• Capital: Zagreb
• Population: about 4.1 millions
• Area: 56 594 km²
• Currency: Kuna

For my Croatian recipe I made black risotto. This recipe is a risotto made with seafood and more precisely squid. The risotto is made black by adding the squid ink to the broth.

Black risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup fish broth
• 3 pound squid
• 2 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 400g arborio rice
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 50g parmesan cheese
• A few stems parsley
• a few clams

Directions:

The first step is to clean and prepare the squids. To do so, you need to pull out the head from the main body, harvest the little pouch of ink that comes out with the head. The ink pouch looks like a tiny silver pouch. Reserve all the ink pouches in a container. Cut out the tentacles and remove the beak. There is a secondary ink pouch in the squids right behind there eyes. Harvest this ink in the container too. Discard the inside of the squid and run the main part of the body under cold water while peeling off the skin, cleaning the inside and removing the “feather” in the main body. You should end up with about 1 teaspoon of ink, the main body cut in rings and the tentacles.

Next prepare all your other ingredients. Chop the shallots, garlic and parsley. Grate the parmesan. Clean the clams with water. Measure out all the other ingredients.

Now that everything is ready, heat some olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium high heat. Add the shallots and cook them until translucent. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, add 1/4 cup of the fish stock and the squid. Cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, add the rest of the stock, the ink, the rice and most of the parsley (keep a little bit for garnish at the end). You can add more ink to make it a dark black if you can find some. Make sure the rice is covered by about 1/2 inch of liquid. If not add some water until is. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes covered. Once 15 minutes have passed, remove the lid and start stirring constantly for 5 minutes while cooking it on low heat. The risotto should start become creamier while you work out all the starch from the rice. If the risotto becomes too dry, add some water and keep stirring.

After 5 minutes of stirring and adding water if it becomes too dry, add the parmesan cheese and stir for 1 more minute. At this point the rice should be fully cooked and creamy. If it becomes too dry again, adjust with a little water again. At this point the risotto is done. Let it rest for 5 minutes.

During that time heat a little bit of white wine on high heat in a pot until it starts boiling. Add the clams and cover. Let cook for a few minutes. The clams should open. Once they are open, serve the risotto, decorate with some parsley and a few clams and serve.

Dobar tek!