This is the second recipe for a black rice on the blog – actually the first one was for black paella, called often black rice. This one contains a cuttlefish called in Spanish sepia or jibia and is based on the recipe from Ferran Adrià book: ”The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià”.
salt
This is a kind of hot and very thick sauce, used as a base, which contains mainly: onions, tomatoes and garlic – sometimes herbs are added: thyme, rosemary, coriander etc. All ingredients are chopped very finely and fried in olive oil until totally transformed into mush. Normally sofrito is prepared in cast – iron frying pan and over a very law heat.
Grind the garlic clove and onions in food processor. Transfer the mixture into a frying pan with hot olive oil in it. Fry till golden brown. Add chopped herbs, stir well and lower the heat. When the onion and garlic mixture is brown, add 1 tablespoon of tomato puree. Fry for a few minutes, add salt and the rest of the tomato puree. Fry for 30 minutes more, stirring from time to time and being careful not to burn it.
The Picada is one of the basic elements of Catalan cuisine. It is one of a culinary techniques used to blend and thicken juices in meat, fish or rice dishes. Normally, the picada is prepared in the mortar and contains: almonds, hazelnuts or pine nuts, bread and some liquid – olive oil or broth. Besides, saffron, parsley, chocolate or cinnamon is sometimes added.
Put the saffron in a piece of aluminium foil and place it on a hot frying pan. Toast during 2 seconds. Put the garlic and the parsley into a food processor or a mortar. Add the saffron, the olive oil and the hazelnuts. Grind till smooth, but still with little pieces of hazelnuts.
Cut the cuttlefishes in small pieces (2 cm, more or less). Heat the olive oil and fry pieces of cuttlefishes during 2-3 minutes, over a high heat. Add the sofrito and fry over medium heat during 10 minutes (add a little bit of water if necessary). Add the rice, stir well and after 2 minutes add one ladle of hot fish broth. Continue adding the broth every time the rice absorbed almost totally the liquid. Finally, after about 5 minutes, add the ink mixed with a little bit of hot broth. Stir well, lower the heat and cook for about 17 minutes, but this time without stirring. After this time, add the picada and a little bit of salt, to taste. Stir well and after 1 minute remove from heat, cover with a lid and let it rest during 5-10 minutes.
