LIVE AUCTION Items

Item Description

Enjoy a beautiful Fall evening with Mark & Marie Calabria making paella using fresh ingredients.  The party is for 4 pairs on Saturday September 22, 2018.  

Paella, how did we come to love Paella? We were visiting Marie's best friend who lives in Sevilla Spain. They made home-made paella for us and we were hooked. When we returned to Minnesota our children begged me to make paella. Being the softy ogre that I am, I agreed. To say that what I made was awful is not fair, but it certainly was not very good. While the family enjoyed it enough to repeatedly request that I make it again, I was not feeling it. It just wasn’t that good. My children were not to be dissuaded. What followed is what you see above. Let’s just say it took hours and hours and several hundred dollars of trial and error. Eventually we all agreed that the effort is well worth it.

I don’t cook it frequently because to make as well as I expect it takes a lot of time. What makes it so good is the quality of the ingredients and the fact that I make everything from scratch. Not all rice is created equally, especially if you plan to use it for paella. And all bomba rice, (specifically used in paella) is not created equally. I don’t use canned roasted peppers, they just don’t taste as good as fresh peppers which I blacken at home. Toasting the saffron is something of an art. The difference between toasted and torched saffron is less than a second of toasting. By the way, the saffron we use comes from Marie’s brother, Cathal, who is an independent organic saffron farmer, living in France. Every thread, (stigma from the crocus flower) is harvested by hand by Cathal and his family. There are many more ingredients and steps to create our paella.

I could go on for hours about what I’ve learned about making paella so we decided to open it up as a class. If you are interested, you may join us for an evening of hands-on learning and cooking. We'll will have multiple stations set up for preparing all the ingredients. Then we’ll cook the paella and enjoy the paella!

The recipe we’ll be using is a compilation of many that I researched and tested in my quest to find a result with which I was happy! There is no correct or best recipe for paella. That will entirely depend upon who and where you ask in Spain. What I can promise you, if you are willing to learn and work for your paella, and to work as a team we’ll have a great evening making wonderful food and making great memories.

The entire paella dish will be gluten and dairy free. It will contain, chicken, pork, and seafood.

Saturday September 22nd, 2018
Class begins at 4pm aiming to dine together at 7pm
Hosts: Marie and Mark Calabria

Item Special Note

***Winners must be ISLA Community members - incoming, current or alumni***

Winners will be contacted via email with event details.