Seafood risotto
Impress at a dinner party with Rick Stein’s seafood risotto recipe flavoured with saffron and white wine. Boost a good quality fish stock with extra flavour and choose the freshest seafood for a showstopper dish that actually comes together quite quickly.
Ingredients
- 450g/1lb prawns, shell on
- 36 small mussels
- 100g/4oz monkfish fillet, thinly sliced
- 50g/2oz squid, cleaned and thinly sliced
For the stock
- 25ml/1fl oz olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stick, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 small leek, chopped
- ¼ red chilli, chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1/8 tsp saffron
- 900ml/1½pt fish stock
- cooking liquor from the mussels
For the risotto
- 50g/2oz unsalted butter
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 350g/12oz risotto rice, such as Arborio
- 120ml/4fl oz dry white wine
- 25g/1oz parmesan
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Peel the prawns, reserving the shells for the stock. Set the prawns aside until needed. Wash the mussels, scrape them clean and pull out the beards.
Cook the mussels in a pan over a high heat with a splash of water, covering tightly and shaking the pan occasionally to move them around until they have opened. Discard any mussels that have not opened.
Strain the mussels through a colander to remove any grit, reserving the liquor for the stock. Remove the mussels from all but 8 of the shells, discard the empty shells. Leaving a few whole mussels in the risotto makes it look very appetizing. Set the mussels aside until needed.
To make the stock, heat the oil in a large pan and add the garlic, carrot, celery, onion, leek and chilli. Fry for 5 minutes without colouring. Add the reserved prawn shells and cook for another couple of minutes then add the tomato, saffron, fish stock and mussel liquor. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes then push through a conical sieve with the back of a ladle to extract as much flavour as possible.
To make the risotto, melt the butter in a heavy-based pan (this will lessen the chance of the risotto burning on the bottom as it cooks) then add the shallots and garlic and fry gently until softened. Add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes until well-coated with butter.
Pour in the wine. Bring to the boil then remove from the heat and let the rice absorb all the liquid. You can make the risotto to this stage some time before completing the dish. The final cooking time, about 20 minutes, is reduced to about 10 minutes by doing this.
Return the pan to a medium heat and add the shellfish stock to the rice in three stages, allowing the liquid to be absorbed each time before adding the next amount. Stir continuously until the stock is almost completely absorbed.
When the rice is just tender but still firm to the bite (al dente), add the parmesan. (The small amount of stock left at this stage will be absorbed by the cheese.)
While the risotto is cooking, brush the monkfish and and squid with olive oil and place in a single layer on a baking tray.
Preheat the grill to high. Grill the fish for 3-4 minutes until cooked through.
To serve, carefully mix the seafood including the mussels into the risotto. Leave a few pieces on top to garnish.