Arroz Meloso de Gambas

STEP 1 - PEEL THE PRAWNS AND START THE STOCK
Working over a bowl, twist off and reserve every prawn head; peel the bodies and reserve the shells with the heads. Devein the bodies and refrigerate them on a paper-towel-lined plate until needed. In a medium saucepan, heat 3 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the heads and shells and press them down hard with a wooden spoon - you want them to bleed their colour and aroma into the oil. Cook 4-5 minutes until the oil turns deep coral-pink and the kitchen smells unmistakably of the sea.

STEP 2 - BUILD AND SIMMER THE STOCK
Add the halved onion, carrot, smashed garlic, bay leaves, and parsley stems. Sauté 1 minute. Pour in 1/2 cup white wine, scrape the base of the pan, and let it reduce by half. Add 6 cups (1.4 L) cold water. Bring to a simmer (do not let it boil hard - it will go cloudy and bitter), then drop to a low murmur for 25-30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing the solids firmly to extract every drop. You should have ~5 cups (1.2 L) of glossy coral-coloured stock; if short, top up with hot water. Return to the saucepan, season lightly, and keep at a gentle simmer - the stock must be hot when it meets the rice.

STEP 3 - BLOOM THE SAFFRON
Toast the saffron threads in a dry small pan over low heat for ~30 seconds, just until brittle and fragrant (do not let them darken). Crush in a mortar with a pinch of salt, then stir in 2 tbsp of the hot stock. Set aside to steep - you will add it with the bulk of the stock.

STEP 4 - BUILD THE SOFRITO
In the wide pan, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium-low. Add the diced onion with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes until completely soft and just beginning to take colour. Add the diced red pepper and cook another 6-8 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook 1 minute, then add the grated tomato pulp. Now slow down: cook the tomato out for 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture is dark, jammy, and the oil has separated and pooled at the edges. Off the heat, stir in the pimentón dulce (and picante, if using). Residual heat is enough to bloom the paprika without scorching it - burned paprika is irretrievable bitterness.

STEP 5 - COAT THE RICE
Return the pan to medium heat. Add the bomba rice and stir for 1-2 minutes so every grain is coated in the sofrito and lightly toasted - the grains will turn translucent at the edges. Pour in 1/4 cup white wine; let it bubble away completely, ~1 minute.

STEP 6 - THE SPANISH POUR (DO NOT STIR)
Add all of the hot stock at once, including the bloomed saffron. Distribute the rice evenly across the pan with a single shake or stir, then taste the broth and adjust salt - it should taste of well-seasoned seawater. From this point on, do not stir. Agitation breaks the grains and turns the dish gluey rather than glossy. A gentle shake of the pan, twice, is the maximum.

STEP 7 - THE HARD SIMMER, THEN THE SOFT
Bring the rice to a hard simmer over medium-high heat for 8 minutes uncovered - vigorous bubbling all the way across the pan. Then drop the heat to low and continue for 8-10 minutes more. The rice is done when the grains are tender with the faintest chalky line at the centre, and the liquid has reduced to a glossy, loose, slightly soupy bath around them - spoonable, not drinkable. If it looks too tight, splash in a little hot stock or water; if too loose, raise the heat for a minute.

STEP 8 - ADD THE PRAWNS
In the final 2-3 minutes of cooking, nestle the peeled prawn bodies into the surface of the rice, pushing them in just enough that the residual heat poaches them. They are ready when they curl into a loose C and turn opaque coral with a faint pearly centre - a tight O is overcooked.

STEP 9 - REST
Off the heat, scatter the chopped parsley across the surface and cover the pan loosely with foil or a clean tea towel. Rest 3 minutes - this is when the meloso texture sets and the flavours marry. Resist serving early.

STEP 10 - SERVE
Bring the pan to the table. Spoon into shallow warm bowls, drizzle with a thread of finishing olive oil, and pass the lemon wedges. Eat immediately, with cold dry Spanish white wine.

TROUBLESHOOTING
Gluey, not glossy: you stirred, or used arborio. Don't stir after the stock goes in; use bomba.
Pan dry, rice crunchy: heat too high in stage two, or not enough stock. Splash in 1/4 cup hot stock or water, drop the heat, cover loosely, give it 3 more minutes.
Soupy and pale, not creamy: sofrito under-cooked, rice not toasted. Let the dish sit longer off the heat - starch will continue to thicken.
Bitter undertone: burned paprika, or stock boiled hard. Always add pimentón off the heat; keep stock at a murmur.
Rubbery prawns: added too early or pan too hot at the end. Add only in the final 2-3 minutes; pull off heat at the first C curl.

STORAGE & MAKE-AHEAD
Prawn stock: make up to 2 days ahead, refrigerate; or freeze up to 2 months. Bring to a simmer before using.
Sofrito: can be made up to 4 days ahead and refrigerated under a thin film of olive oil.
Finished arroz: best within minutes of cooking - the texture changes as the rice continues to absorb liquid. Do not attempt to hold it.
Leftovers: refrigerate up to 1 day; reheat gently in a covered pan with a splash of stock or water.

VARIATIONS
Arroz meloso de marisco: add 12 mussels and 8 clams in the final 4 minutes, covering briefly. Increase stock by 1/2 cup.
Arroz meloso de calamar y gambas: add 200 g cleaned baby squid, sliced into rings, to the sofrito at the end before the rice goes in.
Arroz meloso negro: stir 1 tbsp squid ink into the stock for the Catalan black-rice version. Reduce pimentón by half.
Mountain version (no seafood): replace prawn stock with chicken stock; add 200 g diced chorizo to the sofrito; finish with confited chicken thighs.