Arroz de Marisco
Portuguese Soupy Seafood Rice
This is rice you eat with a spoon. It should arrive at the table loose and brothy, the grains just tender, the shellfish only that minute opened. If it sits and tightens into something like a risotto, it has waited too long, which is why Portuguese restaurants bring it out in the pot and expect you to start at once.
Seafood rice is cooked along the whole coast and was one of the seven dishes chosen in the 2011 public vote on the wonders of Portuguese gastronomy. In restaurants it is usually made to order for two or more and served from the pan.
Recipes vary a good deal. One of the two read for this version layers crab, lobster and prawns over a tomato and pepper base; the other uses only mussels and prawns and far more liquid. What they share is the base of onion, garlic and tomato, and coriander at the end.
Ingredients
For the base
- 45 ml olive oil (3 tbsp)
- 1 large onion (about 200 g), finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
- 2 ripe tomatoes (about 300 g), chopped
- 3 tbsp passata
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- A pinch of chilli flakes
- 200 ml dry white wine
- 1.2 litres hot fish stock, plus 200 ml kept hot in reserve
Rice and shellfish
- 300 g carolino rice (see substitutes)
- 500 g live clams
- 500 g live mussels, scrubbed and beards pulled off
- 300 g raw king prawns, shell on
- A small bunch of coriander (about 20 g), roughly chopped
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
- Lemon wedges, to serve
Method
- Soak the clams Put the clams in a bowl of cold water with 1 tbsp salt for 30 minutes so they spit out any sand, then lift them out and rinse. Tap any open clams or mussels on the worktop and throw away those that do not close.
- Cook the base Heat the oil in a wide, deep pan over a medium heat. Cook the onion for 8 to 10 minutes until soft and pale gold. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, passata, bay leaf, paprika and chilli and cook for 5 minutes, until the tomato has broken down into a thick sauce.
- Add wine and stock Pour in the wine and let it bubble for 2 minutes. Add 1.2 litres of hot stock and bring to the boil. Taste and season: the broth should be well seasoned now, as the rice will dull it.
- Cook the rice Stir in the rice. Simmer uncovered over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice so nothing catches. The rice should still have a firm centre and be swimming in liquid.
- Add the shellfish Push the clams and mussels down into the rice, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add the prawns, cover again and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until the prawns are pink all over and the shells have opened. Throw away any clam or mussel that stays shut.
- Finish and serve The rice should be just tender and the whole dish loose enough to move when you shake the pan. If it has tightened, stir in some of the reserved hot stock. Stir in the coriander and take the pan straight to the table with lemon wedges and spoons.
Food safety
Buy clams and mussels live and cook them the day you buy them. Before cooking, discard any with broken shells or that stay open when tapped. After cooking, discard any that have not opened. Prawns are cooked when pink and opaque all the way through.
Have everybody sitting down before the shellfish goes in. The rice goes on absorbing liquid off the heat and will be stodgy in ten minutes.
Shell-on prawns give the broth more flavour. Peel them at the table.