Seafood Risotto

Server 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 litres approx fish fumet
Mixed seafood - say 12 mussels, 24 clams, 12 prawns (or if very big, allow one per person) 250 grams calamari, cleaned
1 small onion, chopped
45 ml olive oil
400 grams of Ferron rice
3 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
3 stalks Italian parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 green capsicum, diced
3 grams saffron
180 ml olive oil
1/4 litre water

Seafood

Scrub mussels (you can, if necessary, soak overnight in plain water with a little bit of milk to remove any bitterness from mussels) Clean clams, shell prawns and clean out intestine, clean and slice calamari on diagonal, (do not cut into rings, it toughens more easily) Dice tomatoes, add chopped parsley, saffron, garlic, capsicum, olive oil and water. Place the seafood into this marinade and leave about an hour

Fry the chopped onion in the 45 ml of oil then add the rice. Do not colour, add fish fumet and stir and cook as in Basic Risotto

When the rice is almost cooked, add the mussels and clams and the marinade juices (but leave the prawns and calamari to be added later). Turn heat high and let the juices reduce. Don't cover. The shellfish should not be overcooked. Add prawns and calamari a few minutes before serving. Usually when the mussels start to open, the risotto is ready. There should still be some liquid in the risotto when you serve. Especially with fish, the risotto should not be dry, it should be quite wet, almost soupy.

Note some cooks use fish as well as shellfish. Personally I don't like to do this because there's too much contrast in texture. But you can make very good risotto with rockling, and other fish on their own. Rocklling is particularly good but only the creamy part of that fish.