Recipe - Prawn Sweet Cicely And Tomato Risotto

550 g Headon raw prawns in their
shells or
; 500g/1lb 2oz headless raw
prawns in
; their shells
1 One fourth l Vegetable or chicken stock
85 g Unsalted butter
2 Shallots; chopped
2 Garlic cloves; chopped
300 g Risotto rice eg vialone
nano; arborio or carnaroli
1 small Spri rosemary; 4 cm long
1 Bay leaf
250 g Ripe tomatoes; skinned,
deseeded
; and chopped
1 Generous glass dry white
wine about 200
; ml
2 tablespoon Chopped parsley
3 tablespoon Chopped sweet cicely
30 g Parmesan cheese; freshly
grated
Salt and pepper

1 Peel the prawns, keeping the flesh. Heat 15g/ 1/2oz butter in a pan big
enough for the stock with room to spare.

2 When foaming, add the prawn shells and heads and stir about until they
turn a pretty shellfish pink. Add the stock and 600ml/1 pint water and
boil. Simmer for 30 minutes to draw out the prawn flavour and strain.

3 For the Prawns: If you can see a black line running down their backs,
make a slit with the tip of a sharp knife down the back and remove the fine
black gut from just below the surface. If they are tiger, king or a type of
large prawn, halve or third each one.

4 Boil the stock again if necessary and reduce the heat to a thread so it
stays hot and does not boil away. Melt 45g/1 1/2oz remaining butter in a
wide pan.

5 Fry the shallots and garlic very gently in the butter until translucent,
without browning. Add the rosemary, rice and bay leaf to the pan and stir
round for about a minute until the rice becomes translucent.

6 Add the tomatoes, parsley and wine. Season with salt and plenty of
pepper, and bring to a bare simmer. Stir the rice mix continuously until
all the liquid has been absorbed. Add a generous ladleful of stock, and
stir until all that has been absorbed too.

7 Repeat until the rice is tender but with a slight firmness to it, though
definitely not chalky. The consistency should be verging on soupy, as it
still has a couple of minutes to go.

8 The time taken for the liquid to be absorbed and the rice to be cooked
should be about 2025 minutes.

9 Finally stir in the prawns and the sweet cicely and cook, stirring for
another 23 minutes, until the prawns have turned pink. Stir in the
remaining butter and Parmesan, taste and adjust the seasoning, and then
serve.

Converted by MC_Buster.

Recipe by: Sophie Grigson

Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.