A Paella Picnic, With Favas

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A Paella Picnic, With Favas

paella
paella
paella Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

In this week’s City Kitchen, I’m making paella, the indoor version. Though classically cooked outdoors over a fire, it’s not a hard and fast rule, and what with the current bout of rainy weather, at my house both the picnic and the cooking happened inside one recent Sunday.

Paella is really picnic food, ideal for a casual gathering. The idea is to hang out, slowly preparing the ingredients and then lazily sipping a drink or two while the rice cooks. And if there are friends who want to help, all the better. Especially when it comes to fava beans. They require a little fiddling.

First they are shucked out of their giant pods. But the beans inside are covered with a secondary skin that needs to be removed. This is accomplished by dropping the beans into boiling water to loosen the skin, then transferring them to a bowl of cold water. Then, one by one, each bright green bean is popped from its gray skin. It takes a lot of pods to get any yield at all — four or five pounds of pods produce a scant 3 cups or so. For fava fans, it’s a labor of love.

Mind you, there are those who claim the peeling is unnecessary, especially if the beans are quite small. I just don’t happen to fall into that camp. For me the taste and look are brighter and better when peeled. Still, although I am a true fava booster, you can feel free to substitute fresh peas for this paella, or even organic frozen baby limas.

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