Sunday 6 December 2009

Prawn & Squid Risotto

Recently, a friend came round with a whole cooked lobster. After I finished clapping my hands with glee, we munched away happily on it. Later, I smashed the shell up with a spanner, spraying my kitchen with tiny bits of shell, and it all went into the stockpot. Celery, shallots and carrot went in there with it and a couple hours of simmering later, it became a lobster broth. It was richly flavoured, beautifully coloured. I later found shell in my hair.

I don't often make risottos as they're so reliant on a decent stock base, so this immediately came to mind. A hint of saffron complements the deep lobster flavour, with prawns adding sweetness and squid, the texture. Sadly there was no lobster to add but what I did have made a decent substitute. Crab would also work well with this. Enriched with plenty of butter, the huge portion I managed to eat was creamy and luxurious.

Prawn & Squid Risotto

Serves 1

110gr arborio rice
600ml lobster stock
A large slosh of white wine
1 stick of celery
1 small carrot
Half an onion
1 clove of garlic
A pinch of saffron
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 small chilli
1 tsp capers
5 large raw prawns
2 small squid tubes with tentacles
50gr butter
Half a lemon

Put the lobster stock on to simmer. Add the saffron to a few tablespoons of hot water to infuse. Butterfly the prawns and slice the squid into rings.

Finely dice the onion, celery, carrot, garlic and chilli. Halve the butter and add it to the frying pan with a little bit of oil. Add the diced vegetables and cook slowly for at least 10 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat all the grains with the butter. Add the large splosh of white wine and stir until the rice has soaked it up. Next, add the infused saffron water, straining out the strands. Add the stock, ladleful by ladleful, stirring constantly and not adding more until the previous ladleful has been soaked up. This will take about 15- 20 minutes, and once the rice turns creamy and has still a little bit of bite, it will be done. On the last ladleful of stock, add the squid and prawns. Once the stock has been absorbed and the prawns just pink, turn the heat off, add the parsley, capers, lemon juice and the rest of the butter. Give it a good stir and put the lid on, leaving it for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

9 comments:

Helen said...

I hardly ever make risottos for exactly the same reason. A golden opportunity well spotted. There is something rather therapeutic about all that stirring I think.

AdLand Suit said...

I love this blog. Love it, love it, love it.

Just so you know. I'll shh now.

James said...

I'm not a big seafood eater - but this looks delicious.

I know what you mean about smashing up the lobster shell. It's like when you scale a fish, and weeks later you still keep finding the odd scale!

Mr Noodles said...

It's not fair - no one ever pops round mine with a whole cooked lobster. I'm not that big a fan of risotto - could you not have made a jambalaya instead!

Browners said...

Nice. You know I love risottos too. Love the shell in the hair bit. If you've haven't got shell all over you, then you haven't tried hard enough.

How did you make your lobster stock? Roasting the shells with some cognac helps and then boil them up.

Gastro1 said...

Lizzie you are spot on without a good stock no point in making a risotto.

Yours sounds amazing and I love the idea of combiningLobster stock with prawns !

I make a big quantity of veal stock once a month and freeze it using marrow bones from Irish Rose Veal - you can often get them for nothing from a friendly butcher :-) great for risotti and a myriad of sauces !

James Ramsden said...

That must have been a pretty epic portion of risotto - I'm green with envy. Sounds delicious. Just need to find a friend who's willing to bring me a lobster.

S said...

Like Dino, I make stock once a month and freeze it. this risotto looks SO good, i live the combi of seafood and saffron.

Hollow Legs said...

Helen - thanks. it's a bit of a faff making stock when you're usually cooking for one.

Adland - glad to hear you're enjoying it!

James - Definitely. I'm glad I don't often have to scale fish!

Mr Noodles - What could be wrong with a risotto? A Jambalaya would be good, but I prefer big gutsy flavours with that, which may have drowned out the stock.

Browners - interesting tip - the lobster had been boiled previously so i just lobbed the shells into a pan of water - didn't think about roasting them further, I'll have to give that a go.

Gastro1 - Mmm... veal stock. I'll have to ask my butcher, thanks for the tip!

James R - I had to have a little snooze on the couch after all that.

Shayma - it's a great combination, especially with shellfish.