Crab Risotto

Crab risotto
   
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 20 mins
    

This risotto recipe allows for alot of diversity with different types of seafood. I often use the same premise for Smoked haddock or crayfish. Tt is an interesting one because it shows how to make a fantastic dish with very few ingredients. Naturally uoi can go wild on seafood risotto, with loads of different fish, but I like to keep it simple and focus on one excellent flavour type.

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

• 350-400 g Risotto rice 
• 170 g Shredded crab meat
• 75 ml Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1 Small onion (finely chopped) or two shallots
• 100 ml White wine
• 100 ml sieved tomatoes or passata
• 1 Litre of hot fish stock - 2 stock cubes - (I have to say that you often need more than 1 litre so have some extra stock handy)
• ½ tsp Cracked black pepper
• Salt for seasoning
• A small handful of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)

Directions:

Firstly, be sure that you prepare the stock so that it is readily available when required. The best thing to do is to have the stock just simmering on the cooker.

Next, crab meat is usually preserved in brine. Put the crab meat into a small sieve and press the meat down with a spoon so that the brine goes through the sieve. Discard the brine and set the crab meat aside. Ofcourse you can use fresh crab meat, although it can be more expensive and harder to come by, so tinned is fine for the home cooked meal. Generally if I’m making this at a dinner party I use fresh, but for just me at home in front of the telly, I use tinned.

Put the olive oil in a large pan. Heat the oil and then add the garlic. Sweat the garlic over a gentle heat until it becomes golden in colour. When the garlic becomes golden, quickly remove it from the pan and discard it.

Next, add the onion or shalotts and sweat over a medium heat for about 3 minutes until soft, then add the rice.

Stir until the rice is coated with oil. You can see that the rice will start to become translucent. Keep stirring and sweat the rice for a minute or two add the white wine, keep stirring and let the wine reduce.

Now, add the stock and turn the heat to medium/low. The stock, which has been kept simmering in order to stay hot, should be added at the rate of a couple of ladlefuls at the time and when this is absorbed, add more stock. Carry on in this way for about 15 minutes. During this stage, do not leave the pan alone and stir regularly.

Now, immediately after the first couple of ladlefuls of stock, add the sieved tomatoes or passata and stir.

Meanwhile you keep going, adding stock as required and stirring (gently). Season with salt and pepper at this stage.

After 15 minutes add the crab meat into the pan. Stir to evenly distribute the crab meat. From now on, taste the rice every minute until the rice is cooked al dente, and season further if required. Regular but gentle stirring is required for the last minutes in order to avoid the risotto sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When the rice is perfectly cooked al dente, add the parsley and stir for a few seconds and serve. Garnish with grated parmesan as per taste. 

(please excuse the lack of pictures. After a number of attempts, I still find it very difficult to make risotto look appealing!)