Prawn risella

It was Saturday night and I hadn’t shopped but I had some prawns in the freezer that I bought off the fish man and I had some bomba rice that’s used for paella but I didn’t have all the other paella bits and pieces. Would bomba work as a risotto I wondered? Only one way to find out.

It did! Lord it was beautiful! The bomba actually gave a lovely separateness to the dish, where risotto can be a bit claggy after a while (I often give up half way through) this was far more interesting on the tongue and teeth.

Anyway as it’s risotto made with paella rice I’ve called it risella. Bound to catch on.

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients

olive oil
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 fat clove of garlic, very finely chopped
1 small red chilli, very finely chopped
200g of bomba rice
couple of large glugs of white wine (I had to use some Stella I found in the garage!)
fish or chicken stock, probably about 700ml but I didn’t measure. You can use boiling water and a stock cube.
4 dessert spoons of full fat creme fraiche
some large squeezes of fresh lemon
handful of chopped parsley
sea salt
coarse ground black pepper
knob of butter
two heaped teacupfuls of prawns – I used frozen cooked
grated fresh Parmesan

Instructions

In a large heavy high-sided frying pan heat the olive oil and gently fry the onion, garlic and chilli until the onion is softly translucent. Add the rice and stir so it’s shiny and coated in oil then turn up the heat and pour the wine it, it should sizzle and spit a bit. Give it all a stir and cook the wine off for a minute then start adding the stock a mug’ish at a time stirring a bit and waiting til it’s absorbed before adding the next. Along the way add plenty of salt, some pepper and the creme fraiche.

Continue adding stock until the rice is cooked, it should retain a little bit of bite, unlike risotto.

About 10 minutes before you think the rice will be done fry the prawns in some olive oil and butter, with salt and pepper and some chopped parsley. If they’re frozen they will create water, tip that off so they’re being fried rather than boiled.

When the risella is done, and you’ve tasted it and it’s seasoned perfectly, serve it in bowls topped with prawns, plenty of Parmesan, black pepper and a sprinkle of the remaining parsley, plus a squeeze of lemon.

Nutrition Info

Prawns

Prawns are rich in selenium which, with iodine, plays a significant role in healthy thyroid function. They also have a good amount of vitamin B12 to help production of red blood cells.

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