Don't Sweat the Aubergine

they’ve soaked. Try also cubes of squash sautéed with the onions; or roast them and add them at the end.
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WHY YOU DO IT
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    1 • For a risotto, use risotto rice . It is worth being a purist and buying an Italian rice, such as the widely available arborio, for your risotto. Some aficionados insist on carnaroli. Anna del Conte reports that the Veneti make their seafood and vegetable risotti with vialone nano. You generate the starchy consistency of risotto by frequent stirring. The Italian varieties will absorb a great deal of liquid, and endure a great deal of stirring, without breaking up.
    2 • Thick pan . You need a thick-bottomed pan. It doesn’t matter if the risotto sticks a little, and if the stuck bits are stirred back into the rest; but in a thin pan the stuck bits will burn. You might use a thin pan and a heat disperser, but that arrangement will hamper you somewhat as you stir, and will mean that adjustments of heat take a while to be effective.
    3 • Ladleful by ladleful . There are two reasons for this instruction. If you use too much liquid, you risk overcooking rice that should, in the finished dish, be
al dente
, with a chalky quality; and the stirring of rice in a little liquid produces the creamy consistency that risotto-lovers prize. Nevertheless, I am in heretical agreement with Richard Ehrlich, who in
The Perfect
… makes a case for adding a decent quantity of liquid at first. Then, after stirring it about a bit, you can leave the pot for long enough to allow you to grate some cheese, or prepare a salad, before the stock is absorbed and you need to add more. The important point is to be cautious when adding liquid after a quarter of an hour or so, because you should stop cooking when the rice is plump and at the
al dente
stage. Keep tasting it. If you run out of stock, use boiling water from the kettle.
SEAFOOD RISOTTO
    Claudia Roden (in
The Food of Italy
) says that in the Veneto, where seafood risotto is a speciality, they cook the rice in plenty of stock, rather than adding liquid gradually. I haven’t come across that observation elsewhere, although I can see that the less unctuous consistency that this method produces would suit fish and shellfish well.
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    You add the rice to a pan of simmering fish stock ( see here ) and simmer it until it is
al dente
, hoping that the moment of readiness coincides with a reduction of the liquid to your required consistency. If there’s too much liquid, drain some off when the rice is ready; if there’s too little, add some more hot stock or some boiling water. Meanwhile, you cook some mussels ( see here ): a reduction of the mussel liquor, consisting of wine and juices from the shellfish, goes into the pot with the rice. Soften some onions ( see here ), and fry some prawns with them. (If the prawns are uncooked, that is: fry them in their shells, and wait for them to go pink. If the prawns are cooked, simply warm them through in the risotto.) When the rice is ready, you stir in the mussels, prawns and onions.
    The best fish for risotto is a firm variety such as monkfish, which won’t break up when you stir it into the rice. Add it to the pot about 10 minutes before you think the rice will be ready.
    In
Gammon and Spinach
, Simon Hopkinson offers a short cut for those without the wherewithal to make a fish stock: use a bottle or two of fish soup. You could make a very nice, straightforward dish by preparing a risotto as in the basic recipe above, with hot soup substituting for the stock, and by adding towards the end of cooking some thawed frozen prawns.
    The one point on which all writers are agreed is that you should never add cheese to a seafood risotto. It is an unpleasant combination. The Italians don’t add cheese to seafood pasta dishes, either.
PAELLA
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    For 4
    20 mussels
    glass of white wine
    4 chicken thighs or drumsticks
    4 chorizos (the uncooked sausages, not the salami-style stuff)
    1 onion, chopped
    2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into strips
    2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
    400g rice (a Spanish one if you can find it, or an Italian risotto rice)
    1.25 litres chicken stock
    20 prawns
    1 sachet of saffron, or 1/2 tsp saffron threads, dissolved in stock
    Handful of parsley, chopped
    Steam the mussels ( see here ) with a glass of white wine. Remove the opened ones from the pan, and boil the liquor until it has reduced by half.
    In a little olive oil and at a moderate heat, fry the