Risotto is great winter food, but here in England we're lucky enough to also be able to enjoy it over the summer - since you get wet and murky days pretty much all year round and are therefore always in need for some warming stodge!
Seafood works particularly well in risottos I find, giving a nice contrast in texture and looking stunnning, of course! You could use any kind, I fancied some prawns, crab meat and a gorgeous langoustine to top it all up, but a few mussels or cockles would add a nice touch as well, as would some squid. I have even seen it topped up with some crispy sardines, there's really no limit to your inventiveness.
The base is as you would expect for a risotto, I had some fennel on hand so used this instead of the usual celery, and I find dry sherry works better with seafood than the Noilly Prat or dry Martini I would normally use. The tomatoes give it a nice fresh touch and I also don't add any butter or cream, which makes this summer risotto much lighter than its wintery cousins.
Seafood risotto with prawns, crab and langoustine
(serves 2)
50 g butter
2 shallots (finely chopped)
50 g fennel (finely chopped)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
200 g risotto rice (I used up some vialone nano)
200 ml dry sherry
650 ml stock (vegetable or fish)
2 tbsp tomato purée
4 medium tomatoes (diced)
2 langoustines
10 king prawns
200 white crab meat
½ tsp crushed dried chilli
Fry the shallots, fennel and garlic in the melted butter until soft but not brown. Add the rice and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the langoustines and tomato purée and deglaze with the sherry. When the sherry has almost fully disappeared, add one third of the stock and the chilli and cook until the mixture is almost dry. Repeat with another third of the stock, then add the prawns and tomatoes and the remaining stock, cook until the rice is al dente, the seafood is cooked and the mixture is creamy, stir in the crab meat, arrange on plates and serve.
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