I watched a "Good Eats" where Alton Brown was making one.

It different than mine but looked good. I may try it.

What is your go to recipe?

I bought a book about paella when I was in Spain. When I'm feeling energetic I use that. Brown's recipe (this one?) is similar in that it makes a sofrito with the tomatoes and veggies, but my recipe uses some of the veggies (tomatoes, onions, bell peppers) first, and adds others later (I tend to use peas instead of green beans). The sofrito gets reduced, water is added and its reduced again. This is repeated until the tomatoes get a bit of carmelization in the flavor. I tend to use this if there's a good crop of Romas in my garden. When I'm feeling lazier (which is usually), I buy a bottle of Goya sofrito in the International section of HEB and use that.

I don't bother to do the premix of the rice and other stuff. I use medium grain Japanese-style rice that I buy from the Asian market. I don't use rosemary. I have a couple of steel paella pans I bought in Spain which I use, but I cook it on the stovetop and finish in the oven.

What goes in varies, I tend to have some sausage and shrimp in mine. I've put in mussels when I remember to buy them. The mix of chicken, sausage, and seafood is probably a touristy inauthentic version, but I like it. And I've never made the most authentic ones from my Spanish cookbook, which involve snails, rabbit, and fava beans.

The book I got is pretty amusing. It includes chapters about how the local governments manage water use around the areas of Spain that grow rice. And the recipes have to be scaled down a lot - they're for the scale used in a popular paella place in Barcelona.

Yeah. That was it.

Fresh home made stock ... Chicken, Vegetable, seafood is the secret sauce to any paella... I use any good medium or short grain rice....cooking technique is more important than the species of rice as long as it is not long grain .... But NO parboiled, easy, bagged or otherwise.... Tastes like paste....

my preference is seafood - shrimp, fish, squid, octopus.... Don't trust mussels in this part of world but thinking about oysters in the winter... I always add sausage ( Elgin hot links or similar similar substitute for Spanish chorizo ) or chicken .... I have used Mexican chorizo - really adds a spicy taste but if you have good Spanish smoked paprika ( World Market) don't use both. I have Spanish saffron that I bought in Seville last year that adds a great base taste. I always go fresh for the sofrito and like limas, French beans, green peas for veggies....even a bit of squash on top at the last. If you keep it all fresh hard to go wrong....
I have a hankering to make one with pork rips cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces with lots of vegetables!!!! Fun meal for family and friends!!!!

One day I am going to try to make some Paella. Paella is absolutely my most favorite thing in the whole wide world to eat, since I was a kid it is my favorite. My dad used to make it in a "barro" (clay I guess) pot or pan, a big one, when we lived in Mexico City and it was outstanding.

When we lived in Nicaragua my best buddy down there is about an expert at Paella, he has several different pans for different types/uses, and makes a variety of Paellas. He made one with Octopus and Squid, that incorporates the ink and basically comes out looking blackish that was absolutely astounding. He also makes one, which I understand is fairly traditional in Spain, with Rabbit that was also incredible.

Good Spanish Chorizo to me is a must in any Paella, I am back in Texas and the Lord only knows where to find any, especially in the bean-meat-cheese area I live in.

I have always been intimidated by the difficulty of making Paella, and I protect myself from disappointment by not trying, but back in Texas I might as well suck it up and try because there ain't no good one that I know of around here. I was spoiled in Nicaragua, there was a Spanish restaurant there that had 1/2 price Paellas on Wed. Nights. I was a regular, I should have asked to participate in the making of it. Gotta love saffron.