Seafood Made Simple: Smoked haddock risotto is a comforting family meal

This weekend’s recipe is a dish I love to make at home

Risotto is a dish I go back to time and time again. Picture: Chani Anderson

Risotto has been a dish I have loved and cooked since I was 16. It was Jamie Oliver’s pea, mint, and feta risotto that I cooked most. Easily accessible and economical ingredients were perfect for my young aspiring chef self who spent much of her time burning the base of pots, scrambling custards and scattering flour all over my mum’s kitchen.

A dish I go back to time and time again, risotto is excellent for the family meal of our 12-person team at Goldie. Sometimes it’s an out-there pearl barley and kimchi risotto to nourish us before service, other times a more straightforward arborio-based lunch.

This weekend’s recipe of Smoked Haddock Risotto is a dish I love to make at home. Smoked fish is so comforting and an easy thing to have stashed in the freezer when you’re looking for a mid-week seafood fix and can’t get to the fishmongers. Perfectly paired with the creamy cooked arborio, it’s a hug-giving bowl of joy.

In need of some hugs and joy, like so many of the hospitality industry, last week I joined a couple of hundred chefs, producers, restaurateurs, writers, educators, and activists from across Ireland and beyond at JP McMahon’s Food on the Edge.

Two days of thought-provoking talks and master classes hosted by the incredible team at ATU Galway, the theme of proceedings this year was ‘A Sense of Place’. This year I was honoured to be asked to host a Whole Catch Approach masterclass. Demonstrating how we utilise the most of each fish, I filleted a whole cod and hake, assisted by Goldie chef and star of the future Anna Heveres. A fantastic couple of days of excellent food, conversation and the sharing of information affirms both the generosity and importance of Irish hospitality.

Smoked Haddock Risotto

recipe by:Aishling Moore

Risotto is a dish I go back to time and time again

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 onion. finely diced

• 1 stick celery, finely diced

• ½ leek, finely diced

• 1 small fennel bulb, finely diced

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• ½ tsp white pepper

• Sea salt

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 65g butter

• 300g arborio rice

• 125ml white wine

• 1.2ltr fish stock

• 1 side/250g natural smoked haddock, diced in 1cm pieces

• 100g frozen peas

• 1 bunch parsley, chopped

• 1 lemon

• Cracked black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy based pot and gently sweat the onion, celery, leek, and fennel for five to six minutes to soften and sweeten, being careful not to allow the vegetables to catch.

2. Season with salt and white pepper.

3. Add the garlic and sweat again gently for two minutes.

4. Add the butter, allow to melt and then add the arborio rice and cook for two minutes, stirring to make sure all the grains of rice get coated in the butter.

5. Season with sea salt.

6. Add the wine and cook for two minutes, to allow the rice to absorb the wine and cook off the alcohol.

7. Using a ladle or a measuring jug, add approximately 100ml of the warmed stock to the pot at a time, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon allowing the rice to absorb all the stock and release its natural starches before adding any extra. This will take 20-25 minutes over a medium heat.

8. Once all the stock has been absorbed, add the diced smoked haddock and frozen peas and cook for two minutes until the fish has warmed through and flakes when pressed with a spoon.

9. Add the chopped parsley, the juice of half a lemon and season with salt and lots of black pepper.

10. Serve immediately.