Risotto with Squid, Shiitakes, and Tomatoes
Happy Belated New Year's Eve!
For holiday meals, when I have time, I try to work outside of my comfort zone. I had a dinner guest last night, and she agreed to indulge my decision to go nuts with this beautiful risotto from Food and Wine.
Planning!
I have made risotto, of course, but squid is new to me. I love to eat it, and it's always a goal to be able to work with a restaurant favorite at home. I was determined to do this right! So, I read the recipe about a thousand times. I made sure that the squid I purchased was nicely cleaned. I read the recipe five thousand more times.
As I mentioned in my Shrimp Cocktail with Green Cocktail Sauce post, my guest is allergic to mollusks but not crustaceans, so I wanted to sub out the clam juice for shrimp stock. The recipe I used for the shrimp appetizer calls for a court bouillon from the shrimp shells, so I prepped that as directed but with far more water than called for, and then let it go on for about two hours after pulling out the court bouillon for the shrimp, to make a nice sturdy stock for the risotto. It made about four cups of stock in the end, so I added only two cups of water to it for the cooking process.
Cooking!
I put together a really clear mise en place for myself so that I wouldn't skip any steps. Before my friend arrived for appetizers and cocktails, I had everything laid out just so.
I cleaned, trimmed, and sliced the mushrooms.
hello, shiitake caps!
I checked the cleaning work on the squid and sliced it up, then put it back in the fridge.
YES PLEASE SQUID RIGHT NOW
I chopped the onion and minced the garlic. I took the saffron down from the shelf and set it next to my quarter cup measure to remind me not to forget the wine. I placed my cup measure and eighth cup measure and on the rice container, to remind me to use both. I quartered the cherry tomatoes and chopped the herbs and carefully set them on top of the tomatoes so that I wouldn't forget them, but they also wouldn't get too soggy. I measured out the lemon juice and lemon zest.
rock and roll!
I was ready to rock.
It took forever, because I was being very careful with heat. But it worked out beautifully. Here's how it went...
We ate more than our fair share and there were still leftovers to split between us. We were so full and happy that we waited over an hour before eating our (amazing) dessert.
