Squid and Garlic Butter Risotto

If you like garlic, you'll love this. A really good weekend meal, when you might have a bit more time than during the week to prepare something different







You need:

8 raw Baby Squid
150g Butter
1 Onion - finely chopped
1.2 litres Vegetable Stock (or Fish Stock)
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
280g Arborio or Risotto Rice
3 cloves Garlic - crushed
90g Parmesan Cheese - freshly grated
2 tablespoons fresh Parsley - chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Rinse the Squid well and pat dry using kitchen paper. Cut them in half lengthways, then score using a sharp knife. You want to make those nice diagonal cuts, but be careful not to cut all the way through the Squid.

Heat the Olive oil and 25g of the Butter in a large pan and wait until the Butter melts before adding the Onion. Cook on a medium heat for around 5 mins. You want the Onion to soften but not turn brown. Add the Rice and mix well to coat each grain in the Oil/Butter. Cook for 2-3 mins, stirring all the time.

Gradually add the Stock, a ladle at a time and keep stirring. Wait until the Stock is absorbed before adding the next ladle. After about 20 mins, you should have used most if not all of the Stock and the Rice should be creamy and just al-dente.

Now melt 115g of the Butter in a pan. Add the Garlic and cook gently for 2 mins. Increase the heat to high and add the Squid to the butter and Garlic. Cook for 2 minutes only and stir well every few seconds. The Squid should pop itself into a nice tube shape when cooked, if you had nice sized pieces and scored it properly. If not, just make sure you cook it for 2 mins and stir it well :-)

Remove the Squid from the pan and set aside.

Remove the Rice from the heat and stir in the remaining Butter and the Parmesan Cheese. Stir well to combine and make sure the Cheese melts

Spoon the Rice onto plates and arrange the Squid on top - depending how big your Squid pieces were, you may want to chop them up a bit first. Serve with some of the Garlic Butter poured over the Squid and sprinkle with the fresh Parsley.

Feeds 4