Risotto is everywhere and it is a real treat. All kinds of risottos out there...with sea food, meat, poultry, so which one to choose?
Choose each and every one of them as long as you keep this one #GoldenRule!
Rice comes from South Asia and it is a plant that grew there naturally. The ancient Chinese and Indians thought of it like the "gift from the Gods". In excavations in the valley of the Yangtze river, scientists fount rice seeds together with neolithic tools that belonged in a neolithic civilization resided in the area about 8.500 years ago.
Alexander the Great in his conquests in Asia had crews of scientists, naturalists and herbalists and they found the rice and spread it to Africa and Europe.
The Greeks, historian Herodotus, philosopher Theophrastus from the island of Lesvos and Julius Pollux Greek sophist and rhetorician from the ancient Naukratis in Egypt write about rice in the Ancient texts. But despite this, in Ancient Greece rice was not considered a food of value for the area of Greece. This is because in Greece the quantity of protein was more important in their diets and the ancient wheat seeds that were used were very rich in protein. This dietary habit continued until the years after the WWII.
So when Europe was destroyed and the US send help through the Marshal Plan rice became more of a value in Greece because Americans thought that this could save the populations of Europe. So the famous risottos started emerging in Italy and Greece and the paellas in Spain.
Today's Recipe:
Risotto with shrimps and tuna
160gr Big shrimps
150gr Tuna from a can or fresh
1 tea cup of rice for paella
3 tea cups of water
3/4 tea cup of olive oil
1/2 tea cup of ouzo
1 tea cup of tomato puree
salt & black pepper
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 a tea cup of dried thyme
1 teaspoon of turmeric (this is not Greek authentic)
1. Take the tuna #fish and put sea salt all over it.
2. Put it in a cooking paper only (no baking pan) and put in a preheated oven in 180c/air/middle scale for 15 minutes.
3. Take the fish out and clean the bones.
4. Put in a skillet or a wok that has a glass lid the #shrimps and the tuna (if you choose a can tuna dry it from its liquids).
6. Let the heat in the highest temperature and when the oil starts to simmer and makes this sound (you'll know), mix the ingredients and let them simmer for only 1 minute. We don't want them fried just "oiled" as my grandma used to say .
7. Put the Ouzo and leave for 1 minute then put the tomato puree and the water.
8. Put the salt, pepper and #thyme, put the lid on and let it come to a boil. Then lower the temperature for #slowcooking. Cook for 10 minutes.
9. Put the #rice in and leave until the liquids are reduced to almost gone. Don't make it too dry though.
#GoldenRule number 1: Watch for it but never take the lid of!
The Secret:
#GoldenRule number 2: Never ever put butter!
Bon Apettit!