Black Risotto...

Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera to all...

This is my first Risotto featured recipe post and what interesting? I am giving a black beautiful dish… wow!!. I love rice so much and been eating it since a very young age and say how many different rice I’ve tried? Hmmm… soo many! (can’t count them).

How about Risotto? As Risotto is not locally produced, I’ve only tried it in my early days of working in the kitchen, that was back twelve years ago… wow! so long? I was a kitchen assistant after graduated in cooking college, in one of the first Italian restaurant here in Brunei.  I’ve never knew the existence of ‘squid ink’, even I’ve been playing with squid (‘sotong’ in our dialect) since I was a little boy, what else that black looking dishes… lol, I think Italian/westerners have eat so many ingredients that I was so naïve to know such things and that makes me think that I still need to taste as much ingredients the world has to offer… may be you can help… tell me what else I never try… ;)
                       

So, enough with that… lets get to what I am sharing now…

Squid ink Risotto a.k.a Risotto Al Nero Di Seppia

        

 

Serving 2 portion

Ingredients:

200gm risotto

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp squid ink

Half onion (brunoise/cube)

2 cloves garlic (sliced)

600ml fish stock

80 gm asparagus (chunk)

2 tbsp tomato sauce

80gm grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp butter

Basil (julienne)

Italian parsley (chopped)
Chilies (optional) 

Salt and pepper.                       

Tips: if you buying fresh whole squids, take the squid sacs and put aside, be careful not to break the sacs or else it will be blacky (bloody)… ;)
                          

Method:

1. Heat up a pan and put in ‘evoo’. Sautee garlic and onion until fragrance (not necessarily brown).
2. Add risotto in and stir, then put in stock, squid ink and tomato sauce.
3. Add asparagus and chilies, stir frequently.
4. Let risotto cook thru and reduced, add more stock little by little if necessary.
5. Taste risotto, when its already al-dente then you may add squid, parmesan, basil, parsley and seasoning. when u happy with the taste, turn off fire, add butter and stir until solved.
6. Ready to be serve.
                              

Tips: Squid cook really fast and if you cook it longer, it will become tough, so putting it in a very last minute is important, you don’t want to eat tough squid right? ;). I preferred risotto to be al-dente too. You may add more parmesan for cheesy taste. Some people add wine in this dish and you may do so… and to make that dish more Italian like, add ricotta…                  

My Italian friend (former colleague) used to serve this dish in every party I was invited to, and its funny/lovely to see the person you talk to with black tooth when eating this dish… nice!!                             

Who got lucky to eat it?

 

And guess who got lucky to eat that Black Risotto… Naz, one of my regular reader a.k.a BarMan and colleague… I actually add 2 nos of ‘Lada Padi’ (hot chili) in that dish… haha, I just love it when its hot, hope you love that black rice Naz… next time, ask for more lada… lol! 
Naz, jangan ko marah gambarmu kluar yoo... suka ku nyimpan gambar mu sini ah hehe... 

            

Close up!

 

Dish garnished with chives (not actually chives tho, its spring onion…) at background Chef Jimmy staring at that Black Risotto with his sleepless posture, trying hard not to eat it while his saliva already dripping… haha!

                

 

 

I used Squid head… much presentable and looks very octopus-ish… ;)

           

Thats all for this time, hope you enjoy and have a great time...

Regards, Chef Nash

 

 

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