Few dishes sound as decedent as a creamy seafood risotto. While this dish is a bit time consuming, don’t be intimidated. The individual steps are actually very simple. If there is ever a time to pull out all the stops, Valentines Day Dinner is ideal. This dish will impress your valentine for sure.

Valentine’s Day Dinner: Seafood Risotto Recipe

Image Via: Food.NineMSN.AU

Ingredients:

½ pound calamari, cut into rings

½ pound mussels, cleaned and de-bearded

½ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ pound crabmeat

2 cups Arborio rice

5 cups fish stock

½ cup white wine

3 shallots

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pinch of saffron

Pinch of red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons parsley

½ cup parmesan cheese

 Image Via: Pintrest

Directions:

1. If needed, clean the seafood before starting. Soak and rinse the mussels until all sand has been removed. Shell and devein the shrimp. Clean the calamari and slice it into rings. Pick through the crabmeat to ensure that it is free of any cartilage.
2. Thinly slice the shallots, mince the garlic, and roughly chop the parsley.
3.  In a pot, heat together the fish stock, white wine, red pepper flakes, and saffron. Turn the heat to low, but ensure that it stays warm for the remainder of cooking.
4. Heat the butter and garlic together in a large skillet. Sauté the shallots and garlic in the mixture for 1-2 minutes or until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant. Add in the uncooked rice, tossing to coat in the oil, until the grains are lightly toasted.
5. Cook the rice by adding a ½ cup of the warmed stock to it at a time. Stir the rice constantly, until the liquid has been completely absorbed. Then, add another ½ of stock. When finished, the rice should look creamy, but the individual grains should still be firm in the center.
6. Meanwhile individual cook each seafood component before setting them aside for later. Boil the mussels until they open. Then de-shell them, disregarding any that remain closed. Sauté the shrimp and calamari until they are just barely cooked through.
7. When everything is cooked, assemble the risotto by adding in the seafood, cheese, and parsley to the rice. Give a few quick stirs to distribute everything throughout the dish.
8. Serve warm, garnished with a few reserved pieces of seafood.

One of the great features of this recipe is that it is entirely customizable to your tastes. Don’t care for mussels and shrimp? That’s fine, substitute a meaty white fish. Or, try mushrooms, fennel, and fontina cheese for a vegetarian alternative. Once you are comfortable making risotto, you’ll want it for every special occasion. Let this Valentine’s Day Dinner be the start of a beautiful relationship. What Valentine’s Day dinner ideas do you have?

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