Shrimp Risotto

We’re back from our short get away. I want to thank you for leaving your lovely comments and have read all of them but need some time to reply and to visit you all. Hope to do this during the weekend.

This year we decided not to visit any island but went by car to a lovely place not far from Athens. It’s a small, picturesque village which you can see in the bay with a lovely beach, a few restaurants and cafeterias, no tourists, ideal to rest.

We stayed in a small hotel, on the beach which is on the other side of the road.

Today I had so many things to do, as tomorrow is a public holiday and all the shops will be closed, so we went to the farmers’ market, and then to the supermarket, so I decided to prepare something easy and quick.

This is one of our favourite dishes which the kids love and always fight about who is going to get more shrimps. I have tried it in the past with a certain arborio rice which I bought from a big supermarket but to be frank I did not like it.

I am not saying that arborio is not good but maybe that specific brand I found was not the best, so next time I shall try another brand and see how it works. Until then, I prefer to use a brand we get in Greece called carolina, which is a white, short grain rice, very flavorful and it yields a stickier, softer result. It is especially good when a creamy texture is desired and this is the rice we use in Greece for dolmades, rice puddings, soups and risotto.

This time I made a few changes to my old recipe, and to begin with,I increased the amount of garlic, which stayed in the dish, as I am becoming a garlic lover. This time I did not add saffron and as I bought some fresh mushrooms and bell peppers, I wanted to use both. However, as two of my children do not eat mushrooms and peppers, I sauteed them separately with a few spoonfuls of olive oil. When mixing in the shrimps I added some of this in the non stick frying pan and mixed them with the vegetables. This was definitely much better than the previous one as I love both mushrooms and peppers.

Servings: 5

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 finely chopped onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 500 grams carolina rice
• 1 kilo pack of frozen shrimps, preferable a big size, without the shells (needless to say that you can use fresh shrimps if you like)l
  
• 4 ripe tomatoes (or 1 can of whole tomatoes with juice, during winter), blended
  
• 2 - 3 spoonfuls of tomato ketchup
  
• 3 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar
• ¼ glass white dry wine
• 0,25 gr., of saffron preferably from Kozani (best quality) (optional)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of thyme
• broth we have boiled the shrimps
• parsley
• 4 mushrooms (optional), chopped
  
• 1 cup of chopped bell peppers (yellow, green and red)

Directions

After having all our ingredients ready, we boil the shrimps for only 5 minutes.

In a big skillet bring oil to heat, just to wet the bottom of the pan, and saute the onion and garlic and stir on medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add the rice and stir constantly until it is flavoured.

Then dissolve the saffron in the wine and pour in the saucepan until the alcohol evaporates, add the balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, tomato ketchup, salt, pepper and thyme and start pouring the broth, a ladle at a time until it is absorbed and continue until the rice is ready but still al dente, five minutes before it is ready add the mushrooms and bell peppers and the shrimps and stir.

Serve the rice sprinkling some finely chopped parsley and grate some parmesan on top, if you like but personally I don’t.

Tags: Easy recipes, Nistisimo, Seafood