Tuesday 9 October 2007

Almost as good as venice.....

Well this is the cuttlefish risotto i had at the seafood festival in Hastings at the end of September:


i also had a look though my Flickr album for photos of the cuttlefish i had in its ink in Venice. but there are only "the aftermath" photos of me with black lips. that wasn't a risotto though, that was simply the cuttlefish in an inky sauce served with grilled polenta.

anyway so my expensive squid and ink sacs (she did give me an extra ink sac just in case one burst) came to just under £7 in the end. it was a fairly large squid i will admit but still I'm sure the fishmonger in Ongar would have some cheaper than £19.50/kg!!!!


anyway so i was torn between serving it on some wholewheat pasta or as a risotto, but i settled on the latter. i chopped and sweated off some spring onions (i couldn't be bothered to go to the shed and get a whole onion) and 1/2 a clove garlic then added the risotto rice. i used veggie stock to add to the rice and then started making a real mess in trying to burst the ink sacs and add the ink. i was quite surprised at how thick the ink was. it was more like the thickness of runny honey rather than a liquid.

i chopped the body of the squid into rings and chopped up the tentacles and added them once the rice was cooked and i had turned the heat off.

this was the final dish:

and it was delicious. if the ongar fishmonger sells whole fresh squid and ink at a cheaper rate then i will certainly be doing that one again!

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