Seafood Risotto

This is up there with one of my favourite dishes. Whenever I have it I just want to be sitting by a harbour in the sunshine with a chilled glass of wine. Anything with seafood is a winner for me, but there is something about seafood risotto which just feels so luxurious and special. The key is making your own stock with the shells from the seafood - this is what gives the depth of flavour to the risotto. Holiday on a plate.

Serves 4

1. First make the shellfish stock. Roughly chop an onion, two sticks of celery, two carrots and a bulb of fennel in a little oil over a low heat in large casserole pan until soft and caramelised (this can take at least 10 minutes). 2. Add a couple of crushed garlic cloves and then add the prawn heads, shells and four large deseeded and chopped tomatoes. Fry until the shells start to smell lovely and fragrant before adding 1 tbsp of fennel seeds and 1 tbsp of tomato purée. Stir well then add 200mls of dry white wine. Let this bubble away to almost nothing before adding one litre of fish or shellfish stock and simmering for 30 minutes. Strain the stock into a saucepan and keep it warm over a low heat before starting the risotto.
3. Next make the risotto. Gently fry a bulb of finely chopped fennel with an onion. Add 350g risotto rice and 150ml of dry white wine. Once the wine has reduced, slowly add the stock a ladleful at a time.
4. Steam 500g of scrubbed and debearded mussels for 3-4 minutes in a saucepan with the lid on and add their cooking liquor to the risotto. Keep some of the mussels in their shells for presentation and remove the cooked mussels to stir through the risotto later.
5. Once the rice is al dente, fry the prawns with some seasoning until lovely and caramelised. Stir 30g of grated parmesan through the risotto with some chopped parsley, 100g of frozen peas and lots of lemon juice and seasoning. Add the prawns and cooked mussels until just warmed through. Taste one final time and serve.