Santo TomasBomba Rice, 2.2 Pound (Pack of 2)

My daughter needed a great international dish for school - what better than Paella, right? And for this dish, in our experience, there is no better rice than Bomba. The traditional pan and method of cooking requires a substance and a resilience that your average Jasmine just can't muster. Forgiving under prolonged cooking, flavorful, and absorbs the sauce and seasoning for a complex, satisfying bite. We fed 80 people that night and everyone kept coming back for more. Bomba is the bomb.

I have used this rice in several paella recipes, and it works really well! The rice absorbs the liquid and plumps slightly. This rice has great texture and a subtle nutty flavor. I definitely recommend this brand for making paella.

I have cooked other brands of Bomba Rice, but I have to say this one absorbed more than the already thirsty Bomba rice. I wanted to have a wet result on my paella, not soupy just a bit wet, and not dry. Why? That's how my wife asked me, and it was her bday. So when I'm going for that, I usually go for 3:1 - broth:rice ratio with approximately 16 min cook time, so I used 2 kg to 6 litters of broth... result? Bone dry BUT fluffy zero stickiness tons of flavor... amazing! My advice: Just be ready with more broth in case you need it.

I have no Mediterranean heritage but I have cooked a lot of paella and risotto over the years. I started with generic short grain rice purchased from Asian grocery stores or Safeway, etc. Over the years I began to buy arborio rice with mixed results and I was suspicious that some stores sell arborio rice of questionable quality, authenticity and freshness. Over the past couple years I have discovered "high end specialty purpose rice" like this product. It made a better finished dish, but was so expensive that I only used it for special dinners. This rice is of excellent quality with minimal broken grains in the package and absorbs broth evenly, and the Amazon price on Santo Tomas Bomba Rice is a small fraction of the prices charged at my local gourmet market.

I recently purchased a paella pan, and most of the recipes that I reviewed online suggested using authentic Bomba rice. Not wanting to cut corners on my first attempt at making Paella, I used one entire bag (4 cups) for my first batch at a recent family dinner and the results were stellar! Long after all the seafood had been picked out of the left-overs, people were still eating the flavorful rice. It doesn't get soggy and really retains all of the wonderful flavors of the dish. We even managed to achieve the desirable soccarat, which is the crusty crispy bottom of the paella that becomes caramelized and toasted on the bottom of the pan when it is cooking. I'm hooked on Bomba!

I love this stuff and I like reusing the cloth bags . My last package had loose stitching so some I lost a bunch of rice. That's OK. It's still fabulous rice. Just be careful when you open the box in case the bag's stitching is messed up.

If you are planning on making an authentic Paella Valenciana or any Arroz dish from Alicante, you must use the right rice. Not all rice is created equal and the beauty of Bomba and Calasparra rice is that it can absorb at least three times the broth as other rice while still maintaining its pearl round shape and remaining "al dente" (unless, like any rice, you overcook it). Some people have used arborio rice in a pinch, but it isn't the same. Arborio gets way too creamy and not loose like a Spanish style rice dish should be. If you are planning on cooking a paella or similar dish cooked in a paella pan, the right rice will make all the difference.

We were supposed to br in Spain but were stuck home due to COVID so decided to make an authentic paella for Father's Day. This rice absorbed all of the liquid (3-4x its weight), stayed firm, and formed a crust far better than any other rice we have tried in the past including Calabasas and Arborio. One bag was all we needed for a huge paella. The paella tasted as good or better than any we have had in a restaurant and everyone kept saying how delicious it was and went back for 2nds and 3rds. Once you try this rice you will never want to use another.