PBC as a Paella grill?

[cidbearit]

For a while I have been wanting to try my hand at cooking a paella. This past weekend I found a 15" paellera on sale and bought it. In thinking about where I might be able to heat it and work the paella, I thought about my PBC. I took the lid off the PBC and placed the paellera on the rebars. It was a perfect fit! It also puts the pan at a comfortable height for working. At this point, my only concern would be the heat factor, as the recipes I've seen call for high heat at first (350F to 400F) for the the initial sauteing work, then a lower heat to simmer the paella for a while, finishing with a low heat to cook the rice. Has anybody here tried anything like this? If so, can you share some tips?

Based on what I've read here, the open PBC should spike in the heat range I need for sauteing. My concern is reducing the heat for the long simmer, then going lower for the rice. I'm thinking about placing the grate in the PBC, and using different sizes of round paver stones resting on the grate to moderate the heat. I have two concerns here, though. First, will the paver concept work to moderate the heat (and that may only be a trial and error thing to discover)? Next, will the pavers hold up to the heat? the last thing I want is to have a paver explode inside my PBC. Does anyone have experience with the heat tolerance of paver stones?

Does anyone have any other ideas for or experience with moderating the heat inside an open PBC? Or am I just trying to be too ambitious and should look for an alternate heating method?

[RonB]

You might try doing the higher heat on your stove - with the lid open, your not going to get any smoke flavor anyway. That way you won't have to get the PBC up to a high temp and then recover. Just keep the PBC at a low temp to start and after sauteing everything you can place it in the PBC to simmer.
As far as getting/keeping a low temp goes - I can't help with that 'cause I don't have a PBC.

[carpenter]

a pizza stone on the grill grate might do two things for you. it will cut down air flow and you will not have to worry about it breaking up. you will have to play with it. maybe some foil in the bottom hole if it doesn't cool down enough. you can turn the handles down on the grate if you have to.

[Strat50]

I like where your headed with this idea, so maybe this will help. At the lower temps you mentioned earlier, I would just combine all my ingredients, place in paella pan, then cover with parchment paper, suitably secured, of course. As I've made lots of paella and other things using the same technique, both at work and home, you would turn your PBC into a lovely smokey crockpot. I learned this method some years back when I made a clay oven. You would fire it up hot for pizza, then, as the oven cools slowly, you would cook things requiring the current temp. Pizza, then bread, then something low and slow, like a pot roast, jambaylaya, etc. When I covered the pan with parchment instead of the normal cover, I would pick up the flavor of the oven, in other words, smoke. The parchment would keep enough moisture in the food, but would allow flavor to transpire through it too. You can use the parchment up to about 375 or so before it starts to scorch. Hot temps were not needed, and the food was killer. Just a thought...