Black rice recipe (arroz negro) with cuttlefish ink

Black rice, arroz negro, which many people search for as squid ink rice, is a seafood rice that owes its colour to ink: in this recipe, the ink of the sepionets (baby cuttlefish). This recipe, with quantities from Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, prepares it in a casserole and finishes it in the oven.

What it is and what goes in it

It is a rice of cuttlefish (or of sepionets, small cuttlefish), fish fumet and ink. Besides that, a short sofrito of garlic and tomato. The rest — prawns, squid, mussels — depends on the day and on the fish market. What can’t be missing, says the source itself, is the ink. Allioli, the garlic and oil sauce, is its natural companion.

The ink and the sepionet

Cleaning the sepionet is the slow part. You have to remove the cuttlebone (the hard inner shell) and the stomach without breaking the ink sac, which you keep in a bowl. With sachets of ink the process is easier: Directo al Paladar dilutes it in a small glass of hot water before adding it. The ink stains hands, boards and cloths, so wear an apron.

The stock and the proportion

The Comunitat Valenciana recipe uses 350 g of rice and 1.25 litres of fumet, a ratio of one to three and a half. Other recipes go from one to two up to one to five: the Turismo de Alicante one, for example, uses 400 g of rice and two litres of fumet. We have stuck to the base source’s ratio rather than mixing them: each recipe balances the stock with its own rice and oven. The small-fish fumet is the flavour of the dish, so don’t skimp on it: you have the recipe for the fish fumet, which makes about 2 litres, plenty for this casserole, and what a fumet is in the glossary.

From the hob to the oven

It starts in the casserole, with the sofrito done and the stock boiling. When the bomba rice goes in, you stir it and wait about 5 minutes before putting it in the oven at 180 °C. The oven spreads the heat through the whole casserole without you having to watch the flame. At around 16 minutes, it is ready. The mussels, boiled separately, go on top, opened.

There is another way: the Martí Domínguez book makes it directly in the paella pan, over the heat, like the arroz a banda, and the Comunitat Valenciana page itself says it is cooked in the same pan as other rice dishes. But its downloadable recipe, the one we follow here, makes it in a casserole and finishes it in the oven.

Variants you will come across

What goes with the cuttlefish changes from one kitchen to the next. The Martí Domínguez book makes it only with cuttlefish and its ink, garlic, a small onion and paprika, and water instead of fumet. Directo al Paladar adds peeled prawns, green pepper and white wine, dilutes the ink in a small glass of hot water and lets the rice rest covered with a cloth. None changes the essentials: cuttlefish, ink and a good stock. The one we follow here is the Comunitat Valenciana one, the simplest. If you like fish rice dishes, also try the arroz del senyoret, all peeled, or the fideuà de Gandia, with noodles instead of rice.

Typical mistakes

• Too little ink. Without it, it isn’t black rice, just a rice with cuttlefish. Count on the ink from each sepionet.
• Too much or too little stock. With too little, the grain stays hard in the oven; with too much, it comes out soupy. Measure the fumet.
• Salting blind. Correct the salt when the stock boils and before adding the rice, not after.
• Opening the oven every two minutes. It cools down and the rice cooks in fits and starts.

Allergens

Black rice contains molluscs (sepionets and mussels) and fish (the fumet). If the allioli contains egg, it contains that too. Tell your guests: they are on the list of the 14 allergens and Regulation 1169/2011 makes it compulsory to tell them.

Cooking for a group

Black rice suits a long lunch well, because it is made in the oven and doesn’t need you standing over it. To work out the shopping, there is the guide to how much rice per person. And if there are 40 or more of you, we cook rice for groups live: see our paella and show cooking.