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Fideuà is a seafood one-pot dish very similar to paella that uses short noodles intead of rice,
Although there are many and different theories about the origin of Fideuà, the most widespread and accetpted refers to a chef of a fishing vessel in Gandía, Valencia.  The captain of a ship was known for having a great apetite and barely left any food for the crew. Thus the chef cosidered replacing the rice of paella for a short noodle, which did not have as much acceptance, trusting that the sailors could feed themselves decently. however the captain was delighted with the result and soon the recipe was very well recieved by all the restaurants along  the coast of Gandía.
Nowadays it is probably of one the local’s favourite and especially popular in Catalunya, where, as happenes with all traditional recipes, each cook has it’s own recipe. @cookandtaste we love sharing this recipe with our guests, mainly when they are already familiar with paella. These two recipes have many things in common, they are both cookied in the same pan, and share many ingredients, but the final result is completely different.

FIDEUÀ / Short noodle seafood paella

 

Ingredients (serves 4)

300 gr of little shrimp, peeled

150 gr of squid (or cuttlefish)

300 gr of clams

1 onion, chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

200 gr red tomatoes, peeled and chopped

150 ml olive oil

300 gr noodles

15 saffron threads

fish stock (double the volume of the noodles)

 

Method

Put the noodles in an oven tray, drizzle with oil and bake them till golden stirring every now and then. You can do this in a pan on the stove if you prefer.

Heat the oil in a paella pan and fry the squid and shrimps until slightly golden. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Fry onion and garlic, finely chopped, in the same hot oil. After a few minutes, add the tomato and fry over medium heat.

When the tomato dries completely, stir in the clams.

Cook for a couple of minutes, stir in the noodles.

Add the hot stock (previously infused with saffron) and bring it to the boil.

Add the shrimp and squid, mix and distribute evenly. Noodles can’t be touched beyond this point!

Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for (+/-) 7 minutes, rotating and swirling the pan to distribute the heat evenly. Let it stand for about 5 minutes covered with a cloth before serving.

It is usually served with allioli.

 

Allioli

Ingredients

– 2 garlic cloves

– 15 cl olive oil

-a pinch of salt

 

*To prepare a good allioli, there are a few tips to consider:

-if the garlic has any green germ, remove it.

-all ingredients must be at room temperature

-the oil must be added in a thin stream and following the chopped garlic.

-the whisking should always be carried out in the same direction.

Method

Peel garlic and split cloves in half to look for any germ. Add a pinch of salt to keep the garlic from spreading, and mash to a very smooth paste. Once the paste is ready, add a splash of mild olive oil while whisking in one direction at a constant speed. The allioli is ready when the pestle can stand up in the middle of the sauce. You can also add an egg yolk, but then it becomes a garlic mayonnaise, a different sauce also very popular in Catalonia.