Arroz del senyoret, gentleman’s rice —and my family’s link to Calpe and the dish

Natacha Sanz Caballero Rice, Grains and Pasta Calpe, mediterranean diet, paella, Parador de Ifach, Peñón de Ifach, restaurante Baydal, rice dish

The word “senyoret” means gentleman in the Valencian language. Arroz del senyoret (where the consonants ny combined are pronounced as a Spanish ñ in the Valencian language) is a seafood paella where all the seafood shells have been peeled off and therefore the person eating it will not have to bother removing the shells from the shrimp or the mussels —hence “del senyoret”, for the gentleman.

El Parador de Ifach, hoy: una torre de apartamentos y una zona común de recreo a imagen del antiguo parador

The story of this dish is peculiar and very familiar to me and my family, as it started out at the restaurant where we enjoyed many meals during my childhood. I’m talking about restaurante Baydal in Calpe, Alicante. 

In the very early years of my and my sisters’ childhood, my family used to spend the summer at the Parador de Ifach. The parador was a two-level, long building, with characteristic arches lining the front of it, overlooking the Mediterranean. The beach was just steps below, accessible by a stone staircase. What a privileged location, and what a breathtaking view!

The Parador de Ifach opened its doors in 1935 and it hosted illustrious clients like Orson Wells, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Ernest Hemingway or Geraldine Chaplin, and during the Spanish Civil War, by some of the politicians that made it into the history books —Indalecio Prieto, Azaña, Negrín. Its unrivaled location, the beauty of the landscape, the benign climate and the warmth and hospitality of its owners and staff attracted the artists, politicians, entrepreneurs and the bourgeoisie of the time. Another curiosity of the Parador is that it was decorated by writer, linguist and interior designer Zenobia Camprubí, the spouse of writer Juan Ramón Jiménez, who couldn’t visit that parador after its completion due to the onset of the war in 1936. 

The Bar Baydal in the 50s (photo: Restaurante Baydal)

Restaurante Baydal, today

After September 1952, the Department of Tourism mandated a name change and the Parador became the Paradero

Walking distance from the parador, walking towards the peñón was restaurante Baydal, by the fishing harbor, at the foothills of the Peñón de Ifach. The restaurant was one of the oldest in the area, established in 1941, and it offered the freshest fish, as it was directly and daily brought in by the fishermen. 

Many afternoons we’d go to the harbor and watch the fishing boats come in, loaded with fish. It was quite a sight. A bit inland were las salinas, which we visited often. We loved watching the many mountains of salt and the process of harvesting it. All in all it was a very nature-oriented existence. As you can see in some photos, those were the years when all four of us (and even my mom!) dressed the same. 

My sisters and me, on the stairs to the beach at the Parador de Ifach, 1970’s

The Meteoro sailing around Calpe

With our friends, at the summit of the Peñón de Ifach (early 80’s)

Hiking to the top of the Peñón was a thrill (and I often had my camera to catch the moment!)

Out at sea, with the Peñón behind us

The four sisters on the earlier years, at the Parador beach

The Peñón de Ifach and Calpe in 1915

Calpe today

Summer 2022

As it happened with many coastal cities in Spain in the 80s and 90s — the “years of the brick”, los años del ladrillo, as it was called—, this privileged and almost virgin coastal area was replaced by mammoth towers of apartments. I remember the walk from the Parador to the town of Calpe, on the promenade, lined with one-level family homes overlooking the sea below, and where some of our friends from Alcoy lived. Those were leisure, careless days with friends, hiking up the Peñón or snorkeling at the beach.

I visited Calpe again last year with my sons, sister and nephew, and it was like visiting a different city. After a tour of the Ricardo Bofill designed complex of La Muralla Roja and Xanadú, we headed to Altea. The Parador had closed in 1998 and a tower of apartments had been built in its place, a —very sad— sign of the times.  

The link to Calpe and the Peñón de Ifach goes back even long before my time. My dad‘s family spent summers in Calpe way before I was born. Our family, the Sanz‘s, and the Vidal’s, from Onteniente, vacationed together, sharing rides on my grandpa’s sailboat, the Meteoro, meals at el Parador and restaurante Baydal and evenings chatting by the arches of the Parador’s porch, under the stars, and with the sound of the waves gently crashing below. In reality, there wasn’t much more. Calpe, and particularly the Peñón de Ifach area, were almost  virgin, and the now popular and very touristy area of Cala de la Fosa, on the other side of the peñón, was completely untouched and basically uninhabited.

It is part of our families’ history, the Sanz and the Vidal, that the patriarchs, my grandpa, Chimo Sanz, and don Antonio Vidal, started requesting their seafood paella at the Baydal with cleaned seafood —that is, the shrimp and mussels had to be shelled. The “señoritos” didn’t want to have their fingers dirtied. As they were good customers and good friends with the owner, this request was always granted. Eventually, the dish became one of the most iconic and demanded at the restaurant, to the point where it was included in its menu.

Probably the main secret to making arroz del senyoret is in the seafood stock. As the seafood is peeled in this paella, the flavor has to come, in good part, from a very powerful, rich stock, and from cooking the shrimp and mussels on their shells first. Other than that, just make it as you’d make a regular paella dish. And, like I’ve said before, with paella, the more you make, the better they’ll become, as you will know the exact number of minutes the rice has to cook to achieve the right texture, in the conditions that you cook it. Practice makes perfect! Don’t get discouraged the first time you make paella. Keep making it! You will get better and better at it.

View of Calpe from the Sierra de Toix

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 1 vote

ARROZ DEL SENYORET

Gentleman’s rice

Author: Natacha Sanz Caballero, Mama Ía blog

Equipment

• Paella pan

Ingredients

For the seafood stock:

• 4 Tbs olive oil
• 1 leek green part only
• 4 cloves garlic crushed
• Heads and shells of uncooked shrimp or langoustines
• Heads and scraps of white fish if avalilable
• 1 tsp pimentón de la Vera
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 quarts water

For the arroz:

• 12 large shrimp or langoustines
• 1 Lb mussels
• 1/2 Lb calamari or cuttlefish
• 1 Roma tomato
• 4 cloves garlic
• A few threads of saffron
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp ground ñora if available
• 3 cups Bomba rice

Instructions

Make the stock:

• In a stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the heads and shells of the shrimp and stir, pressing down on the heads to extract all the flavor. Add the fish scraps if using. Add the leeks, coarsely chopped, and the cloves of garlic. Sauté for about 6 minutes.
• Add the pimentón de la Vera, salt and bay leaves, stir and sauté, about 3 minutes.
• Add the water, raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook for about 30 to 45 minutes and adjust for salt. If a layer of foam forms on the surface, remove it with a spoon or laddle.
• Strain the stock through a food mill into a clean pot —if a food mill is not available, use a sieve, pressing the fish and vegetables lightly to extract the flavors, before discarding them.

Make the rice:

• Dissolve the saffron in 2 Tbs water.
• Clean the mussels under cold water and debeard them.
• In a paella pan, heat 1/4 cup olive oil on medium-high heat. Add the mussels and sauté until they open. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add some heads of shrimp and sauté, pressing to extract all the flavor. Remove from the pan and discard.
• Slice the calamari into rings and sauté, 2-3 minutes. Move calamari to the edges of the pan and and add the peeled shrimp. Sauté for 1 minute or less per side. Remove the shrimp and shells from the pan and set aside.
• Add 2 or 3 more Tbs olive oil to the pan. Slice the garlic cloves and sauté. Add the ñora (if using). Peel and mince the tomato and add to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add 6 cups seafood stock to the pan and stir to mix. Add the saffron infused water and stir to mix. Add the rice and stir to distribute it evenly in the pan. Taste and adjust for salt.
• Cook the rice for about 16 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed most of the stock —as a guideline, cook 5 minutes on high heat, then lower to medium heat for the next 7 minutes, and lower for the next 4.
• Taste a few grains of rice for donennes (if they’re still slightly hard, add a few more spoonfuls of stock and continue to cook a few more minutes.
• Distribute the seafood over the rice and remove the pan from the heat source. Let the rice rest for about 5 minutes