Easy Seafood Risotto

Hello!

I'm not sure if you are a big risotto fan; I enjoy them on occasion . . . I wouldn't call myself a 'fan' but by that same token I don't mind having one now & then.

I know I haven't blogged about this before (forgive me!), but I regularly make my own stock. I have a wonderful seafood stock in my freezer made from the remains of a large snapper my brother dissected (he is an excellent seafood chef). I followed Donna Hay's recipe for making seafood stock (email me if you'd like the recipe). It smells amazing, largely due to the quality of the fish I am sure.

So anyhoo: following on from Mum's 60th, I had a few uncooked prawns in the fridge that I was keen to use up, along with arborio rice, white wine, a leek, and some frozen peas . . . . in short, all that I needed to make a lovely risotto for dinner! I would like to stress that I just did this on the fly, and didn't follow a recipe, so the below is guess-ti-recipe, but I assure you the end result is lovely!

And by the way: the 'Campbells' stock sold in Coles/Woolies is just fine!  Just remember the better the stock, the better the flavour will be, so do try & purchase the best quality stock you can.

Anth's Seafood Risotto
(Serves Two)

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 leek, thinly sliced 

zest of one lemon

2 cloves garlic, crushed & sliced

olive oil

knob of butter

1.5 cups arborio rice

1 cup white wine

3 cups seafood (or veg) stock

 large handful of green prawns

3/4 cup frozen (or fresh) peas

                                                      Parmesan cheese (as good as possible)

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, and once warm add the knob of butter. Let it bubble a little, and then add the sliced onion, leek & garlic cloves. Reduce the heat to low-medium, and gently cook for 15 mins until they are translucent, with a little bit of colour. 

In a separate saucepan, heat the stock to a gentle simmer. 

Add the arborio rice, it will fry a little, so be sure to keep stirring. After a minute or so, add the wine. It well smell a little harsh, but as the alcohol cooks off, it well smell lovely. KEEP STIRRING!

Once the wine has soaked into the rice, add a ladle worth of the warm stock, and a good pinch of salt.  Lower heat to a gentle simmer: just like when you make pancakes, you don't want the rice to cook from the outside leaving the inside raw. You need gentle heat & LOTS OF STIRRING! Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, making sure that you 'massage' the stock into the rice before you add another ladle. Try the rice to see if it is cooked: keep adding ladles of stock until it is. If you run out of stock, boil some water & add it (a ladle's worth at a time).

  

 Once the rice is just about done add the lemon zest and stir for a  minute or so. Once that has settled in, add a large handful or raw prawns.  Gently stir them in until the begin to colour. 

Once the prawns begin to colour, add the peas. Increase the heat to medium to bring the prawns to full colour and gently cook the peas. Take a vegetable peeler & drop several large strips of Parmesan into the mix along with another knob of butter. Place a lid on the pan & allow to gently cook for 2 or so minutes. 

Check for seasoning & serve: if you like your citrus flavours, squeeze some of the juice from the lemon you zested over the risotto. 

I didn't do this, but then my stock had a strong seafood flavour, and I didn't feel it needed it, but this is completely a matter of taste. 

Wine Match!

I would serve this with either a Sauv Blanc w/ lovely citrus flavours, or a lightly oaked chardonnay (I hate big oak flavours, and though if you have good quality prawns their creaminess may match a more heavily oaked white wine).