Quick, urgent - I thought I had paella rice but have run out. Which rice should I use instead?

[BasilBabyEater]

I've got loads of arborio and loads of just ordinary white long grain, plus also some wholemeal rice.

Which one would be best, does anyone know? I thought arborio but then I thought that it might be too starchy - but then I wondered if paella rice is quite starchy anyway - dunno - can't make up my mind, any advice please?

Risotto rice, the arborio.

You need it to be more starchy than normal rice, and risotto rice will be less gloopy if you treat it like paella than if you treat it like risotto (constant stirring).

Hmmm,
Paella rice is a short grain variety that cooks slowly, it is also able to absorb a great deal of liquid and therefore flavor. I have made paella with basmati rice on a few occasions, but it is very hard to get right since it cooks in about half the time as a normal paella, requires less water/stock and the basmati rice does not take on so much flavor.
I'd go with the arborio. Short grain, and as you shouldn't stir paella anyway, it should do as a substitute.

Excellent, thanks for that - will now go off and see how it works out!