leek and feta risotto

I looked at all the pods from the broad beans, and thought “I should be able to make some stock with those”, so I threw them in the slow cooker with some water for a few hours.

There were two rather tired leeks in the fridge, so they were sliced and sautéd in olive oil and butter, then I added 5 oz of arborio rice and stirred it round.  I added some finely chopped lemon balm from the garden too.

Then in went 1 pint of the pod stock (which was not great, but OK), bit by bit, stirring as I went to allow the rice to absorb it..  Some sea salt and black pepper, and half a block of feta at the end, chopped into small chunks, which made it nice and creamy.

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asparagus and feta risotto

There are some foods we only eat when they’re in season in the UK, and asparagus is one of them; thus we tend to rather gorge ourselves on it at this time of year.  Although we are back on a veg box, we couldn’t resist a big bunch of the glorious green stuff while we were mooching along Gloucester Road last weekend.

As my regular reader (waves to Giles!) will know, we like risotto - for two people, 5oz of risotto rice and 1 pint of liquid (and yes - I know I should go metric on this, but it’s easy to remember), and you’re away.

So - chopped up a red onion and sautéd it in some olive oil, while I chopped half the asparagus into manageable lengths, and cooked it for five minutes.  The liquid was the juice of half a lemon, about half a pint of apple juice, and topped up to the pint with water.  Usual process - add rice bit by bit, add stock till rice plump, rinse and repeat.  Before the last add, I hurled in the asparagus, and a dash of salt and pepper.

At the end, I stirred in half a block of feta cheese.  Fab.

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fennel and chickie! risotto

We had a lovely free range roast chickie! on Bank Holiday Monday, which has pretty much dominated our food this week. Last night - risotto.

As I always say, 5oz risotto rice and 1pint of liquid feeds two hungrish folk. The liquid last night was a mix of lemon juice, rice wine and the indispensable Marigold veg bouillon.

Chopped the fennel and a red onion, and fried very slowly in butter and olive oil until the fennel was cooked. Added the rice, and stirred it round. Added the liquid bit by bit, each time waiting till the rice absorbed the liquor. When it was almost all added, popped in some seasoning, and some shredded cooked chicken, then finished off the liquoring.

Quick, simple, tasty. Try it.

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duck and fennel risotto

As my regular reader will know, we eat a lot of risotto, but curiously I haven’t made one for ages. We roasted a duck over the Easter weekend, and when I boiled up the carcass for stock, quite a lot of meat came off.

Meals for the next few days had been sort of planned, so I stuck the meat in the freezer for a rainy day.  It didn’t rain yesterday, but there was a bulb of fennel that needed eating up, so the duck was pressed into service.

For two people, use 5oz of risotto rice to 1 pint of  liquid.  For this one, I used the juice of a lemon, some rice wine (well, it was handy!) and water to make it up, with a good pinch of Marigold vegetable powder.

Sliced the fennel fairly thinly, and chopped a red onion, and set them to sauté in some oil and butter. When they were soft, I added the rice and stirred it around to coat it, then started to add the liquid a slosh at a time.  Stir it around until the rice has absorbed it, then add more.  Strictly speaking, you’re supposed to keep the liquid simmering, but I generally don’t bother.  I seasoned with salt and black pepper at some point during the proceedings.

The duck got added with the last slosh of liquor.  The whole process took about 20-25 minutes.  It was very nice.

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the risotto that wasn’t

using up: smoked trout, a bulb of  fennel

We like risotto; sometimes I make it in the oven, and sometimes I stand over the pot, ladling in stock.  Whatever, I know my 5oz of rice to 1 pint of liquid works.

Today, I thought I’d try the slow cooker.  I did a bit of Googling, and came up with a couple of ideas.

So, chopped the fennel and a red onion, put it in the slow cooker on high with a little olive oil, left it for an hour and stirred, left it for another hour and stirred again.  OK so far.

Added 5 oz of arborio, and 1 pint of veg stock (made with the ever wonderful Marigold bouillon).  Bit of seasoning, knob of butter.  Sorted.  Turned down to low, left for an hour, stirred it, all was well.

Came down half an hour later, zapped a piece of hot smoked trout with some butter in the microwave for 90 seconds, flaked it, opened the slow cooker and … overcooked.  Ho hum.

Still, not a disaster - added the fish, lobbed in some double cream before serving, and hey presto, fennel and smoked trout kedgeree :)

I don’t know whether I cooked it too long, or there was insufficient liquid, or whether I should have put the stock in cold (there was hot water in the kettle so I used it).  But it was still very nice, and the cats enjoyed the fish skin!

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cabbage and pancetta risotto

As you may recall, we have a bit of a cabbage glut, so I’ve been desperately trying to use them up.  This is what I did on Friday night, and it worked rather well!

Sliced a red onion and sautéd it in some olive oil with a packet of pancetta cubes.  While that was cooking, I made up a pint of chicken stock (using a cube - but it was organic, at least).  Weighed out 5 oz of Arborio rice.  Thinly sliced about 1/3 of a green cabbage.

Added the rice to the onion mix and turned it around till it was coated.  Splashed in some stock, stirred until it was absorbed.  Carried on in this vein until half the stock was gone, then added the cabbage, and some seasoning.  Continued with stock adding and stirring.  Once all the liquor was absorbed, tested for crunchiness and seasoning.  Added some parmesan shavings.

Nice.

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cabbage and chicken risotto

using up: cabbage, the very last of last week’s roast chicken.

Now, I really didn’t expect this to work at all, but it was really nice, and will be added to my repertoire of cabbage recipes; we get a lot of cabbages in the veg box, so a new dish is quite exciting!  I think it would work with pancetta instead of chicken, and any other cabbage, although denser ones would need to be steamed first.

My base for risotto for two is 5 oz of arborio rice, and 1 pint of liquid - this can be stock, lemon juice, wine, vermouth, whatever, or any permutation thereof.  I once tried coconut milk, and it worked really well.  People say you should keep the stock bubbling, but I’m afraid I don’t bother.

Quartered an onion, then cut it into rings.  Sauteéd it in some olive oil and butter until soft.  Prepared a pint of vegetable stock using Marigold bouillon powder and boiling wter.  Put 5 oz of risotto rice into the pan and stirred it about to coat it in the buttery oily mix.

Started adding the stock a bit at a time, and kept stirring until the rice absorbs the liquid, then added some more. Kept on doing this.  When about half the stock was gone, added about a quarter of a savoy cabbage, sliced very finely into ribbons, and stirred that in.  Added some sea salt and freshly ground cabbage.  Kept adding stock.  When about a quarter of it left, added some shredded cooked chicken.  Kept adding stock.

I suppose it takes about 20 minutes, although I’ve never timed it.  At the end of the process the rice should be al dente.  We finished it off with some parmesan shavings - sounds grand, but I just take them off with the potato peeler :)

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fusion risotto

using up: cold roast duck, 1/4 tin coconut milk

Now, this really was quite barking, and I wasn’t at all sure it would work, but nothing ventured, etc.

As I said, there was more duck left on the carcass than we thought, so risotto seemed appropriate.  Basic rule of risotto in this house is 5 oz risotto rice to 1 pint liquid; the liquid can be anything you like, or a permutation there of - stock, wine, lemon juice, water.  So, I thought, in a mad, end-of-the-week sort of way, why not use up the bit of coconut milk left from the spring greens the other night.

So: one leek, fairly finely chopped, sautéd in olive oil and butter; I like butter in a risotto.  Put the coconut milk in a jug and topped it up to a pint with water, added a pinch of Marigold vegetable powder.  If you don’t have this in your larder, I strongly recommend you get some - it’s a great invention.

Put the rice in with the leek and stir it around to coat it, then start adding the liquid.  I will confess here that I used to be bone idle, and put all the liquid in at this point and bung the dish in the oven, but what with the price of gas these days, I’m trying to use the hob more, so I’m actually doing it risotto in a more tradiitonal way.  I don’t keep the stock bubbling on the hob though, I’m afraid; purists, feel free to tut.

Add the liquid bit by bit, stirring all the while so that it is absorbed by the rice, then add a bit more.  When I’d used almost all the liquid, I put in the shredded duck, some sel gris, and black pepper.  And then I threw all caution to the wind, fully embraced the Thai / Italian fusion thing, and added some lime juice.

It really had no business working, but it was gorgeous. Only very slightly coconuty, but a beautiful texture and the flavours went together really really well.  I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to recreate it, but I might try - prawns would work instead of duck.

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ris e bisi

This is one of our favourite things - you can use frozen peas for the, er, peas, but you really do need the pods for the stock, so we only have it in summer.

Take about 500g of peas in the pod, and shell them.  Put the pods in a pan with about 1l of chicken stock (we had some from the shoup I made yesterday, but a stock cube is fine), bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Drain the stock, and put the pods on the compost heap.

We had some lovely spring onions from a friends garden, so we chopped up some of those, and sautéd them in olive oil with some pancetta.  Then we added the stock, and 6oz of risotto rice (I know - I’m mixing the measurements here; sorry).  Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for 15 minutes.  Then add the peas, and simmer for another 5 minutes.  Add some shavings of parmesan and that’s it.

Serve it in bowls, as it is quite a soupy texture.

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asparagus and feta risotto

I didn’t take a photo because, to be honest, I was exhausted from too much Wii Tennis in the heat! So you’ll have to be satisifed with a repeat of the asparagus photo.

I’m a big fan of risotto, although I must confess here to generally doing them in the oven as [whisper] Delia Smith taught me. Friends have insisted that these dishes are most emphatically not risotto, but should instead be described as oven baked rice dishes, which seems a bit purist, but there you go.

However, last night I did this the proper way, and here’s how:

This serves 2 fairly greedy people.

Finely chop a large shallot or two, and sauté in olive oil and butter over a low heat. Take a bunch of asparagus, trim off the woody bits, then chop into lengths of, oh maybe 2 cms, leaving the tips whole. Sling them in the pan and stir about for a bit.

Take 5 oz of arborio rice, and stir that in until the grains are coated.

Now you want 1 pint of liquid, made up as you like. I took the juice of a lemon, a goodly sloosh of vermouth (3-4 fl oz), and made it up with water, and added a pinch of the wonderful Marigold bouillon powder. Set that in a pan, bring it to the boil and keep it on a low simmer.

Now sloosh spoonfuls of hot stock into the rice mix, one at a time, stirring every time until the liquid becomes absorbed. It’ll probably take 20-25 minutes for this; it depends on the rice and the heat of the pan and so forth.

Then add as much feta cheese as seems reasonable, chopped into small cubes, and stir about until melted.

Pour into a bowl and devour.

Ours was followed by a nice mug of Assam tea, and banana muffins, but these aren’t essential. I suppose.

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