Recipes

Servings

Ingredients

Smoked tomato:

1kg vine-ripened tomato

1 cup rice

Crayfish stock:

4 crayfish

1 carrot

1 head celery

1 bunch leeks

5g tomato paste

1 bulb garlic

Risotto:

250g Arborio rice

1 lime

1 bulb garlic

6 shallots, finely chopped

250g butter

25g basil

100g Parmesan

Risotto:

250g Arborio rice

1 lime

1 bulb garlic

6 shallots, finely chopped

250g butter

25g basil

100g Parmesan

Crayfish and smoked tomato risotto

Method

• Heat the oven to 40 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush it lightly with olive oil.  Blanch and peel the tomatoes, cut into quarters and dry off any excess moisture.  Keep the peeling and trimmings for the stock.  Dry the tomato gently in the warmed oven until slightly dehydrated, about 2 hours.
• Line a large wok or frying pan with two large sheets of tin foil with the edges long enough to be able to dover the lid.  Add the rice and 30ml water.  Sit the tomatoes on top of the rice and seal the pan with its lid.  Draw the tinfoil up and fold it back over the lid to completely seal the lid in the foil.  Place on very high heat on the stove and, once you see a little bit of smoke, leave it to smoke for approximately 8 minutes.
• Taste a small piece being careful not to burn your mouth.  You want the flavour to be intense but not to overpower the risotto.
• Separate the crayfish heads from the tails.  For the stock, roast the shells in a pot with 50g butter.  Add the chopped carrot, celery, leek tomato paste, 2 cloves of garlic, tomato trimmings and cover with water.  Simmer for 1 hour until the stock has a rich, sweet flavour.  Strain into a clean container and set aside.
• Clean the tails, season lightly with salt and pepper.  Seal in a ziplock or vacuum sealer.  Heat a sous vide to 48 degrees.  Immerse the vacuum sealed crayfish into the water bath and cook for 1 hour.  if you don’t have a sous vide, panfry in butter until just opaque immediately before serving.  Don’t overcook this sweet meat please!
• Add olive oil to a heavy-based pot and sweat off the shallots.  Keep stirring as you don’t want any colour.  Once translucent, add the rice and cook for 4 minutes, stirring.
• Gradually add the hot crayfish stock, stirring occasionally.  The rice should absorb the stock before you add more stock.  Continue adding stock until the rice is al dente.  Don’t overcook the rice either!  It should take about 10-12 minutes.
• Once the rice is cooked, add the smoked tomatoes and slowly incorporate the remainder of the butter, basil and finally the Parmesan.  Leave to rest for 2-3 minutes.
• The risotto should be rich and creamy.  If it is too dry, add a little more stock.
• Remove the crayfish from the sous vide.  Fry the tails in a pan in foaming butter until lightly  brown.
• Serve topped with more basil.