy.”
Amadeo is emphatic: “The traditional fideuà from Gandía, like paella or black rice, is only made and finished in paella, without an oven.” When the first ones arose in boats, “fishermen used tall pots with which they made their rice and seafood stews, always brothy, it was when fideuà began to be made in Gandía when paella was used and the dish was perfected.” Amadeo’s is large “but this morning my wife made rice in a pan and it turned out great,” he says and adds that the traditional fideuà is thin and flat, not thick, like rice dishes. “It has to be honeyed, with the noodle loose and flat… so that it is cooked to perfection, I use 7-serving paellas to make 5.”
In La mar salada they use paellas or smaller cast iron pots and give it a final touch of oven as happens with the rossejat of noodles (4 minutes at 230 degrees, placing it in the center with a fan) to ensure that the surface dries well. . “We like the juice to be just sucked out and for the noodles to have a crunchy or slightly raised touch, without the whole thing losing its sweetness.”
It is important that, once finished, the fideuà “rests for about 10 minutes to settle all the flavors,” says Amadeo Faus, who places some lemon-shaped “fallas” decorations on the edges of the paella, although he does not squeeze them on top. of the noodles. In La mar salada they don’t even add lemon as a garnish: “It reminds us of when it was used to mask the smells of unfresh fish, we prefer to leave it for the gin and tonic,” says Albert and remembers that if we have fideuà left there is no reason to throw it away. . We can store it in the refrigerator and recover it in a paella pan with a little water or fumet. Even in the microwave.”
Remember: Good sauce, good fumet, noodles of the right thickness and quality fresh fish are the keys to a good fideuà.
