Catalan Fideuà 

Catalan Fideuà with cuttlefish, king prawns, and allioli 

If there’s a Catalan dish that I am passionate about and reminds me of the beautiful Empordà and my family summers spent in L’Escala, Spain it’s a Fideuà. A seafood dish that is Valencian in origin and is quite similar to paella 🥘 or seafood rice, but uses Spanish noodles instead of rice. And yes, we have noodles in Spain too, they are called 'fideos', although not as long as oriental noodles. 

To find cuttlefish in the UK, you have to order it from the fishmonger, luckily our fishmonger has a big variety of seafood. 

The dish is all about 3 steps. The first is to have a good fish stock ready, the second is to make a good sofrito and the third is a proper allioli. For the noodles, I use Spanish fideos Pasta Gallo, nº 2.

The fideuà has to be finished at the oven grill to form a nice crispy on top. 

Time to cook!

What do you need? 

✅ 28cm paella pan, Spanish carbon steel are best

✅ Pester and Mortar or a hand blender for the 'allioli'

✅ Medium pot to make the fish broth (a good supermarket fish broth will be good too)

Ingredients

 

✔ 250g 'fideos' Gallina Blanca nº 2 (40g per person) You can find them in Amazon easily or at any Spanish supplier

✔ 1 cuttlefish cleaned and cut into squared pieces (ask the fishmonger to keep the liver bag or cuttlefish spleen, this is what will give a strong fishy taste to the sofrito) 

✔ 6-8 fresh or frozen prawns 

✔ 1 tbsp tomato paste

✔ 1 medium chopped onion 

✔ 2 garlic cloves (1 for the allioli)

✔ Allioli (recipe at the bottom of this post)

✔ 1 red pepper cut into strips 

✔ 150g fine clams, rail or Japanese 

✔ Olive oil 

✔ 750ml Fish broth

✔ Saffron

✔ Pimentón 

Preparation

The first thing you need to do is the fish broth. I always try to have one in the freezer, made with hake head and spines or monkfish leftovers. You can also use a good fish broth from any supermarket. 

Fish broth

In a large pot, stir fry a medium onion with the heads and spines of the fish in olive oil, add a halved tomato, some chopped carrots, and some herbs (bay leaves or sage). Once golden brown, add about 1.5 L. of water. Cook on high heat for about 20-30 min. When it is finished you have to remove the foam from the top with a small strainer to clarify it. 

While the fish stock is being made, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients.

1. Clean and cut the cuttlefish into square pieces approximately and wipe it with kitchen paper (this will prevent it from splashing when fried). Set aside the liver and eggs.
2. Put the clams in cold salted water.
3. Chop the onion and cut the pepper into strips.
4. At this point, put the paella pan on your stove with a good drizzle of olive oil. The first thing you should put when the oil is hot is the whole garlic with the skin, to flavor the oil (make a small cut to the garlic prevent to exploding while is fried)
5. Season the prawns and add them to the pan. Just two minutes on each side, press the heads a little to get flavoury juice and remove them onto a plate. You will put them nearly at the end.
6. Add the onion and stir, then add the red pepper and stir fry for a few minutes till it is all golden brown. If you like saffron, you have to add it now and toast it in a corner of the pan that has oil for a few seconds.
7. Add the cuttlefish to the stir-fry. I remove the stir-fry and make space on the center of the paella pan to put the cuttlefish and let it fry. Add more oil if needed. When it is done, add the cuttlefish spleen and mix everything well till it’s cooked. Now is the time to season if needed.
8. At this point the sofrito is ready and we have to fry a little bit the fideos. You can do this on another smaller pan with a bit of olive oil. They should be golden brown. You can leave it like this and preserve it until later or another day if you wish. 
9. Now you can heat up the stock and strain the clams from the salted water.
10. When the broth is hot it is time to add the fideos to the sofrito and add the broth. Cover the whole pan with the broth for about 2cm above the fideos.
11. It will be cooked for about 12 minutes until it has consumed the broth.
12. Preheat the oven grill and insert the paella pan for about 2 or 3 minutes.
13. Let it stand for 2 more minutes and serve with a tablespoon of allioli.

How to cook the authentic Catalan allioli

This Spanish garlicky sauce seems easy to do but it is a bit tricky as sometimes can split and you have to do again the entire operation. I recommend leaving the egg at room temperature for better results.

What do you need?

Hand blender

Long container

Ingredients:

✔ 1 garlic clove

✔ 1 medium egg 

✔ 300ml sunflower oil

✔ pinch of salt (or two)

Preparation

First, remove the germ of the garlic cloves so it will prevent tame the bitterness and will help with your digestion.

Add the garlic, the egg, and the oil into a long container. It will be better to have the egg at room temperature. 

Wisk the mixture with a hand blender. To get a smooth sauce you have to blend without moving the whisk from the bottom of the container. Once the mixture starts to get thicker, you can move the whisk up and down very slowly in order to blend all the oil in the mix. 

Season with some salt to your taste. You can keep it in your fridge for 2 days maximum.