Paella By Omar Allibhoy

Last Updated on March 1, 2026

Over 50 recipes for the Spanish classic dish

People always recall where they ate their first paella, asserts Omar Allibhoy in the introduction to Paella (Hardy Grant), his newly published book on this quintessentially Spanish dish. A Valencian dish, to be specific. While tourists to the Costa del Sol may enjoy nothing more than a paella washed down with a jug of sangria on their summer holidays, the dish itself has its origins in the Eastern, coastal city of Valencia, nearby, where the rice fields produce the essential grain that forms the base of this crowd-pleasing meal. Readers of Paella are spoilt for choice as this single-subject cookbook provides over 50 recipes ranging from the traditional Valencian paella to fish, meat and vegetarian variations. Allibhoy courts controversy for, unlike the purists and traditionalists, he encourages home cooks to experiment. His description of a Japanese-inspired paella, substituting matcha powder for saffron and topping the dish with miso aubergine, had me practically drooling. As he acknowledges, such a concept would have some chefs turning in their graves, but he believes in creativity.

As soon as I read Allibhoy’s assertion about memory, my own flooded back. Truthfully, as he suggests, I cannot recall my first ever hamburger or pizza. I do, however, remember clearly my first paella, which was eaten, aged 24, in Spain. Not in Valencia, unfortunately, as I have not yet visited. Backpacking around Europe, I had come across a market square in Seville on a Sunday – it turns out that paella is very much a weekend dish – where an enormous paella pan, the likes of which I had never seen, was being placed on a gas burner. As the chef began to cook, the aroma drew a small crowd of onlookers, and I was hooked. It was theatrical to watch him adding his ingredients, and also frustratingly unavailable as some cooking time was required before the paella would be ready to be sold in cartonfuls. I went to do a spot of sightseeing and returned, hungry, for my lunch. That was my first time. Over the decades, I have eaten many paellas, at food markets and restaurants in London and throughout Spain, where the meal has more often than not been rather disappointingly tourist fare. This year I am planning a trip to Valencia as luck would have it and so Allibhoy’s book, Paella, is perfectly timed for me.

I have cooked a number of paellas at home; my kitchen boasts two large paella pans and a third smaller one. Sadly, my domestic gas hob is not big enough to cook a large paella evenly, and so it is not a dish I make often. I have lacked the confidence to attempt it outdoors on the BBQ and hope to remedy that this year, now that I have Allibhoy’s book to hand. Reading the introductory sections of Paella, I was fascinated by how much there is to know. Allibhoy, who grew up in Madrid but holidayed in Valencia, has a lifelong fascination with paella and has laid out in reasonable, but not overwhelming, detail the food science behind this dish – from the procurement of the right ingredients to the execution and technique needed by the cook. It is clearly a lifetime’s work, honing one’s skills, controlling the fire and the ingredients.

Paella is all about the rice, which is grown in the Albufera Natural Park in the province of Valencia. Here, there is a freshwater lagoon fed by two rivers and surrounded by woods, wetlands and rice fields. It is a coastal strip, warm and sunny, and has just the right climate for producing Japonica rice for paella. This grain is short and rounded and must absorb a lot of liquid to be perfectly cooked. Hence, while the paella is cooking, the rice absorbs all the flavours imparted by the other ingredients. The texture of the rice in a well-cooked paella should be smooth, with less bite than al dente. Each grain should be separate. Along the Mediterranean coast, where Japonica rice grows, there are wide varieties including bomba, bombita, and albufera. In the supermarket, look out for rice sold as Spanish paella rice or buy it from a Spanish deli. As for the very top-quality rice, Allibhoy reports that it is difficult to find outside of Spain. I know what I am bringing back in my suitcase this year.

Paging through Paella, there are many recipes I am keen to try. One catches my eye as it sounds so unusual. Arroz de Alitas, ciruelas pasas y Jerez dulce – chicken wings, sherry and prunes – is a paella I have never encountered, and since I love the combination of meat and fruit, this is the recipe I decide to cook. Allibhoy has taken Spanish ingredients and ‘paella-ized’ them, as he puts it. He encourages readers to do the same while utilising the principles he sets out about how to cook a paella. As luck would have it, I have a cloth bag of just the right rice in my cupboard along with saffron, prunes and sweet sherry. I pop to the shops to pick up some fresh chicken stock – Allibhoy gives permission for cutting this corner – along with a pack of chicken wings and a few sprigs of thyme. Back home, I find the recipe instructions very clear and easy to follow. Dinner is on the table pretty quickly, and it is utterly delicious. The rice is perfectly cooked – each grain separate and retaining a pleasing bite. The chicken is full of flavour, as is the rice, which has absorbed the saffron-infused chicken stock along with a good glug or two of sweet sherry. I used Pedro Ximenez, which may not be exactly what Allibhoy intended when he added sweet sherry to the list of ingredients, but, oh my, does this treacly treat add a ton of flavour to this paella. It also pairs beautifully with the prunes. The sugar in the sherry helps form an excellent socarrat – the best part of the dish, I think – that bottom layer of caramelised rice. We lick the paella pan clean. Dinner of the week, no question.

Paella by Omar Allibhoy has whetted my appetite for a deeper dive into paella in my own kitchen as well as on my forthcoming holiday. I can hardly wait to get off the train in Valencia later this year to try out some of the paella restaurants (arroceria) that Allibhoy mentions, headed up by chefs who assisted him when he was writing the book. Fortunately, I will be there on a Sunday when paella preparation sounds akin to a religious ritual. I am clearing my diary for a full day of eating and enjoying paella.