Salmon, prawn & fennel risotto

Before attempting this recipe, if you haven’t seen it, I suggest looking at the (short) article wrestling with risottos, which has some general advice and tips on making a perfect baked risotto.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 tblsps olive oil
• 1 large salmon steak, skinned & cut into chunks
• 150 g cooked prawns
• 1 small fennel bulb, roughly chopped (or a medium onion if you don’t have a fennel bulb)
• 1 heaped tsp fennel seeds, bruised in a mortar & pestle
• 1 garlic clove (crushed or finely chopped)
• Zest and juice of ½ lemon
• 170 g risotto rice
• 1 heaped tblsp grated gran padano or parmesan cheese
• 1 tblsp parmesan shavings
• 2 rounded tblsps ricotta
• Handful chopped fennel tops
• Salt & pepper
• 700 ml liquid made up of fish stock (½ stock cube and hot water), white wine, the lemon juice and any juices from the fish / prawns (if you were using frozen prawns or fish – see notes at the end)

Pre-heat oven to 150 ºC

Method

1. Chop the onion and garlic, and bruise the fennel seeds; gently fry all three together until the onion has started to soften
2. Add the lemon zest and rice, and stir (gently) until rice grains are fully coated. Put the casserole dish into the oven to warm through
3. Add the liquid (see notes below on how I make up the liquid) and stir
4. Add the salmon chunks and prawns and stir; heat gently until just beginning to simmer
5. Tip into the casserole dish and stir to even out the mixture; put into the oven for exactly 20 minutes (well fairly precisely)
6. Remove from oven, stir in the ricotta until it starts to dissolve; sprinkle over the fennel top and gran padano / parmesan and stir in, folding the mixture over. Return to the oven for another 12-15 minutes (depending on how firm you like your rice)
7. Remove from oven, sprinkle parmesan shavings on top and cover with a cloth for a minute – and serve at once

Notes:

I made up the 700 ml cooking liquid as follows: I first dissolved the ½ stock cube in a minimum quantity of hot water (say 100 ml), and added that to the pan. Then I put the liquid that came off the frozen prawns I was using as they thawed into a jug, tipped in some wine (probably about 200 ml) and the lemon juice, then added water to make it up to 600 ml.