Catalunya (Catalonia) is an autonomous community located in the northeasternmost region of Spain bordering France. Catalan is the official language. I grew up listening to this beautiful language. My grandfather spoke both Catalan and Spanish. He died when I was only 13 but I remember how he would first scrape some socarrat from the paella pan and give it to me and say, “Ésta es el alma del paella! Socarrat is the sweet, dark brown crust on the bottom of the paella. Yes, “It is the soul of the paella!” A perfect paella will have plenty of socarrat for all!Born in Barcelona, my grandfather came to our country when he was seventeen. He was a master gunsmith. He loved his homeland and its cuisine. He loved conill (cun-eel-yuh), rabbit, especially in paella or with white beans.
Catalans are said to have two emotions that guide their lives; seny, which means solid common sense, and rauxa, a creative chaos. Catalans are never burdened with self doubt, thus – “Soc un gran pescador!”
Mis buenos amigos de España
I became very close with the Miquel Sala Muntada family from Oliana in Catalunya. Santi, the mother, taught me how to cook their family version of paella and other Catalan dishes while Miquel was just murdering the trout on Spring Creek with one of RBF’s famous flies. Miquel landed seventeen trout while the American immediately below him managed only five. That evening was the most memorable time that I have ever spent alongside a trout stream – and I never cast a line.
Santi, Chief, Miquel and Miquel
Paella is pronounced (pay-ail-ya) in Catalan. The double l is not the simple y of American Spanish or Beaner, but the palatized l of Castilian – rather like the lli in “scallion”.
The classic, original paella known as Paella Valenciana, dates to the eighteenth century, first prepared in Valencia. Other regions in Spain, including Catalunya enthusiastically adopted paella and concocted their own versions. My version comes mainly from my grandfather, Jose Tremul Penedes.
The abuses committed in the name of paella are excessive. I’ve seen recipes made with leftover turkey, canned chopped clams, sliced pepperoni and Spanish rice mix – in a microwave! What must be understood is that whatever it contains, paella is above all a rice dish – and it is ultimately good rice, not good seafood or chorizo that makes paella great. I once ate paella prepared by a master chef featured on PBS, it resembled rice soup!
Chief's five traditional rules for proper enjoyment of paella:
1) It must be eaten outside, preferably in the shade or under the stars.
2) It must be prepared entirely in the pan.
3) It must be served or eaten directly from the pan.
4) It must be dished up with a spoon made of boxwood.
5) The only proper topics of conversation during consumption of a paella are women, sports, hunting, fishing, crops or husbandry. Political controversies and philosophical declarations are to be avoided.
Chief’s strictures aside, there are some rules that must be followed if you want to make good paella.
First – You must use a round or short grain rice. Calasparra (Bomba) rice is the very best. This rice is exceptionally absorbant, which enables it to absorb 50% more broth than ordinary rice without becoming soggy. In its absence, the next best thing is Italy’s aborio rice – the kind used for risotto. Avoid any Beaner rice types, they make lousy paella. I get my bomba rice from La Tienda. http://www.tienda.com/
Second – If you can’t use a real paella pan, at least use a vessel that is as wide and as shallow as possible. The point is that the liquid added to the dish must be cooked off evenly and relatively quickly, so the broadest possible area of contact between rice and pan bottom is desirable. Paella pans made in Spain are available from La Tienda and others.
Third – Paella should always be cooked on top of a flame, uncovered. A true paella is always cooked over an open wood fire. Live flames lapping around the edges of the paella create an atmosphere inversion on the surface of the paella, keeping the top of the rice moist with steam and flavoring the dish with a bit of wood smoke. It’s most important to level the pan before starting your fire. Since wood fire cookery may not always be practical, I suggest using a round barbecue over a deep bed of coals, placing the pan only 4 – 5 inches over the fire. You can also make lovely paella on a gas range with large, high output burners. It is very difficult to make good paella on an electric range as those contraptions create a hot spot in the middle of the pan and will burn the rice.
A few more rules. First - NEVER stir a paella once the rice is added, though it is permissible to pat the rice down into flatness. Second – NEVER add more liquid than called for. If the paella seems to be drying out too quickly, reduce the heat; conversely, if it is still soupy when the cooking is almost finished, increase the heat. Third – Let the paella rest for 5 or 10 minutes when it comes off the flame, to allow the flavors to marry. Anyway, the plain truth is that, for whatever reasons, paella simply doesn’t taste as good hot as it does merely warm.
Chief's Stove Top Paella
Basic Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
Chicken or wild fowl breasts, sliced; chicken thighs; or rabbit
Pork or venison loin
Sweet or hot chorizo, not the Beaner type
Mussels
Shrimp
Red peppers, roasted
Sweet peas, snow peas or white beans
Saffron
Sweet smoked paprika
Rice – allow ½ cup uncooked per person.
Stock – allow 3 cups per cup of rice
Fish or shrimp flavored bouillon cubes
Tomatoes, crushed
Onions, sliced
Salt
Black pepper
Making Paella -
Prepare the stock. If you are including mussels and shrimp in the paella, put a few mussels and the shrimp shells in the water and bring to a boil in a separate pot. You can also use fish or shrimp flavored bouillon cubes. I prefer Gallina Blanca brand. Add crushed saffron and stir. I like to lightly toast the saffron before crushing. You will add the stock after you brown the meats and prepare the sofregit.
Season the chicken, pork or venison with black pepper, salt and smoked paprika. Over medium high heat, put an ample amount of extra virgin olive oil in the pan and begin to sauté your meat(s) until golden brown. Add the chorizo towards the end as it only needs to be lightly browned. You may remove the meat after sautéing, drain and set aside. I like to push the meat to the sides of the pan while I prepare the sofregit- sautéed tomatoes and onions.
Making the sofregit – Over medium high heat sauté the crushed tomatoes and sliced onions until they are married. Return the meat to the pan and stir well to coat with the sofregit. Add the stock and bring to boil.
Add the rice, peppers and peas or beans. Stir the entire pan to distribute the ingredients. The vegetables in a paella should be very soft and almost integrated into the rice. Sprinkle on the smoked paprika. Start your timer. After cooking for 10 minutes, add the mussels and shrimp. Bury the mussels in the rice with the hinge down. The rice should cook for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is done and all the liquid has been evaporated. Remove the paella from the fire and cover with newspaper, cardboard, sheepskin or a lid. Let it rest. Sometimes I sprinkle finely chopped green onions, leeks or parsley on the paella before serving.
I believe that the best wine to be served with paella is Dominio de Eguren – Protocolo. $9.95!
Flyrodder and Bunyan admiring the paella at the Big Woods Summit
If you think that the Chief has a big paella pan...check out this contraption!
All in all we had a good weekend camping will certainly return next year when water levels and fishing are better.
The Fair Maiden spotted a rise form that she had never seen before. You see, the prominent feature of this rise form was the huge wake that preceeded the sip. "That's probably a real big fish over there...go get him!" The Chief approached the scene and went into a study while sipping some Southern Comfort. The PMD's had waned. It could be spinners or it could be a baetis emergence that had this big brown feeding. I took Buzz's earlier advice and tied on a RBF CDC AP Baetis Emerger. Buzz operates an ungodly fly shop just upstream. The fish was slightly beyond a floating weed bed. The Chief could not approach from above or below as the water was beyond his waist-high waders. The leader must crumble on the surface to get a good drift. No problem with RBF's Ungodly Stealth Dry Fly Leaders. The Chief was utilizing an 22' version, illegal in many states. Cast made, fish hooked. Then what became known as the "Epic Battle at Eva's Hut" took place. You see, it was just like the battle in "A River Runs Through It". Except it wasn't Brad Pitt, and it wasn't raging water, and it wasn't with a bamboo rod. Other than that, it was exactly the same. The Chief went in over his waders and got stuck in the bottom muck. The Fair Maiden pleaded with him to end the battle but the Chief would have nothing to do with it. He responded..."Soc un gran pescador! Nunca pararé!"
The beast had taken the Chief down to the backing twice. 
The Missouri is billed as the world’s largest spring creek and as on the Spring Creek in PA the most productive patterns are nymphs. We fished a double nymph rig with an indicator for most of the day. JohnW, my partner in the boat with Mike, had great luck with this rig mainly because of his lightening reaction time to indicator movement. John also caught a greater ratio of browns to rainbows, just the opposite of their ratio in the river. My 50-year-plus reaction times were more like symptoms of Parkinson’s. I did catch some nice Mo Bows but I had greater ratio of whitefish to rainbows. Go ahead and laugh—those whities can be great fighters! 
Mike Kuhnert netting yet another trophy trout for JohnW
Near the end of the half-day float we picked up Bowhunter who was fishing along the bank and not having much luck. That changed soon after he climbed in the boat and landed rainbows and browns right and left. While we were floating, JohnW was busy fighting and landing a monster rainbow near the Channel islands.
There were planes to catch early the next morning so Bowhunter, JohnW, and I parted ways with Wade later that afternoon and drove back to Kalispell via Highway 200 along the Blackfoot river and Highway 89 up through the Swan River valley. A sense of contentment and wistfulness came over us on the drive back as we contemplated the last 10 days. It had been a great trip. Knowing that the Chief would expect nothing less than our best behavior, we had conducted ourselves in the best RBF prostaffer fashion and enjoyed each other’s company. There were no blowups and no fracases; we caught a hell of a lot of fish and had a shit load of fun. Let’s do it again real soon.
Silver Gate
Wade prepares to ford one of the several creeks on the trail. His horse Dandy was to have a bad day at Big Salmon later in the week. 
Near the end of our ride out of the Bob we encountered a deadfall across the trail. Luckily, Rebecca had her trusty axe along and she made short work of it. Did I mention that Rebecca excelled in “logging sports” at the University of Montana? Her grandfather gave her a two-man crosscut saw for Christmas. Whatta gal! 
Despite our nervousness at some hairy stretches on the trail (I just held my breath on this section and tried not to look down!) our horses remained at ease and just plodded along. As Janis Moss explained, these horses all knew that for them the only way in or out of the Bob was dead or alive.
