Bacon & Asparagus Risotto

This lovely risotto isn't the risotto it should have been - although as it worked out, it was fairly exceptional in its own right.

You see, we had invited my parents over for lunch last week.  It seemed like a good moment, as son & heir was on holiday and we hadn't had them over to our place for quite some time.

However, we hadn't banked (and neither had he) on son & heir going down with what appeared to be a nasty cold, just two days before they were due to come.  Poor chap, he wasn't very well at all, and as my Dad is isn't in his first flush of youth, we figured that he could do without contracting such nastiness.  So, it was regrettably all called off - the day after we'd done all the shopping for the meal.

We had planned for hubby to make a Prosciutto, Asparagus & Petit Pois Risotto.  Problem number one came when the supermarket didn't have any Prosciutto.  We bought some bacon as a fall-back position and crossed our fingers that we'd be able to find some elsewhere.  In the circumstances we didn't need to - and the bacon got press ganged into use.

The Petits Pois got abandoned when we realised that we had double the quantity of (Moroccan - it'd be absolutely fabulous with English) Asparagus necessary to feed three people - and the Bacon & Asparagus Risotto was born.

Like a lot of recipes, this simple to make, comforting and very satisfying taste of Italian indulgence came out of necessity rather than via a recipe book.  I like it when that happens!

BACON & ASPARAGUS RISOTTO  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

500g asparagus, cut into pieces

250g streaky bacon, grilled and liquid fat reserved

25g butter

1 tbsp olive oil

2 banana shallots, diced finely

1 clove garlic, minced

320g arborio or carnaroli rice

half a glass of white wine

2 ham stock cubes in 1.2L of water

1 tsp dried basil

50g grated parmesan.

Method :

1.  Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil and, while you are waiting for it to boil, prepare a bowl of cold water with a tray of icecubes in it.

2.  Once the water is boiling, add the asparagus pieces and cook for 3 minutes.  Retaining the water, remove the asparagus and place into the iced water to stop the cooking process and retain the bright colour.

3.  Grill the bacon until the fat has rendered out of it.  Reserve the fat and slice all but 2 rashers into small pieces and reserve.

4.  Chop the remaining two rashers until finely minced and set aside.

5.  Now we get on with the risotto itself.  Using the cooking water from the asparagus, prepare the stock with the dried basil and have this simmering in a saucepan next to the risotto pan.

6.  In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and add the olive oil.

7.  Add the shallots and cook until softened, but not browned.  You want to keep the colour of the rice as pure and white as possible.  If you allow the shallots to brown, which will affect the colour of the end risotto.

8.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add the rice and half the bacon.  Cook and stir on as hot a heat as you dare, until the rice is completely coated in the buttery juices.

9.  Add the wine and continue to cook until it has sizzled all the alcohol out - a mere 30 seconds to a minute.  Stir continuously.

10.  Add a ladleful of stock and stir until the rice has absorbed the stock, then add another ladleful and stir.  Continue in this fashion until half the stock has been absorbed, then add the remainder of the bacon.

11.  Continue with the ladleful of stock and stirring, until the rice has become tender to the bite.

12.  Drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto, along with the Parmesan cheese.  Give everything a good stir and then leave, with a lid on, to rest for 5 minutes.

13.  Serve onto warmed plates and garnish with an asparagus point and the minced bacon.  A bowl of additional grated parmesan can also be served, for diners to help themselves.

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Meal planning to Christmas!

This week's meal plan is a remarkable thing.  I say that, because right up until Christmas Day (Sunday), hubby has chosen (and is doing the lion's share of the cooking) all the meals.  I'm really not sure how or why this has happened, but I am grateful for it - as it has given me a couple of hours' space in each day, with which to catch up with the blog here!

So, without further ado, here is what is on the menu this week :

Tues : Pizza for son & heir plus Green
Pesto, Red Pepper, Olive & Goat Cheese Tart with salad for us adults.

Wed : Bolognese Pasta

Thur : Chicken & Sweetcorn Dinner Wraps, Broccoli, Carrots & Green Beans

with a parsley sauce

Fri : Bacon & Asparagus Risotto

Sat (Xmas Eve) : Chinese Takeaway

Sun (Xmas Day) : Roast Sirloin of Beef, Ottolenghi's Fennel & Cherry Tomato Crumble Gratin, Roasted Butternut Squash, Roast Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts with Bacon,

Yorkshire Puddings and Port Gravy.

Mon : (Boxing Day) Sandwiches.

Exciting stuff, eh?

The Tart we had on Tuesday was one which we decided on the filling for, then went out and bought each ingredient.  It was absolutely fantastic - and together with the salad of beetroot, cucumber and salad leaves - was such a great success.

Watch out for the blog post which details the tart, as you'll undoubtedly want to give it a go!

Wednesday's Bolognese Pasta started out life as an ordinary Bolognese sauce to be had over spirali pasta.  However, hubby had a number of great ingredients at his fingertips and used them well.  He included red wine along with char-grilled red peppers - and had the expert help of son & heir, who decided to become involved somewhere along the line.

Hubby Head Chef also became down-graded to Sous Chef somewhere along the line too - and son & heir took up the mantle of being Head Chef to the point of dishing up.  He did a good job - and it was nice to see him interested in cooking, as his guitar has taken up all of his attention, just lately.

The end result was really very nice indeed - a lovely change from a thick tomato sauce.  I'd have quite happily continued eating that, if I hadn't have filled up so quickly!

Thursday's Chicken & Sweetcorn Dinner Wraps was something that I had a lot of trouble getting my head around.  Hubby had a picture in his mind, though, that he was going for - and it was based around a Chicken & Sweetcorn Crepe.  The wraps we use, these days, are corn wraps (as they're better for me than flour wraps) and I was having trouble seeing how they were going to go with broccoli, carrots and green beans along with parsley sauce.

Having both seen and tasted the dish, I take my hat off to him - as the chicken & sweetcorn was dressed in a lovely white sauce, all of which was wrapped in a corn wrap and then baked in the oven.  This, basically, converted the wrap into a kind of pie affair - which worked perfectly.  I was surprised and delighted by this one - and will blog the recipe in due course, as it's very well worth passing on.

Friday found poor old hubby in the kitchen yet again, this time creating one of his legendary risottos.  Son & heir had requested a chorizo risotto, which had somehow transmogrified into a "something with bacon" risotto by the time we got to doing the shopping list.  Knowing that son & heir likes asparagus - and in our efforts to encourage any eating of anything green - we swallowed our reluctance to buy out of season vegetables and bought some Moroccan asparagus.  The ensuing Asparagus & Bacon risotto was completely gorgeous, as only hubby's risotto can be.

Saturday (Christmas Eve) is our one guaranteed night off from cooking.  We've tried to make it a family tradition that on Christmas Eve we always have a takeaway of one sort or another.  Financial constraints have precluded us from carrying out this tradition in the past, but we're living up to it this year.  We must be getting better at forward planning, or something!  I understand that, at the last count, we had all voted for a Chinese.  Suits me!

Which brings us to Christmas Day.

Now then, where else would I begin, but with breakfast?  In years gone by, we've had a "special" breakfast on Christmas Day.  However, what with all the unwrapping of son & heir's Christmas stocking, then cooking the breakfast, the day has begun to slip behind on timings before we've even started.

So this year, we're going to have a bit of a French breakfast of coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat - which is a whole lot easier to prepare and clear up from and which will (hopefully) buy us a bit more time.  Of course, what we'll spend that time doing will probably be teasing son & heir about when we're going to be opening the main presents, plus teasing the poor boy that he's got Vegetable Casserole for lunch and teasing him a bit more that we've decided not to watch t.v. in the evening and play Ludo instead.  He'll be begging for eggs & bacon for breakfast next year.

We've decided to eschew the traditional Turkey for Christmas lunch this year.  After all, how could we hope to beat the superlative Kelly Bronze Turkey that came in the Foreman & Field box from Knorr?  Just couldn't be done - not on our budget, anyway - and, to be honest, we've done the Roast Turkey thing now and are looking for something different.

Hence, we popped down to the local Butcher this morning and picked up our 1kg piece of Sirloin of Beef.  1kg doesn't look like much, represented in Sirloin, does it?  Still, it's large enough for the three of us for a Christmas Dinner, which is what it's all about.

To accompany the beef, I'm planning on making the Ottolenghi Fennel & Cherry Tomato Crumble Gratin (which is just glorious), some roasted Butternut Squash (tossed with salt, pepper & garlic), some roast Potatoes for son & heir (he loves them), the ubiquitous Brussels Sprouts with bacon (it's not Christmas unless you've had a sprout), Yorkshire Puddings and a good beef gravy (which may well morph into a port gravy) - all accompanied by various mustards and horseradish sauce, of course.

My Mum has provided us with the traditional Christmas Pudding and I'm hoping that this next year she'll be prepared to hand the job of making the puddings for the family over to me.  Not that her puddings are bad - far from it, they are normally incredibly rich and delicious (if a tad heavy on the nuts!) - but I'd just like to a) take the weight of the task from her shoulders and b) feel that the baton has been handed over.

Christmas Day afternoon, I shall have to make an Avocado Pie to take to my parents' house the following day, as I said we'd only accept the invitation if she let me do dessert!  I'm looking forward to another Avocado Pie, as the last one was super-delicious.

We're all into simplicity on Christmas Day evening - and if anyone gets peckish, I've laid in several boxes of "chuck it in the oven" party nibbles.  We've cheese (Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester and a fabulously fragrant (*cough*) Pie d'Angloys which is currently stinking out the fridge) and crackers, together with piccalilli and olives - not to mention the mince pies, nuts and fruit that are the unspoken backbone to Christmas.  So I don't think we'll starve.

Boxing Day takes us off to spend best part of the day with my parents, as I said above.  I'm looking forward to the meal we'll be sharing, as my expectation (I may be proved wrong!) is that we'll be having our traditional Boxing Day lunch of cold turkey, bubble & squeak (drool!), fried potatoes (drool again!), buttered new potatoes (excessive, I know), baked beans, peas and carrots.  Hubby couldn't quite believe his eyes the first time we sat down to this meal, as he considers that a carrot should never share plate space with baked beans.  Along with the pickled walnuts and Branston pickle, redcurrant jelly, cold devils on horseback and cold stuffing balls, this is my favourite dinner EVER.

I can't help but think that, next week, we'll be on salads so as to get over all the rich food.  But hey!  It's Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours the best Christmas ever, with lots of great food, big happy surprises, good health and loving company.

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