The northlondonhippy

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

First of all, to avoid any confusion, there is no such thing as a “hippy crab”. If you go to your local fishmonger demanding one, he will look at you like you are crazy.

You’re not crazy, are you?

I don’t normally post recipes, but in the real world, I’m actually a pretty damn good cook. I’ve been cooking for decades, having honed my skills by watching TV chefs over the years and mixing and matching the techniques I’ve picked up along with combining interesting ingredients. Its like art with food, only hand-eye coordination doesn’t play as big a part.

I’ve seen crab risotto on restaurant menus, but I’ve never tried it. That doesn’t mean I can’t make a good one. And if I have nothing to compare it to, then it must be perfect already.

What follows is my made-up recipe for crab risotto, with helpful hints along the way. I have cooked risotto many times in the past, so I am not a total beginner.

You’ll need:
- one medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 fresh cloves of garlic, chopped
- butter and olive oil
- 500g Arborio Rice (its meant for risotto)
- 1.5 litres of stock (chicken or vegetable)
- 20cl white wine (appx one glass)

For finishing:
- 100g white crab meat (sometimes called lump meat, its already cooked)
- 10g chopped chives
- 10g chopped tarragon
- juice of one fresh lemon
- cream or creme fraiche
- 50g freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 50g frozen peas
- 10cl sherry (not cooking sherry, the real stuff)

Here’s a photo of the main ingredients:

Hippy Crab Risotto Ingredients

(Missing: Yellow onion, frozen peas, sherry, butter, olive oil)

You need a large sauce pan (or pot if you prefer) and you will only need the lid at the very end, so put it to one side.

Put the saucepan on the hob over a low heat and let it warm up a bit. Cover the bottom of the pot with a bit of olive oil and a bit of butter, basically enough so when you add the onion and garlic, its covered and coated with it. You don’t need to use extra virgin olive oil, cheaper oil is fine. Extra virgin is cold pressed, so its a bit pointless to use when you are going to heat it up. Save it to dress your salad!

Sweat the onions and garlic until they are soft, tender and a bit translucent.

sweating the onions and garlic

While the onions and garlic are cooking, mix up your 1.5 litres of stock. I use Swiss Bouillon Vegetable Stock, but you can use anything one that you like. You can do this in a second saucepan, but my method is to mix 500mls at a time in a pyrex measuring jug and an electric kettle.

Swiss Bouillon

You can’t just use any rice for risotto, Arborio is the best. The reason is the high starch content, which is what makes it thicken.

Gallo Organic Arborio Rice

Once the onions and garlic are soft, turn the heat up high and add the 500g of Arborio Rice to the pot, stirring continuously, so it doesn’t burn, for around 2 minutes. You want the rice to be infused with the flavours and oil.

frying the rice for 2 minutes

After 2 minutes, lower the heat and then can begin to add your hot stock. The normal advice is to ladle it in gradually from a second pot, and as the rice absorbs it, add a bit more, but I don’t do it that way. Instead I add the stock a 1/3 at a time, in 500ml increments. The heat should be on lower, so the stock simmers.

stock added to rice

Whether you add the stock in a little at a time, or in stages, its important you keep on stirring. Also add the 20cl of white wine. From here, it will take about 20 minutes for the rice to cook and for the texture to become creamy and sauce-like.

Once the rice is cooked, give it a little taste to see if it has the correct consistency. If it is still too firm, cook it longer, but the rice should not become too mushy either. Al dente is what I am looking for, it should have a little bite, but not be too hard or soft. You’ll know it when you taste it. That’s the basis for all risotto recipes, from here you can mix in what you like.

Now, time to add the additional ingredients to finish the dish. Add the crab meat and stir it in, followed by the lemon juice. The fresh white crab meat is the one luxury ingredient and I’ve used Cornish because I know it is sweet and very tasty. You could easily used tinned, or a mix of brown and white meat.

Fresh white crab meat

Once its all mixed through, add the frozen peas, they will quickly defrost and heat up. Then add the juice of one fresh lemon and the sherry and mix them in.

Time for the fresh herbs, toss the tarragon and chives into the pot and stir them in too. You can chop the tarragon with a sharp knife, but its recommended you use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the chives.

Fresh herbs

Finally, add a large spoonful of the creme fraiche and a the grated parmesan cheese and stir some more. Put the lid on the pot, switch off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes, so everything is at a nice even temperature. Give it a final taste, to check the seasoning. I’d add freshly ground black pepper at this stage, and salt only if I thought it really needed it. With the cheese, crab and stock, the salt will probably be OK, I don’t use much salt when I cook, so its up to you.

The dish is now finished and ready to serve, you can hold back some chives and grated cheese to garnish the top once its on the plate.

The finished risotto, ready to be served

Serve it with a fresh green salad and warm crusty bread. Yummm.

Hippy Crab Risotto is served!

And that my friends and hippyfans is Hippy Crab Risotto. If you cook it up yourself, email me and let me know how you make out! Enjoy!