Traditional Spanish Black Rice

Black rice (arroz negro) is a preparation from the Spanish Levante that is usually cooked using a paella. The interesting part of this food is the use of squid ink, which gives it is characteristic black colour as well as a spectacular flavour.

Spanish Black Rice

Taste Evocations

With this recipe you will learn how to prepare a traditional Spanish black rice that you surely will love. Thanks to an amazing fumet (seafood stock) and the squid ink, you will enjoy one of the most special dishes of the East of the Iberian Peninsula in a very easy way.

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Prep Time 1 hr

Cook Time 30 mins

Resting Time 5 mins

Total Time 1 hr 35 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Spanish

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

Seafood stock (fumet)

• 750 mL water
• 1 onion
• olive oil
• 375 g monkfish
• 6 king prawns or similar optional
• springs of parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to taste

Rice

• 200 g bomba rice or albufera
• olive oil
• 1 big tomato or 5-7 small tomatoes
• 0.5 teaspoon granulated sugar
• Half an onion
• 6-8 strands of saffron
• 375 g squid
• 8-12 g squid ink
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon Spanish mild pimentón or mild paprika

Instructions

 

• First, we are going to prepare a fumet (a seafood stock), which will give the dish a very distinctive flavour.

  In a big pot at medium-low heat we sauté a roughly chopped onion with some olive oil. Once it gets translucent, we also add the monkfish in smaller chunks (and whole king prawns if you have some) so that everything browns a little bit.
  
• After 5 minutes, we add 750 mL of water to the pot, as well as some parsley and bay leaves and let this boiling for an hour.

  If it reduces too much, feel free to add more water.

  In the meantime, we are going to prepare the rest of ingredients.
  
• Whilst the stock is boiling, we can blend the tomatoes.

  In our case we have remove their skin prior to blending. You can find how in the notes section at the end of this recipe.

  Once we have obtained a very liquid, soup-like texture we add half a teaspoon of sugar to the tomatoes.
  
• We triturate the half onion so that we get very small bits.

  With a knife, we thinly slice the garlic and cut the squid in bite-size pieces.
  
• After the stock has been boiling for an hour or so, we strain the content of the pot. For this dish we will use the liquid, but you can find a recipe to use the seafood leftovers at the end of this recipe.

  We should have around 500-525 mL of stock, otherwise we add more water.

  In a mortar we crush the strands of saffron and add them to the strained liquid. Add salt to taste and mix everything very well.

  The idea is that we adjust the salt levels to the stock now so that we don’t have to add more salt to the rice later.
  
• In a pan that does not have a Teflon surface we add a bit of olive oil at medium heat to sauté the squid.
  
• Once the squid starts turning slightly brown or dark pink, we incorporate the half onion we have triturated earlier and after a couple of minutes, the sliced garlic.
  
• Once the onion is translucent, we add the tomatoes and after reducing quite a lot, we incorporate the Spanish pimentón (or mild paprika) and mix everything very well.

  It is very important to keep mixing so that the spices don’t get burnt.
  
• After half a minute, we add the rice and squid ink and mix very well once more.
  
• Now it is the time to add all the stock (fumet) and increase the heat level to high so that it starts boiling.
  
• Once it reaches the boiling point, we cover the pan and let it cook at low-medium heat for around 15 minutes.

  In our case we have a ceramic hob with 9 levels and placed it on level 3.
  
• After those 15 minutes, we uncover it and let it cook at the same heat level for 3 more minutes to reduce the liquid. After this time, it should look like there is not a lot of moisture, otherwise leave it for a couple more minutes.

  Finally, if you want to get a crunchy layer at the bottom (socarrat), you can put the heat at maximum level for 30 seconds.

  Then remove it from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
  
• And… our black rice is ready! Bon appétit
  

Notes

1. You can prepare some amazing Spanish croquetas (croquettes) with the leftover seafood. You can follow our recipe and just change the “cochinita pibil” filling for seafood. Make sure you use a food processor or a blender to get a homogeneous mixture of seafood before starting to prepare the dish.
2. To blanch the tomatoes in order to peel them, firstly you have to remove the core from the upper part and make an “X” at the bottom with a knife. Then submerge them in boiling water for 10-30 seconds (will depend on the size of the tomatoes) and take them to a recipient with water and ice to stop them from continuing cooking. Then it should be fairly easy to remove the peel.
3. Black rice is usually served with aioli.

Keyword fumet, levante, paella, Rice, seafood, squid ink, stock, traditional