As Easy as Cake at Isabella’s

Crispy on the outside, creamy yet chewy in the center, and embracing morsels of luscious seafood – Lobster and Shrimp Risotto Cakes...

Crispy on the outside, creamy yet chewy in the center, and embracing morsels of luscious seafood – Lobster and Shrimp Risotto Cakes highlight the versatility of rice at Isabella’s Estiatorio, a Greek-influenced, Mediterranean restaurant in Geneva, Il. Chef Sean Eastwood relies on U.S.-grown arborio rice to create a diversity of tastes and textures in this popular specialty. Eastwood cooks the rice with stock and finely diced onions and leeks until it is slightly underdone, then mixes in sauteed lobster claw meat and Gulf shrimp.

Next, using the lid of a spice jar as a mold, he forms the mixture into disks. “The rice has sufficient starch to hold together without any binding agent,” he notes. He coats the cakes in panko crumbs, pan-fries them in butter and completes the plate with Romesco sauce, buttered leeks and kalamata olives. “Any item featuring lobster and shrimp flies out the door,” declares Eastwood. And the risotto cakes are the perfect foils for such crowd-pleasing favorites.