Seafood Risotto
Instructions
Begin by cleaning your seafood. Firstly check your clams one by one and throw away any that are broken or opened so you can avoid shell pieces in your risotto. Remove the beards from the clams and then place them in a bowl, cover them with cold water and leave them to soak for an hour so they release any sand present. For the mussels, remove the beards from the shells and then scrub them with a scoring pad under running water to clean them thoroughly. Cover them in cold water like the clams and let them rest for at least an hour as well. Now with the shrimp, these here are quite large, peel away the shells, remove the legs and remove the dark line of intestine. Once this is done set them aside. And finally with the squid, place your finger inside the body and pull the head from the body. Be sure to remove the transparent cartilage. Pull away the skin and you're finished with this part. With the head, cut away the tentacles below the eyes. Keep the tentacles and throw away the rest.
After they've soaked, put the mussels and clams into separate pots. Cover the pots and put them over a high heat. When the shells have opened take them off the heat. Remove the meats from most of the shells and leave some in the shells aside for decoration. Take the juices in the bottom of the pots, strain them well and save the juice for cooking the rice.
In a pot put 4 to 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the two garlic cloves skinned and cut in half if you'd like to remove them after they've flavoured the oil, or mince them finely if you'd like to keep them in the dish. Add the chilli pepper and the carrot and celery finely diced. Add half of the minced onion and save the rest for flavouring the rice. I've let it cook on a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes and now add the squid which you can cut into rings and the tentacles -- be careful to remove the beak from the centre. Once they're gone all you'll be left with is this hole. Add the squid and let them cook for 2 to 3 minutes over a slightly raised heat. Then add to this half of the glass of white wine. When the squid are tender and about a couple minutes before taking everything off the heat, add the shrimp to the pot. Mix everything a little and then let it rest off the heat. If while you're cooking the squid and after the wine has cooked off, you think you need more liquid just add a bit of hot water or some of the clam and mussel juices.
In this pot I've put 3 tablespoons of oil and the rest of the minced onion and let it cook slowly. Now over a medium heat add the rice, let it fry off until the outside is translucent, then add the rest of the wine and when the wine is evaporated, cook the rice by adding the filtered clam and mussel juices little by little. In the meantime, the squid and shrimp have become tender and now add to them a bit of chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Do this while the shrimp and squid are still hot.
About 4 minutes before the risotto is finished cooking add the shrimp and squid, the shelled mussels, and shelled clams. Finish cooking the risotto and then take the pot off the heat, add the rest of the parsley, adjust the salt and pepper and then let the risotto rest for a few minutes.
Here's the risotto plated and decorated with the whole mussels and clams.
