How to make
Fideua is a Spanish dish whose story is quite amusing. Long story short, it's about a ship's cook who was annoyed and bored of preparing seafood paella for his captain, who was an incredible food lover and there was never a portion left for the cook himself.
One day he decided to be creative and instead of rice he put noodles in the dish, thinking that there would finally be leftovers for him. However, this had the opposite effect.
More importantly, since then, little by little, the fame of this fideua has spread and more and more people have liked it and were charmed by it, until it finally became one of the top dishes of the Spanish cuisine on the Mediterranean coast, along with paella.
Fideua can be prepared with many different flavors - seafood, meat or vegetables and in all three options, different combinations are made.
The noodles are either fine and short or thicker with a hole in the middle - like a slightly curved tube. This is so that the noodles can absorb the maximum amount of flavor from the broth and the essence gets into them better.
Here is the actual preparation of Fideua, which does not differ in technique from that of the paella.
For the fish stock, peel the shrimp. Bake the heads and peels briefly with a little olive oil to release their aroma. Pour the cognac and flambé them.
Add the fish bones and head (of white fish), vegetables, a little salt and cover them with water. Boil them for 30-35 minutes over medium heat.
In a paella pan or large pan, heat olive oil on the stove and fry the onion and garlic in it.
Add the grated tomato, a pinch of salt and fry for another minute or two. Add the noodles when the tomato liquid has evaporated. You can also bake it (in advance) in a pan with a little olive oil and add it to the pan.
Pour about 3 cups (600 ml) of the strained fish stock and 5 minutes after boiling, add the white fish in pieces and the peeled shrimp. Season with a pinch or two of saffron and cook until the water evaporated.
Leave the dish aside for 4-5 minutes before serving it and serve it with aioli sauce.
Enjoy your meal!
