Seafood Risotto

Ingredients

• 300 g raw prawns, shells kept
• 500 g mussels, scrubbed
• 200 g squid, in rings
• 320 g carnaroli or arborio rice
• 1 litre fish stock
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 40 g cold butter
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp chilli flakes

Method

1. Build a proper stock

   Fry the prawn shells in a dry pan until orange, add the fish stock and simmer 15 minutes, then strain and keep it hot. A seafood risotto made on plain stock tastes of rice.

   15 min

2. Steam the mussels

   Cook the mussels in a covered pan with the wine until they open, about 3 minutes. Pick most of them out of their shells, keeping a few whole for the top, and strain their liquor into the stock — carefully, leaving the grit behind.

   3 min

3. Keep the shellfish out

   Set all the cooked seafood aside somewhere cool. Everything except the squid is now cooked, and its only job from here is to be warmed through at the very end.

4. Toast the rice

   Soften the shallots, garlic and chilli in the oil without colouring, then add the rice and stir two minutes until the grains are glassy at the edges.

   10 min

5. Feed it stock

   Add the hot shellfish stock a ladle at a time, stirring, waiting for each to be nearly absorbed. About 18 minutes to a firm-centred grain.

   18 min

6. Squid needs seconds or an hour

   Stir the squid in for the last 90 seconds only. Squid is tender for about two minutes and then tough for the next forty — there is no middle ground, so it goes in last.

   2 min

7. Finish without cheese

   Off the heat, return the prawns and mussels, beat in the cold butter hard, and add the parsley, lemon zest and juice. No parmesan: cheese over shellfish flattens the sweetness you built the stock for.