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Arroz negro, or black rice, is a rich squid and rice dish made a generous amount of with squid ink and cuttlefish. This version from Nieves Barragán Mohacho is topped with homemade aioli and monkfish tempura. You can find a separate recipe for Nieves' monkfish tempura here.

First published in 2024

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Bisque

Alioli

Rice

Fondo

To finish

Method

1

First prepare the bisque. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Caramelise the prawns for a few minutes, then add the tomato purée

2

Cook for a few minutes, then add the alcohol and cook until it evaporates

  • 250ml of sherry, ideally La Gitana Manzanilla sherry
  • 200ml of brandy
3

Add the vegetables and cook them for 10 minutes, or until very soft, over a low heat

4

Add the 4 litres of water and the bay leaf, then simmer for 20 minutes

  • 4l water
  • 2 bay leaves
5

Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes, then pass the bisque through a sieve

6

While the bisque infuses, make the alioli. Preheat the oven to 180°C

7

Slice across the head of garlic just a little from the top to expose the inside of the garlic cloves

8

Drizzle the head of garlic with olive oil and season it with salt and pepper

9

Cook the garlic for 20–25 minutes until the cloves are nice and soft. Set aside to cool

10

Squeeze the cooled roasted garlic cloves out of their skins

11

Blend the roasted garlic to a paste with the raw garlic. Add the egg and yolks and blend again to combine

12

Whisk together the Arbequina and pomace olive oils together

  • 160ml of arbequina olive oil
  • 160ml of olive pomace oil
13

Very slowly drizzle the oils into the blender whilst it’s running, to emulsify them into mayonnaise

14

Season the alioli with the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste

15

Heat a pan over a medium heat and add a dash of olive oil. Cook the shallot for 5 minutes, making sure it doesn’t take on any colour

  • 100g of shallots, finely chopped
  • olive oil, for cooking
16

Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until it changes from opaque white to more translucent and then back to white again

17

Add the white wine and reduce until the alcohol has cooked off

  • 150ml of white wine
18

Add a bit of bisque and stir, then keep stirring and adding bisque until the rice starts to soften. You should need about 2 litres of bisque. Remove from the heat while the rice is still slightly undercooked

19

For the fondo, heat up a pan over a high heat, then add a dash of olive oil

20

Add the cuttlefish and cook until it loses all of its water, stirring if necessary

  • 500g of cuttlefish, cut into small pieces
21

Add the spring onion and cook for 5 minutes with the cuttlefish. Season with salt and pepper then finish with some parsley

22

To finish, heat up a tablespoon of oil in the pan, then add the rice and cook until it's warmed through

23

Add all the fondo to the rice, along with the squid ink and a few ladles of bisque

24

Cook the rice, stirring regularly, until it is tender and cooked through, adding more bisque as necessary

25

Drizzle in some arbequina olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper

  • arbequina olive oil, to finish
26

Serve garnished with the alioli, parsley and a sliver of dried chilli

A figurehead for Spanish food in the UK, Nieves Barragán Mohacho has won Michelin stars at multiple restaurants since moving to London from the Basque Country in 1998. At her lauded restaurant Sabor, she showcases the breadth of Spanish cuisine through simple but perfectly executed dishes.

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