Garlic Prawn Risotto

This is my garlic prawn risotto. I mean, have a look at these gorgeous prawns for a start. I do love prawns. I love garlic. I'm loving all the ingredients. Yeah. We're going to be using a lot of butter. All right. I'm just going to be straight out from the start. But in the meantime, would you be able to start by chopping up all this garlic? Of course. That's a lot of garlic. That's eight cloves of garlic we're using today, but it is a garlic prawn risotto, so it wouldn't be garlic prawns without lots of garlic. So I've got some shallots here, just two large shallots that I'm just going to thinly slice. So it's a bit of a winter warmer. Risotto is one of those ones that's quite comforting. So what's your tip, then, to stop it from being just kind of gluggy? Butter helps, and lots of parmesan at the end. But I think not overcooking your risotto is one of those fine lines, because I don't like my risotto too raw, where it's still chalky. It's getting that perfect midpoint where the rice isn't overcooked, but not too chalky either. Now, I'm using a good quality Australian organic butter. We're going to be using the whole packet of butter today. Don't... OK. I know. But stay with me. But if I'm going to use this much butter, it has to be the best quality. On that, we agree. And I do love to support Australian producers. So this is a really nice quality butter. Absolutely. So we're going to go with half the block. That's going to go into our pan first. I'll just chop it to help it along the way to melt. That's going to go into our pot, which has been just heating on medium-high heat. We've got two litres of chicken stock here, which is just coming to the simmer, just warming up, just relaxing. Now the shallots can go in. And presumably, if someone's, like, you know, a pescatarian or something, we could use a veggie stock or... Yeah. ..other kind of stock. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right. Our butter's melted. Shallots are just sweating away, doing their thing. That garlic, if you would just want to scoop all of that up and throw all of that in now. Next step, Arborio rice goes in. This was one and three quarter cups of Arborio rice. Boom. In we go. And it's really important at this stage, you want to stir your risotto to really coat every grain of rice in the butter and the shallots, all the good stuff. You're almost toasting it off a little bit, kind of like when you're making a paella, you want to toast the rice off. It's a really important step that you can't skip when you're making a risotto. OK, so that's beautiful. The rice has been covered by all that buttery goodness. Now some, just some white wine. In we go. When recipes say use a dry white wine, I'm like, I don't even know what that means. I'm just going to put whatever I've got in the, in the fridge. All right. So we just want to cook that alcohol off and we just get left with that beautiful white wine flavour. All right. The white wine's absorbed. Now it's the really fun part. We've got our warm stock here. So one ladle at a time. This is where we get romantic. Why is this? I've never understood that. Why has it always got to be added so slowly? Is it to get the amount right or? Yeah, well, if you try to add all of this liquid at once, you're almost shocking the, shocking the rice. It doesn't know what to do. It's like swimming in the deep water. It needs to just a little bit at a time, just gently, gently. And you're just gradually teaching them how to swim. All right, Jo. So I'm just going to keep adding this one ladle at a time till all the stock's nearly used up. We'll add the prawns and we'll be nearly there. Okay. All right, Jo. Our risotto has come to the texture that I like. I'm going to turn off the heat. Okay. Now I just added those prawns in the last couple of ladles because you don't want to overcook prawn. No one loves an overcooked prawn. No, and they don't take long, do they? They only take a couple of minutes in there. So that's good. Heat off. Do you need all this cheese? We just want about a cup, about a cup worth. That'd be great. So final flourishes. In with that other half of our beautiful, organic, Australian-owned butter. Support your local dairy farmers, guys. In we go. And then some of our chopped chives, a good handful of chives and a good handful of parsley. Plenty of fresh herbs in there. I do like this part. All the greens going in. Absolutely. You're keeping me happy. And you'll be happy with this, some baby spinach. Absolutely. Baby spinach goes in. Now, the residual heat from that risotto will just help to wilt that spinach a little bit because we don't want to overcook the spinach. OK, and we'll give this a stir around. That is a gorgeous amount of cheese. I like your style, Jo. I do like my parmesan, I have to admit. Oh, beautiful, freshly grated parmesan. And freshly grated just makes such a difference. You can't beat it. OK, all of that goes in. And then we just want to give this a nice... This is where the magic happens. The butter and the cheese and those fresh herbs. Oh, it really does. I was thinking it was looking too liquid, but actually you're right. It does all just come together. It all just starts to come together. And you get the most gorgeous, luscious, silky risotto. Perfectly cooked. And those prawns, I mean, all I can smell is garlic. But this is a garlic prawn risotto. So it is what it says on the tin, guys. But give this one a go. And... I love my garlic, so it's OK. I'm one of the ones where if a recipe says two cloves of garlic, I'm putting six. All right, we are ready to serve. We've got our beautiful bowl here. What about the lemon? I might go... Are you going to do that on top of the bowl? Yeah, would you be able to do a final flourish on top? I sure can. That'd be great. Now, we want to make sure we get a good amount of these gorgeous prawns. I have to admit, Tim, that is the best-looking risotto I've seen. For a garlic prawn risotto, I mean, lots of butter, lots of cheese. That's what we want today. All right, one more prawn on there, sitting up proudly. Now, if you could give that a good whack. And you'll be surprised, the lemon zest really does make a difference. It just helps to lift and freshen everything up automatically. Just a little bit of salt on top, not too much. And would you be able to pass me the pepper? A good hit of freshly ground black pepper on top. Maybe a couple more of these beautiful fresh herbs. See, this is where we can tell that you're a pro, Tim. Hardly. All right, let's have a taste. Oh, plump prawns. Oh, yum. It takes you back to garlic prawns, but just reinvents it a little bit. Yeah, it's delicious. That is so much more delicious than the stodgy risottos that I turn down in restaurants, I have to admit. Well, Tim, it's definitely comfort food. I'm feeling comforted. But yeah, a little more elaborate than I think I went for the very easy, everyday option of getting your roast veggies in. I love that. But this was delicious, I have to admit. A little bit more indulgent, but I think there's a time and a place for both. They both hit the mark, I think, for winter warming foods. Yeah, should we go and enjoy the rest of it? Delicious, yes.