The Spanish name for this dish, arroz a banda, means rice on its own – abandoned rice. It is one of those dishes born out of the poverty of former times when perhaps the family income only supported the purchase of basic goods. The inventive housekeeper would maybe buy a fish head to make some soup or stock with which to flavour that constant staple, rice. For a special treat, some inexpensive pieces of squid would be thrown in, as an apology for the mountains of prawns and mussels t