Recipe
Seafood Rice
Serves
4
Active Time
25 MIN
Origin
ALENTEJO
During tomato season, there are no bad cooks.
— PORTUGUESE SAYING
With modern refrigeration and easier transport, seafood rice has ceased to be, among us, a dish exclusive to the coast. But there is nothing like eating it by the seaside. It can be made with any seafood, without excluding any, but the one that perfumes it best is still the affordable cockle (berbigão). The rice must be of the carolino variety, using all its starch to bind the small grains. Also indispensable to its preparation are plenty of garlic and cilantro, and to satisfy its enormous greed for fat, a generous amount of olive oil, an ingredient for which this dish is highly demanding. Use an intensely fruity extra virgin olive oil, such as those from Moura or Trás-os Montes.
THE RECIPE
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 350 g of carolino rice
- 1 kg of cockles (berbigão)
- 300 g of clams (amêijoas)
- 250 g of shrimp (camarão)
- 4 scarlet prawns (carabineiros)
- 3 good cloves of garlic
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1.5 dl of extra virgin olive oil
- Salt, pepper, piripiri (chili pepper)
Preparation
Separately, place the cockles and clams in abundant water with a little salt for a few hours to remove any sand. Then, pour a glass of water into a pot, bring it to the heat, introduce the cockles, and then the clams, removing them as they open. Remove the shellfish from their shells and reserve the water. Cook the shrimp and scarlet prawns in boiling water seasoned only with salt for the time necessary to be able to peel them. Remove the shells and heads from the shrimp, leaving the head and tail fin attached to the scarlet prawns. Cook the shells and heads of the seafood in the water they were boiled in. Blend everything in a blender cup (or with a hand blender) and combine it with the liquid released by the cockles and clams when opening. Strain everything through a double layer of cheesecloth. Chop the garlic cloves and some cilantro—finer leaves and stems—and place them over the heat with the extra virgin olive oil. Let the garlic brown very lightly and pour in the seafood stock, which should measure at least 3 times the volume of the rice. If necessary, add plain water to reach this amount. Taste the broth for salt, add a little pepper, and then, with the broth boiling, introduce the rice (which has been rinsed under running water) and a little piripiri. Let it cook only for the required time. About 2 minutes before the end of cooking, add the cockles, clams, and shrimp. Adjust the seasoning. Arrange the scarlet prawns over the rice and serve without delay.
Note:
We consider the indicated amount of liquid sufficient to obtain a "wet" (molhado) seafood rice. If you prefer what is called "arroz malandrinho" (saucy, loose rice), the amount of liquid can go up to 5 times the volume of the rice. From that point on, what you get is a soup to be eaten with a spoon, rather than a rice dish.