Fusion meal - Prawn Risotto with Japanese rice

I didn't want to open up my new bag of risotto rice so I went with a short grain rice to cook this dish although I reckon you could do this with Thai rice as well.  This dish is gluten free and low in fat - perfect for us single ladies.  The cooking time is relatively long mainly because of the rice.  If you want a speedy meal, I suggest cooking the rice first but then it wouldn't be as flavourful as it would be if you follow the recipe.  So, the ingredients are:

• 5-6 prawns per person (my dog ate 1 prawn...it dropped onto the floor during the shelling)
• 100g of spinach leaves or asparagus
• 1/4 cup of Japanese rice (or any type of rice)
• 100g river clams
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 dessert spoons of Parmesan cheese (optional)
• 2-3 cups of water 
• 2 tbsp white wine or vodka
• salt and pepper to taste

Please shell the prawns and then boil them in the water with the river clams.  Reduce until it is about 2 cups of liquids.  Set this aside and it will be used later.  Alternatively, just use any type of stock that you prefer.

Method:

1. In a heated saucepan, put some olive oil and fry the minced garlic. 
2. Once the garlic is golden brown, fry the prawns until half cooked.
3. Add in the washed rice and stir
4. Add in the stock that was prepared earlier
5. Add in the white wine
6. Stir in the spinach
7. Stir continuously until rice is cooked (you may need to add in a bit of stock and stirring is very important because it will stick to the sides)
8. There should be some liquids left at the point in time.  To thicken the rice, add in 1 dessertspoon of the cheese
9. Stir until the cheese is melted and fully incorporated into the rice
10. Serve and garnish with the remaining amount of cheese

For an extra oomph, drizzle a little bit of truffle oil.  There are tons of variations that you can do to this recipe.  You can swap the prawns with fish/mussel/chicken/bacon.  If you want to do a vegetarian version, use only mushrooms and I suggest mushrooms such as button or portabello. 

As mentioned earlier, this is not a quick dish so be prepared to stand in your kitchen for about 20 minutes at the stove.  You could dump everything into a rice cooker after the frying of the garlic and prawns but you'll run the problem of the bottom bits sticking together. 

I think that this fusion dish brings the best of Italy and Asia together...no? Haha...have fun and eat well!