What do you need?
2 Medium Size Squids (gutted, skinned and sliced)
2 Sachets Squid Ink (4g each)
1 Cup Arborio rice
1 Glass dry white wine (about 200ml)
500ml Bonito and Vegetable stock (refer to below for ingredients)
1 Onion, red or white, chopped
5 Cherry tomatoes (Quartered)
3 Portobello mushrooms (Sliced)
A knob of butter
Dried thyme
Stock
1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
100g Cabbage
30g Bonito or dried mackerel (can be really hard to find. Bought mine in the Maldives)
1 Bay leaf
600ml Water
Preparation
1. To a soup pot, put the water to boil. Then add in the carrot chunks, cabbage leaves, bay leaf and bonito. Allow it to simmer for 30 minutes or till flavourful enough. The only way to know if the stock is ready is to taste it. Set stock aside and keep warm.
2. Heat up a saucepan and add in the butter with a lug of olive oil. Before the butter melts fully, quickly add in the chopped onions and fry till lightly browned. Chuck in the mushrooms and fry till soft.
3. Add rinsed Arborio rice to the onion and mushroom mixture in the saucepan. Fry till grains become translucent. Add in ¾ of the squid.
4. At this stage, add in the white wine. Followed by the squid ink. This is when you will see the ink dying the whole pot of stuff black.
5. Add in 3 ladles of the stock. Turn the down to medium heat and allow the stock to simmer.
6. Do not stir the risotto too much, or else it will become too sticky. Agitate it by just shaking the saucepan a little every now and then.
7. Add a ladle of stock each time you see the contents of the saucepan get reduced. Continue till you finish the stock.
8. Remove from heat. Set the risotto aside to await serving.
9. Heat up a shallow frying pan. Add some butter and olive oil to the heated pan. Put the cherry tomatoes and remaining squid into the hot pan. This will be a quick stir fry for about 1 minute, depending on the thickness of the squid. Add thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. If you’d like it a bit spicy, a dash of Tabasco sauce will do the job well.
10. Serve the risotto in a nice serving dish. Top it off with the stir fried tomatoes and squid. If you prefer the classic risotto, serve with a good handful of grated pecorino cheese.
11. Enjoy!
