Recipe: BBQ Fideua

Disclaimer

I am an American living in Spain and do not pretend that this is an “official” Fideuá as made famous in Catalonia, rather my take on it with lots of hints from Susi, a real Catalan, who made one at a birthday party in Asturias a couple weekends ago (thanks for the hints and amazing Fideuá Susi!):

Ingredients

Fume (seafood broth)

  • shrimp shells and heads

Fideua

  • about 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • shrimp heads
  • dried chili pepper
  • chopped parsley
  • 3 or 4 roughly chopped garlic cloves
  • 1 or 2 chopped cuttlefish or squid
  • 1 grated tomato
  • saffron threads (maybe 10 or so)
  • 2 cups fideua noodles (I use number 4 because I like thicker noodles, but
    the more traditional recipe uses much smaller number 1 or 2)
  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • salt to taste (love putting this, because it drives me crazy in recipes, but I have no idea how much my wife added, but she never uses any spoons, just eyeballs it)
  • mussels (pre-steamed and removed from shell)
  • bag of uncooked prawns

Instructions

Fume

  • cover shrimp shells and heads and simmer over low heat until the liquid has a good color (approximately 30 min - 1 hour)

Fideua

  • Turn on all three BBQ burners to medium high heat and put the paella pan in the middle and add the olive oil.
  • Add the shrimp heads and dried chili pepper and let them simmer until all the good juice and spice from pepper has infused the oil
  • Remove the shrimp heads and chili pepper and discard
  • Add the parsley and garlic and saute a bit.
  • Add the cuttlefish and saute until it is a bit browned around the edges
  • Add the grated tomato.
  • Continue sauteing until there is a really good sauce that seems chalked full of good flavors.
  • Add the saffon and saute a little
  • Add fideua noodles and move around until they absorbs some of the good sauce and get browned a bit.
  • Pour in fume.
  • Shake pan with hot pads so evenly spread through the paella pan, close lid, and lower burners to low.
  • Let cook about 10 minutes when water has been mostly absorbed and then add prawns and mussels wiggling them so they are in the noodles
  • Let cook another 5 minutes and make sure all the water is mostly absorbed and prawns are pink
  • Remove from BBQ, cover with aluminum paper, and then put a towel over and let rest 10 minutes.

Pictures of process

Fume:

Saute the shrimp heads and chilli pepper until oil looks full of flavor:

Add parsley and garlic and saute:

After a bit add the cuttlefish and saute until browned:

Add the grated tomato:

Add grated fideua noodles:

Add fume after noodles have soaked up sauce and browned a bit:

Close the lid and keep it hummin at about this temperature for 10 min then add prawns and mussles:

Let it cook another 5 minutes or until prawns are pink, remove cover and let rest for 10 minutes, and then enjoy:

Origin Story

The first time ever I had a real fideuá made by a real Catalana was in San Francisco in about 1997. It was made by Ana, another Spanish student at USF that my wife had met (birds of a feather flock together). She did use thin noodles and all of them were bent up and it was really tasty and the first time I had ever had pasta that was not simply with tomato sauce. More recently we began making our BBQ Rice but substituting the rice with fideua noodles. Then, as mentioned at the top, Susi showed us how to make a more traditional fideuá and we ran home and made it the very next weekend for another real Catalana, Diana (you have to be fearless in this life). Diana definitely thought the noodles were too thick and also missed the alioli. OMG we totally forgot about the alioli!

Alioli

Is kinda like a fresh made maynose with lots of garlic that goes like peas in a pod with fideua. Here is how it is made:

  • add one pealed garlic, one room temperature egg, 3/4 cup oil (best to use mostly sunflower with a bit of olive oil), pinch of salt, and a squirt of lemon
  • use a hand blender (the one used to make peanut butter) not moving until it begins to emulsfy and turn into mayo, then slowly move it up and down until it is a creamy homogenous mixture

Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback or comments via email (andrew@jupiterstation.net).