Arroz de marisco: Portuguese seafood rice

Ingredients

• For the refogado
• 80 ml olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 medium green or red pepper, finely chopped
• 150 ml dry white wine
• For the stock
• 1 litre shellfish stock, built from prawn heads and shells simmered with white wine and tomato
• For the rice
• 300 g short-grain rice
• For the shellfish
• 400 g clams, scrubbed
• 400 g mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 300 g prawns, heads and shells reserved for stock
• To finish
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• 30 ml olive oil, for finishing
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, to taste

Method

1. 1
   Simmer the reserved prawn heads and shells in the white wine with a roughly chopped tomato and enough water to yield 1 litre of stock. Pass through a fine sieve and keep hot. The stock is ready when it is deeply coloured, aromatic, and tastes of the sea.
2. 2
   Warm the olive oil in a wide, deep pan over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cook, stirring, until fully softened and beginning to colour at the edges. Add the garlic and cook one minute more. Add the tomato and press it into the base, cooking until the mixture darkens to a unified, jammy mass and the raw smell of tomato is gone — this is the refogado. Season it with purpose; the base is everything.
3. 3
   Pour in the white wine and let it reduce by half, then add the hot shellfish stock. The ratio of rice to liquid must be approximately 1:4 by volume. Bring the pan to a lively simmer.
4. 4
   Add the clams and mussels to the simmering broth. Cover and cook until every shell has opened. Discard any that remain shut. The broth will now carry the full flavour of the shellfish. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the shellfish must open in the broth — not be pre-cooked and added later — and must not be left so long that they tighten and turn rubbery.
5. 5
   Add the short-grain rice directly to the broth and shellfish. Stir once to distribute. Cook uncovered over a steady simmer, adding further hot stock if the pan tightens, until the rice is 85 per cent cooked — tender at the edge, with a faint chalky resistance at the centre.
6. 6
   Add the prawns to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes only, until they are pink through and just firm. The rice will finish cooking in the shellfish liquid during this final interval.
7. 7
   Remove from the heat. The correct texture is loose — spoonable, not moldable, almost pourable. If the pan has tightened, add a splash of hot stock. Finish with the chopped cilantro and a pour of olive oil. Taste and correct the seasoning. The cilantro should smell vivid and green the moment it hits the hot rice.