Black rice with calamari and aioli

At home we simply love rice. My friends usually have a ton of different pastas and, instead, I have half a cupboard filled with rice: risotto, bomba, sushi, round, long, basmati, jasmine, the so-called wild rice… It’s one of my addictions and I tend to cook rice three times a week. Is that a lot? I don’t think so! The thing is that sometimes I need to find inspiration for my recipes and, thanks to some blogger friends (Alfonso De Rechupete and Belén Cocinar para 2) I found the web El arrocetario. There’re so many rice recipes there!

As you can see, today I’ve travelled to the Mediterranean and I’ve prepared a very easy recipe of black rice with calamari. I had cooked black rice before, but this time I confess I got the inspiration from a recipe of black rice with squid on Thermomix from the webpage I mention above. I have prepared it the traditional way, on my paella pan, and I’ve used calamari instead of squid. I used the ink from the calamari and, though the result has not been as black as it could have been with a sachet of ink, it was delicious!

To accompany my beautiful black rice I’ve prepared a traditional authentic aioli, that is, no-egg-garlic-mayonnaise. If vampires existed, I’m completely sure they would be miles away from me because of the amount of garlic I usually eat. Not only due to its medicinal properties, but because I loooove the taste. 😀 But, don’t worry, I never eat too much of it before an important meeting or so. Just in case… 😛

Black rice with calamari and homemade aioli

• Servings: 4
• Time: 40 minutes
• Difficulty:  easy. For those who can clean calamari and are able to separate the ink without making a mess. 😉

Ingredients

• 450 g calamari, squids or small cuttlefish (with their ink)
  

  Basic ingredients

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 2 green peppers
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 sachet ink (optional)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup round rice Sabroz
• 1 litre fish stock

For the aioli

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 4-6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

 Instructions

1. Clean the calamari, discard the insides and the cartilage (that thing that looks like a piece of transparent plastic) and remove the inks very carefully.
2. Finely chop the onion and the green peppers. Take a big pan and stir-fry the onion and peppers with the olive oil.
3. Heat the fish stock.
4. Chop the calamari in halves and add to the stir fry. Cook until golden. Add salt.  
5. Add the inks and if it’s not black enough, add the sachet of ink. Mix well and cook for two minutes.
6. Pour the white wine and cook for a few minutes, until the alcohol evaporates (2 minutes should be enough).
7. Add the round rice Sabroz and blend in with all the ingredients. It must get all the flavours and turn slightly blackish.  
8. Pour the fish stock slowly, stir and let it cook for 15 minutes at medium heat.
9. When it’s been cooking for 15 minutes, check the rice. It should be almost perfect. Turn the heat off, cover the pan and let it sit for 5 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, prepare the aioli. You’ll need a pestle and mortar. Add the salt, garlic cloves and crash until it is a paste. Pour olive oil VERY slowly and keep stirring until it is creamy.  
11. Serve the rice with the aioli on the side (not everybody is a garlic lover! 😉 )

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