Saffron Prawn Risotto

From Spice by Christine Manfield – pages 218 and 219

What a tasty dish! I’ve cooked a risotto here and there so there was some familiarity with the process, though I’ve never had a lot of success with seafood style risottos but this one really worked well.

Modifications

Rather than use a fish stock I reserved the heads and the shells from the prawns and put together a prawn stock.

Prawn Stock - Ingredients

• Heads and shells from 700g of raw prawns
• 1 stick of celery - sliced
• 1 brown onion - sliced
• 1 litre of water
• Olive oil

Prawn Stock - Process

• Heat a little oil in a saucepan / stockpot and sauté the celery and onion for 2 minutes
• Add the prawn heads and tails and cook through stirring for a couple of minutes
• Once prawn heads and tails are well roasted add a litre of water
• Bring to the boil then turn right down and simmer as gently as possible for 20 minutes, skimming off any scum that has risen to the surface.
• After the 20 minutes strain stock through a sieve.

Making your own stock for something like this gives such a better flavour to the final dish. Beef or chicken stocks can take a few hours to make but a prawn or fish stock is much quicker as it requires less simmering time (simmering too long will make the stock become bitter). I put the stock on first and then during the 20 minutes of simmering time I complete the rest of the prep.

Learnings

This is the first time I’ve come across rinsing the Arborio rice before using. Now that I’ve tried it I think I’ll be doing that every time I make a risotto.

When I’ve made risottos in the past I’ve always felt that the end result is too thick or gluggy, whereas whenever I’ve had it in a restaurant it’s been much smoother which I have preferred.

The consistency of this risotto was pretty much spot on. I’m guessing the initial rinsing at the start knocks out some of the starch giving a smoother result.

Also the amount of oil and wine used in the dish is more that I have used in the past, but this also seems to contribute to the creaminess. I noticed just after the wine was added the risotto immediately became creamy, almost as though the combination of the oil and wine made a dressing for want of a better word.

Also there’s no cheese in this risotto – but the end result was already creamy enough.

Of Note

When I make risotto I like to make sure the rice is really well cooked in the oil at the start. My experience is that the rice seems to hold together better in the final dish. You can get the pan really hot at this first stage and as long as you keep stirring it won’t burn.

Just before you finish cooking the risotto it needs to rest. Turn the heat off and pop the lid on the pan and give it 5 to 10 minutes to settle. This seems to even out all of the moisture in the dish allowing the rice to cook and soften all the way through. After settling this is when I added the final ladle of stock along with the butter and prawns to cook.

Happy cooking (and eating...).