King Prawn Risotto with Chilli Jam

This recipe is from Neil Perry's cookbook Rockpool. It looked relatively simple...it is after all just a risotto and it would have been relatively simple too if I had already made the stock and chilli jam but as I hadn't it took me 5 hours from start to finish...luckily I started at 3pm!

The first step was to make a chicken stock to use in the prawn stock. For this you simply slow cook a corn fed chicken (whole chicken cut into pieces) in water for 3 hours then strain the stock well through a muslin cloth lined strainer.

I did remove the flesh from the chicken and will be having it in a chicken sandwich for lunch. Corn fed chickens have a definite yellow colour and the flesh is meant to be more flavoursome which is why I guess Neil chose it for the stock. I could only buy a frozen corn fed chicken so had to defrost it in cold water for 3 hours before I could even start cooking.

To make the chilli jam you dice some spanish onions, long red chillies, small Thai red chillies, ginger, garlic and capsicums.

 You add these ingredients to 6 cups of vegetable oil heated until smoking. Yes 6 cups!!! The oil overflowed everywhere when I added the vegetables so take care if making this chilli jam. You cook the vegetables until they start to turn golden then add in some cherry tomatoes and continue to cook until dark golden. The recipe makes mention that once they start to colour they will blacken quickly so I kept close watch. This process took at least an hour which seemed a very long time!

You then add in castor sugar and fish sauce and blend the jam. The end result is a lovely thick, rich jam. There was a lot of oil that rose to the surface after the jam settled but the recipe suggests you leave this as it will help preserve the jam in the fridge.

This recipe made a huge amount of jam which seemed a bit odd when the risotto recipe is only made to serve 4. Oh well, we will have yummy chilli jam in the fridge for the next month or so. I think I would try a different recipe for chilli jam next time that didn't use so much oil and there are plenty of them on the internet.

The next step was to make the prawn stock for the risotto. This is made by frying prawn heads and shells along with some diced carrot, onion and garlic for 10 minutes. Next you add wine and cook until it reduces, finally you add some diced tomatoes (blanched, peeled and seeded first) and the chicken stock made earlier. This stock is left to simmer for one hour before being strained.

Finally after all this preparation I was ready to make the risotto (and had sore feet from standing at the stove!). To make the risotto you crush some coriander roots with some sea salt and fry in a little olive oil with some diced onion and garlic. To this you add the Arborio rice (a short grained rice with a high starch content perfect for making risotto), stir until sticking then add some wine and reduce. Next you add in the prawn stock one ladle at a time, stirring and allowing the rice to absorb the moisture each time before adding more. Once the rice is soft but still firm to the bite you add in the remaining 2 ladles of stock, prawns (green prawns which have been pan fried in some olive oil), butter, grated parmesan, halved fresh baby corn (which has a crisp texture and subtle, sweet flavour and is delicious in stir fries), fresh peas (yes I shelled some fresh peas!) and fresh water chestnuts (I couldn't buy fresh ones so used canned, these are also delicious in stir fries and add great texture). Stir and allow to come to the boil then put the lid on, remove from the heat and sit for 4 minutes. Finally stir through some coriander leaves.

Serve the risotto in bowls topped with some of the tasty chilli jam.

This was a lovely meal however if I made it again I would prepare the stock and jam in advance so it wasn't such a long procedure!

Rating 8-9 out of 10.