Arròs a banda (

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...

term for ''rice on the side'', translated as ''Arroz a banda'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

) is a dish of

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

cooked in fish stock, typical of the coastal area of

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

(and, per extension, in most of the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wi ...

), Spain, and distinct from the

paella Paella (, , , , , ) is a rice dish originally from Valencia. While non-Spaniards commonly view it as Spain's national dish, Spaniards almost unanimously consider it to be a dish from the Valencian region. Valencians, in turn, regard ''paella'' ...

of Valencia. It is popular up to

Garraf Garraf (), better known as El Garraf (), is a comarca (county) in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, northern Spain. It is named after the Garraf Massif. The GR 92 long distance footpath, which roughly follows the length of the Mediterrane ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

(Catalonia) and down to

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

(

Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de Murcia ), is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in ...

). It originated with the fishermen of Alicante, who sold off their best fish and kept the leftovers for stock, used to cook the rice. It is usually served with alioli.

Technology

Basically the recipe consists of cooking the rice in a cheap fish broth with many bones called

whitebait Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine- ...

that had little value in the market and constituted the livelihood of the poor fishermen who reserved the best pieces for sale. Little by little, it begins to be elaborated with seafood broths and the most select fish. The first is that in this whitebait broth, with a

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

of garlic, ñora and

fish head Fish heads, either separated or still attached to the rest of the fish, are sometimes used in culinary dishes, or boiled for fish stock. Anatomy The head of a fish includes the snout, from the eye to the forward most point of the upper jaw, t ...

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es are cooked and, after cooking, they are served in a soup plate. This stew is called cauldron sailor, and is served accompanied by alioli or ajoaceite (separately or in a sauce boat). The second part is that with the rest of the "bottom" of fish to which the

sofrito (Spanish, ), ( Catalan), (Italian, ), or (Portuguese, ) is a basic preparation in Mediterranean, Latin American, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese cooking. It typically consists of aromatic ingredients cut into small pieces and sautéed o ...

was added, we can also cook a

rice without any other additive. That rice is eaten apart from the fish, arroz a banda, apart. It is an authentic recipe of fishermen, who managed in this way to get two dishes from a single preparation. The aioli or garlic-oil is a fundamental accompaniment in these dishes, and it provided the humble people of the sea with calories that they could not obtain in any other way. A rice similar to this is the arròs del senyoret, which is also made with the fish broth but, unlike the arroz a banda, it contains peeled

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature' ...

grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

or chopped squid. The name of the senyoret (of the gentleman) is due to the fact that all the chunks that it has are clean, they are eaten directly, they do not have to be peeled or cut. These two types of rice should not be confused. On the other hand, the arròs del senyoret in the Region of Murcia is called arroz a banda and is also eaten directly without having to peel the chunks;L. Álvarez Munarriz, (2005), ''Antropología de la región de Murcia'', Primera, Editora Regional de Murcia, ISBN 8475643221, Pág. 265 and the arroz a banda described here, in this same community is called caldero, Cartagena cauldron or Mar Menor cauldron.

External links

Arroz a Banda recipe

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arros a banda Spanish rice dishes