Chicken sausage, pea & courgette risotto - fresh and tasty!

As much as I would like to, I can't take credit for this delicious risotto recipe. No, that accolade needs to go to Heck Sausages. However, I found the recipe because it was featured on lovefood.com 
with credit going to Heck - so I suppose this is the great-grand daughter recipe recommendation, if you like!  I have changed the recipe a tiny bit, but it's only re-organising the order of play and not changing the ingredients.  Now I could have just placed the link here and not bothered to reproduce the recipe, but I have learned that sometimes favourite recipes disappear from the internet never to be found again - so I'm immortalising it here for future reference.

If you're still with me after such a meandering explanation, well done.  LOL

It has been ages since I made a risotto.  Hubby is ordinarily the risotto chef in our house - and he does a cracking job at it too.  However, he was otherwise engaged so I decided to give it a go.  I'd made some good risottos in the past, so my track record wasn't bad.

For all that it is currently autumn - and a good time for risotto - I have to say that this recipe would be very much at home in a springtime capacity.

The addition of the courgette and petit pois, with the light touch of the chicken sausages, definitely made us think of the relief of coming out of the heaviness of winter and into a relatively lighter menu, as spring comes around.  However, as all the ingredients aren't reliant upon seasonal produce (although, again, it is the perfect time for young courgettes), you can enjoy its fresh tasting loveliness at any time of the year.

As with all risottos, they live or die on the quality of the stock you are using. So at this point I have to blow my Essential Cuisine trumpet once again.  I used 75% Essential Cuisine chicken stock and 25% Essential Cuisine vegetable stock for this risotto and it was fantastic.  The very best part of the Essential Cuisine stable of stocks is their wonderfully intense flavours, however, because they are a stock powder (and they have a new range of liquid stocks, too) it is so simple to just increase the intensity by adding another half a teaspoonful as required.  For a risotto stock, this works perfectly.  So - I recommend them.  'Nuff said.

As for Cook's Tips, I have two :

Firstly, I wasn't looking forward to the unzipping the sausages and separating the sausagemeat into individual little meatballs.  It's a gacky thing to have to do, even if you baste your hands liberally with cold water so that the sausagemeat doesn't stick.  Then, I had this brilliant idea.  I unzipped each sausage from its skin, ran my chef's knife under the cold water and chopped each sausage into five pieces.  It worked, too!  You have to wet the knife in between each sausage, but it is SO much more of a pleasant way to do it.

Lastly, if you're wondering what pan to use to cook the risotto in, well I used our new wok.  It's quite compact, with high walls and fits nicely onto each burner so there are no cold spots to contend with.  So if, like me, you were worried about the rice catching on the bottom of your pan and/or can't see in to the top of a tall pan (alright, so I'm short and most unhelpfully, have to sit to cook), consider using a wok.  It worked absolutely perfectly for me.

So, without further ado, here's your recipe :

CHICKEN SAUSAGE, PEA & COURGETTE RISOTTO    (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1-2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
8 chicken sausages (Heck or Asda are our favourites), skinned and each sausage formed into 5 small meatballs
450g approx of courgettes, cut into half centimetre dice
1 sweet onion, diced small
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
125g Arborio risotto rice
pinch of sea salt
quarter of a tsp ground black pepper
1 litre of good quality hot chicken stock, or chicken/vegetable combined
half a tsp of ground nutmeg
1 heaped tsp of Dijon mustard
300g defrosted petit pois (peas)
1 handful basil leaves (I used Thai basil as we prefer it)
grated Grana Padano, Parmesan or Manchego cheese to garnish.

Method :

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and once heated, add the sausagemeat balls. Fry on a medium/hot heat until deeply golden on at least three sides, then remove from the pan into a bowl and reserve.

In the meantime, make up the stock in another saucepan and place on the heat to simmer.  Just before you are due to add the peas to the risotto, give them a few minutes in the stock pan to take the rawness off of them and heat them up.

Leaving the sausage flavoured fat in the pan, add the chopped courgettes and fry until just beginning to soften and take on colour.  Remove from the pan to the same bowl as the sausage balls and reserve.

Decant what little fat is left into a high sided saucepan or wok and add a little more oil if necessary.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and fry over a medium/hot heat until softened and transparent.  Add the sea salt and black pepper and stir through.

Increase the heat under the pan to maximum and add the dry rice.  Stir well, to cover the rice in the flavoured oil and cook until you can see the rice is beginning to toast.  Add a ladleful of the stock and stir well, to release the starch from the rice.  Add the nutmeg and Dijon mustard and stir in.  Once the stock has all but disappeared, pour in another ladleful and stir consistently - it is the stirring that ensures you wind up with a creamy texture to your risotto. Once the pan is again almost dry, repeat with another ladleful of stock and continue this way until the rice is very nearly cooked through.  You may find that you have a little too much stock, or you may need to add a little boiling water as your last ladleful - it all depends on how much you stir and how starchy your rice is.

Add the petit pois along with your last ladleful of stock and stir through, then add the courgette/meatball combination and stir through.  Make sure to bring the pan contents to piping hot and add the torn basil.

Serve immediately, on warmed plates and with grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese as garnish.

Printable version

Chicken, asparagus & tarragon risotto - light, fresh and lovely

This, dear reader, is a blog post of note.  Not because the risotto under discussion was particularly brilliant - although it actually was - but because of who thought it up and who cooked it.

Me.  This was my first ever main course risotto.

Yes, I do realise that dear Hubby is the Risotto Chef Extraordinaire of the family.   However it occurred to me that it was all very well him knowing how to produce a good risotto, but perhaps it would be a good idea if I knew how to, as well!

Just as an aside, I did have an additional motivation, which was that poor Hubby has hurt his back and can't spend ages in front of the cooker stirring a risotto.  I miss my risottos - they're another comfort food and you all know how much I love my comfort food.

In fact, this recipe began life in my head as a pie.  Chicken, asparagus and tarragon pie - sounds good, eh?  Well, that's what I thought.  Then I had something of a tummy conniption (knew I shouldn't have had chilli con carne, followed by curry the next day!) and have had to steer clear of spicy or particularly fatty foods and let my poor old tummy settle.  So that was the pastry option out of the equation - and when you start thinking about what else you could do with chicken, asparagus and tarragon, it's a short step to a risotto.

Whenever I'm thinking about a recipe that involves chicken, I immediately find myself being resistant to the idea of cubes of chicken meat.  I haven't a clue what a cube of chicken meat has done to deserve it, but I really don't like it cubed.  Cubes or chunks are okay for curries and some casseroles, but not for everything.  Thin slices are good for stir fries and small chunks work in a pie.  Risotto, however, now that demands shredded chicken.  Don't ask me who made these rules, I'm sure I didn't.  ~whistles innocently, whilst dragging one toe in the dust~  

The chicken flavour I could imagine in my concept risotto, was a gentle, fresh chicken flavour.  Not pan fried, or roasted.  Too heavy.  There was really only one choice left to me, which was poached.  Now I've never poached a chicken breast before - well, there are so many "firsts" involved in cooking! - and had no idea how the flavour would wind up, but if my imagination was saying it would be just the job, ~shrug~, I'd go with it.  I'd poach the chicken in the stock I was going to use for the risotto until just cooked, then shred the meat.  That way, I'd be saving and using every ounce of flavour it was possible to achieve, from the chicken.

It is true to say that the most important ingredient in a risotto, is the stock.  It is the stock that flavours the rice - and not just by providing the moisture around each grain, but by soaking into the rice and flavouring it from inside to outside.  Thus, it is of paramount important that every flavour you want to be uppermost, is reflected in the stock.

I had the chicken flavour from the use of chicken stock (I used the fabulous chicken stock powder from Essential Cuisine, my favourite stock people) and poaching the chicken.  The asparagus flavour is boosted by the addition of the offcuts from each asparagus spear, which are broken up so as to access all the flavour available.  The addition of several full stems of fresh tarragon with leaves attached (plus the bald stems that you've taken the leaves from) makes sure that the three primary flavours are right up there.

If I relied upon the addition of the asparagus and tarragon at the end of the dish, the flavours would be nothing like as pronounced or established.  Both ingredients do not have long enough in the pan to make sufficient impression upon the flavour of the whole.  Hence, it is very well worth that little bit of extra work to include them in the stock.  It is true, it does make finding the asparagus tips a bit like fishing in the undergrowth when it comes to blanching them - but it is worth it! 

Now, let's discuss the basic stock.  For goodness' sake, if you're going to use a commercially produced stock, don't use anything other than a reduced salt stock powder or stock cube.  The pinch of salt that you add to the stock is sufficient and much, much less salt than you will get from a full-salt version.  Bear in mind that the nature of a risotto is to absorb and reduce the stock.  If you're reducing a full-salt stock, that can get hellishly salty - and once over salted, it is impossible in the time you have available, to bring it back.

So get yourself a good quality low salt stock - and if you're using home made, you might like to reduce it by boiling in a pan for a while, so as to achieve good, highly flavoured chicken stock.  Oh, and when using home made chicken stock, you'll need to use your knowledge of how much salt is in it already, to decide whether you'll require the pinch or not.

A quick cook's tip, is to blanche your asparagus tips for no longer than 2 minutes or you stand the chance of losing the bright green colour when you re-heat them, prior to serving.

I know the recipe looks terribly complicated, but it really isn't - it's just that each stage took a lot of description, but is really quick to achieve!  The end risotto is a lovely, light but satisfying, bowl of comfort food that - for once - doesn't leave you feeling all heavy and bloated.  Now there is a place for heavy and bloated, I'll not deny that, but there is also a place for a lighter texture of comfort food.  Food that gives you a big hug, whilst still letting you fit into your trousers, or behind the wheel of your car.

Having said all that, I won't go into too much detail about the ice cream, home made rhubarb jam, blueberries and amaretti that we had for dessert.  ~kof~  (It was lovely, though!).


CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS & TARRAGON RISOTTO   (serves 3 for a main course)

Ingredients :

2-3 tsp low salt chicken stock powder (or sufficient low salt stock cubes) made up to 1 litre stock
a pinch of sea salt
a large pinch of ground white pepper
1 bunch (7-8 stems) asparagus
4-5 full stems of tarragon, plus 1 tbsp chopped tarragon leaves
2 skinless & boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
a large knob of butter
2 banana shallots, peeled and chopped finely
300g arborio rice
100ml white wine (any kind, sweet works as well as dry)
a handful of defrosted frozen peas
grated parmesan cheese, to taste and for sprinkling.

Method :

1.  Make up the chicken stock into a saucepan and place on the heat.  You are aiming to bring the contents to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently.

2.  Take the thick, woody ends off of the asparagus and smash by laying the side of the knife on top, then hitting with the heel of your hand.  Add them to the stock pot, along with the tarragon stems (which should still have their leaves attached), salt and pepper.

3.  Remove the tips from the asparagus and set aside, then cut each spear into small pea sized logs.

4.  Cut each chicken breast into three evenly sized pieces and add to the hot stock.  Cover the pan and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until the chicken is just cooked through.

5.  Remove the chicken pieces, retaining the stock, and shred the chicken.

6.  Place the asparagus spears into the stock and blanche for 2 minutes, then remove and set aside.

7.  Into a deep pan, add the oil and butter and heat gently.

8.  Add the shallots and cook on a gentle heat until soft and yielding.  Do not allow them to colour.  Remove using a slotted spoon so that the majority of the buttery oil falls back into the pan, and set aside.

9.  Increase the heat under the pan to high and add the rice.  Stir the rice well, making sure every grain is covered in the buttery oil.  Allow the pan to reach as hot a temperature as you dare, without burning the rice.  Each grain should be taking on a slightly golden hue and screaming for mercy, whereupon you add your first ladle of stock.

10.  The first ladleful will disappear in a great exhalation of steam from the pan, so be ready with a second.  Stir the rice gently but constantly, allowing it to absorb the stock and release the starchy creaminess that epitomises a risotto.

11.  Add the white wine and the cooked shallots and stir through.

12.  Once the rice has just about absorbed all the stock, add the next ladleful.  Stir, stir, stir.  Risotto is not something you can leave to cook while you read a book.  Continue in this vein - ladleful of stock, stir stir stir, pan dries out, ladleful of stock - until the rice is soft yet al dente.  Patience, that's the key!

13.  With your last ladleful or two of stock, add the chicken, tarragon leaves, asparagus logs and the peas.  Place a lid on for a minute or so, then stir, replace the lid, then stir, replace the lid, until the asparagus has lost its raw crunchiness (but is still firm and bright green) and the chicken is heated through.

14.  Put the asparagus tips back into the stock pot, to heat through and finish cooking for their last minute.

15.  Add some grated Parmesan cheese - to taste - to the risotto and stir through.

16.  You can adjust the texture of the risotto by adding a little more stock if you think it requires it - and having had a taste, adjust the seasoning by adding a little more white pepper or a pinch of sea salt, if required.

17.  Finally, add the asparagus spears and serve with a light grating of Parmesan sprinkled over.

Scrummy.

Printable version

Bacon, pear & aubergine risotto - comfort food goes upmarket!

I've been very remiss just lately in not giving you a run-down on what we've got on the menu for the week, so you won't have any idea of the context for this risotto.

So, let me explain a little.  It's currently the school summer holidays and, not surprisingly, we've been alternately busy ferrying the lad to and from social engagements, trying to get up early enough to avoid the crowds in the supermarket when we're shopping and sitting around the house wishing we were somewhere else.  The weather has been extremely hot (but just for a few days, thank goodness!) and we've been a bit bored with everything.

The weather forecast for the week was of increasing temperatures, culminating in a blisteringly hot 30+degrees.  Now those of you who live in Florida or somewhere equally hot or worse, might look at that temperature, snort and call that a balmy day.  Me?  I call that a "stay under a cool shower for the whole day and hope it will go away" day.

I really should live in Alaska or somewhere.

So, as a consequence, the menu for the week was headed towards salads, through an "easy" meal or two.  One of hubby's excellent risottos is definitely classed as an "easy" meal as he claims that once you've done the chopping and a-peeling, it's just a matter of putting stuff into a pot and stirring a lot.  Personally, I think it involves rather more than just that, but I see where he's coming from with it.

Now hubby has had a thing about cooking with pears and pineapple, for ages.  Every time we begin to consider menu's, he starts suggesting pineapply things, or stuff with pears.  Now the pears I can happily consider as a fairly wide-ranging ingredient in savoury dishes, but the pineapple?  That has a rather restricted appeal, for me.  So I was happy when he started considering what would go with pear in a risotto.

We had already settled on a bacon joint for dinner the previous day, which left the other half of the meat "buckshee" (meaning "something extra or left over, obtained for free"), as my Dad would say.  It was easy then, to match up the leftover bacon with pear as good risotto ammunition - but what else?  It definitely needed something else to round out the flavour, we felt.

Hubby suggested one of his current favourites, which was aubergine.  I greeted this suggestion with some doubt, until he clarified it by specifying chargrilled aubergine.  Now that made lots more sense, as while plain old aubergine has its uses, I felt it would be too bland as another flavour for a risotto.  However, knowing how chargrilling transforms your humble aubergine, that made a very acceptable trinity.  Pear for sweetness and texture, lovely salty, soft textured bacon and earthy, smoky aubergine.  Yum!

The end result was very definitely one of his best risottos yet.  Along similar lines to the Bramley Apple, Bacon & Black Pudding Risotto, this one is rather less challenging, yet with every bit as much flavour and satisfaction in the eating.

If the black pudding put you off the Bramley Apple one - do try this one.  You don't need to use half a bacon joint, any type of bacon would do just as well.  However, you do need to buy a fresh aubergine, slice it, sprinkle with a little oil and seasoning and cook it on a griddle pan or under the grill (or barbecue, if you've got one going at the time!).  The aubergine can be done in the morning and left under cling film until required, which will reduce the amount of fiddling around you need to do once you get cracking on the risotto.

Anyway, here are your instructions, written by hubby, along with a few Rizzology tips from the Master ...

BACON, PEAR & AUBERGINE RISOTTO   (feeds 3-4)


Ingredients :

1 medium onion - very finely chopped
40g butter
half a tsp Herbes du Provence
half a tsp dried Basil
1.5 ltr Ham Stock (from a cube is fine)
350g Arborio Rice
glug of Rapeseed oil
400g cooked bacon/gammon joint
1 aubergine, sliced, griddled and then cut to 1cm dice
1 pear, peeled cut to 1cm dice (I used a Conference)
50g finely grated (microplaned) Parmesan Cheese.


Method :

1.  Cut the aubergine into 1cm slices, sprinkle with a little oil and season very lightly before cooking on a very hot griddle pan. Make sure that plenty of griddle marks make it onto the aubergine as this creates a fantastic smokey flavour.  Once cooled, cut the aubergine to a 1cm dice.

2.  Peel the pear and cut to a 1cm dice before placing into a bowl of acidulated water (simply put some water into a bowl and then squeeze in some lemon juice) to prevent the flesh from oxidising and turning brown.

3.  Cut the cooked ham to a 1cm dice and set aside.

4.  Finally, cut the onion to as fine a dice as you can possibly manage.

5.  In a saucepan, make up the stock and heat to a lively simmer.

6.  Pour a good glug of rapeseed oil into a large pan and then melt the butter into this.  Add the finely diced onion and allow to sweat over a low heat until the onion is soft but not coloured.

7.  Now turn the heat up to a good sizzle before adding the rice.  Stir vigorously, ensuring each grain of rice is well coated in the oils, taking care not to let the rice stick to the pan.

8.  Once the rice is hot, pour in a ladleful of stock and stir like crazy while it is sucked up into the rice.  Add another ladleful of stock, the dried herbs, all of the ham and about a quarter of the aubergine whilst keeping the whole mixture moving.  Keep adding the stock, whenever the mixture starts to get too stiff.

9.  After around ten minutes of this process, drain the pear pieces and add them to the pan along with the remaining aubergine.  Keep adding stock and stirring until the rice is cooked through, which should take another ten or fifteen minutes.  Once the rice is tender, stir in the parmesan and remove the pan from the heat.  Leave the risotto to rest for two to three minutes before serving onto warmed plates.

Rizzology :  There are a few central principles to making a good risotto and these are as follows ..

Stock

Regardless of the ingredients being used in your risotto, the absolute cornerstone is the stock.  The better the stock being used, the better your risotto is going to be.  Conversely, if you use a chicken Oxo then don't expect miracles!

Don't worry if you have some stock left over.  Rice seems to vary from packet to packet with some needing more liquid and some needing less.  Use as much stock as is required to get the rice tender but absolutely no more .... unless you're keen on rice soup.  (See "The Finish" below for notes on the final texture).

The "Gasp!"

The process of frying the dry rice in the oils is to break down its outer layer and open the 'pores' of the rice.  There is a very fine balance to be struck in deciding when to add that first ladle of stock but my advice to you is to be brave!  Get the pan and the rice as hot as you dare before sloshing in that stock (carefully now) and you should hear every grain of rice gasp in relief!

When the gasp happens, whatever flavours are in the oil will be sucked into the rice so flavouring the oil with spices can yield great results.  For this reason, if you're using spiced meats such as chorizo, it's better to add them right at the beginning, before the rice goes in, to allow its flavours to permeate the oils.

Some risottos call for the first ladle of stock to be replaced by a glass of wine, which is lovely when the recipe needs it.  When wine is used though, make sure to cook out the majority of the alcohol to prevent the stock from becoming bitter.

The Finish

There are a huge variety of opinions as to what the consistency of a finished risotto should be.  Some like it so loose that it immediately swims to the edges of the plate.  Some restaurants serve it so stiff that it can be placed into a ring or dariol mould and will then hold that shape on the plate.  My own feeling is that it should be served 'oozy'.  Think Sophia Loren on a chaise longue and you'll be on the right track.  One practice that I strongly disagree with however, is the use of cheese as a binding agent.  I almost always put a handful of grated parmesan into my risotto right at the end of cooking but always as a flavouring.  Before I add the cheese, my risotto is already at the consistency that I want.

So there you are - go on, have a go.  You know you want to!

Printable version

.

Sausage & Saffron Risotto - a delicate delight!

I know you're all thinking "sausage risotto, delicate?".  I thought that, too.  I am very pleased to report that it was indeed delicate and - as with all risottos - warming, comforting and very very satisfying.

Now, as ever, I didn't make this one.  The Risotto Whiz - hubby - was in full charge of the stock pan and was seen to be standing at the cooker, muttering quietly and peering into the biggest of our saucepans, looking a little worried and more than a little mystified.

All of which was because, apparently, even though this recipe originates back to the Godfather of Italian cooking (alright, maybe not "the Godfather", but he's pretty old these days!), Antonio Carluccio, it all happened in a different order to risotto cooking as hubby knows it.  This is not a good thing, as it rocks a Risotto Whiz on his foundations and makes him mutter at his risotto.

However - and perhaps this only goes to prove what a true teacher Antonio Carluccio is - the risotto came together with no apparent evidence that it had been put together in a different order to the usual.  I think congratulations should also be sent hubby's way, that he didn't panic when he realised that things were happening differently in the recipe, but carried on stoically through to a delicious end result.  It would have been very easy to have panicked and trashed the lot, I'd have thought.

I'm afraid I still have a complaint about the sausages though.  We used Asda's "Extra Special" Traditional Pork Sausages, which are 90% pork.  Now you would think that they'd be lovely, wouldn't you?  For me, they were hard, dry and relatively tasteless.  Why the heck don't sausage makers include more sausage fat in their sausages?  Yes, I know, the fat is bad for you, blah, blah, blah - but it is where the FLAVOUR is!  For goodness' sake, there's no point in putting 90% meat into a sausage if you can't taste it!  Reduce the meat content a fraction and add a fraction more fat so that we can get back to the juicy sausage that bursts in your mouth with gorgeous porky flavour.  *sigh*  The majority of fat renders out of a well cooked sausage anyway, so there's really no problem.  These sausages were so lean that they hardly made any fat in the cooking and were hard, dry and relatively flavourless.

I'm sure that if it hadn't have been for the fact that they were broken into small pieces (so there was a greater surface area ratio going on when fried), accompanied by the saffron (which is relatively highly flavoured) and some very good chicken stock, the whole dish would have failed on the flavour front.

Even with the sausages doing their best to scupper the whole show, the risotto turned out to be delicately flavoured and gorgeous.  The luxuriousness of the saffron offset the ordinariness of the sausages, which coupled with the flavour of the white wine, parmesan and the good stock, combined in an excellent forkful of delightfully creamy, cheesy goodness.

Another example of how just a few ingredients can have such a terrific result.

SAUSAGE & SAFFRON RISOTTO    (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

2.5 litres chicken stock
300g good pork sausages, stripped of their skins and broken into pieces
a good pinch of saffron threads
1 large onion, finely chopped
100g unsalted butter
100ml white wine
500g risotto rice
60g freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Method :

1.  Bring the stock to the boil and keep it simmering in a pot on the stove, next to where you are going to make the risotto.

2.  Toast the saffron strands in a dry pan for a few seconds, but be careful not to burn them.  Set them aside.

3.  In a large shallow pan, fry the onion in half the butter, then add the sausagemeat and cook for around 10 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid any burning.

4.  Add the wine and let it evaporate for a couple of minutes, while you stir and deglaze the pan.


5.  Pour in the rice and stir to let it coat with the wine and butter mixture.  When it is starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, begin adding the hot stock in ladlefuls.  Start stirring and as soon as the first lot of liquid is absorbed, add some more - but not so much that the rice begins to drown.


6.  After some 10 minutes, add the saffron threads and some seasoning.  Continue with adding the stock and stirring until - after some 18-20 minutes - when you taste a grain of rice, it is al dente.


7.  Once the rice is ready, stir in the remaining butter and half the parmesan.


8.  Serve with the remainder of the parmesan for sprinkling to taste.


Printable version is here 
.

 

Prawnsotto - King Prawn Risotto - is a little bit special.

So there we were, one evening before Easter, pondering on what to have meal-wise over the Easter period.  Did we really want to go down the big roast dinner route, or should we take things a bit more leisurely?  Did we even want to cook at all, or should we have a giant High Tea?  

Every suggestion had its own merits but we at least decided that, as we weren't entertaining any family, we'd not go for the big roast dinner.  We would approach Easter Sunday's mealtime with every intention of making it relatively easy, stress free - but tasty.

Well, that was the brief.  Now all we had to do was think of something to fit!

The first thing to consider was the weather.  We were in the middle of a warm spell, so something involving salad was an idea - right up until hubby mentioned one of his risottos.

Now I always perk my ears up at the suggestion of a Risotto .  One of my favourite meals, pre-risotto making days, was "Rice'n'stuff" - which was a risotto-type meal of some meat or another mixed with a number of vegetables, made in one pan with rice.  So not a risotto - but very nearly!

What sort of risotto could he make, that would acknowledge the "specialness" of Easter Sunday, but not be so totally over the top as to be diabolically expensive?  We thought back to our favourite risottos.  The Asparagus & Prosciutto, Bacon & Brussels Sprout, Bramley Apple Bacon & Black Pudding and Roasted Butternut Squash with Goat's Cheese were all fabulous, but then we remembered a King Prawn Risotto that hubby had made.  It didn't find its way onto the blog because we forgot to take photographs of it.

We'd found our Easter Sunday dinner.

With the addition of a red pepper that had been looking for a job to do for some time, plus helping hands from various herbs that we are growing in the garden, the idea of a gorgeously unctuous, tasty risotto with huge prawns just bursting with succulence?  Well, it had to be done.

So, the next time you're looking for a celebration dinner but don't want to spend hours tending to a big roast - remember the humble King Prawn and its beautiful risotto.  You won't regret it.

PRAWNSOTTO - King Prawn Risotto    (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

300g Arborio rice
400g cooked & peeled King Prawns, rinsed and well drained onto kitchen paper
30g butter
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 banana shallots (or 4 normal ones) very finely diced
1 red pepper very finely diced
30g Parmesan finely grated
1 clove of garlic
1.5 litres fish stock, kept hot
200g petit pois (defrosted)
half tsp dried basil

half tsp dried oregano

half tsp dried dill
pinch smoked paprika.

Method :

1.  In a large saucepan, melt the butter into the olive oil before adding the shallots, red pepper and garlic.  Sweat these together gently, until the shallots are soft, taking care not to colour them.

2.  Once this stage has been reached, turn the heat up and get the mixture to a good sizzle before adding the rice.  Stir the rice quickly, making sure to get each grain well coated in oil and butter and getting the whole mixture as hot as you dare (careful not to burn the pan) before slooshing in a good ladleful of hot stock.

3.  You should be able to hear each grain of rice heave a collective sigh of relief.  Now add the basil, oregano, dill and paprika (note, if using fresh herbs then use 1 tsp of each).   In the time honoured way of the risotto, keep the rice moving and add another ladleful of stock whenever the mixture starts to get too dry.

4.  Take six of the prawns and chop them finely using a sharp knife.  Once the risotto has had four or so ladlefuls of stock, add the minced prawns to the mix and then continue the stirring and adding of stock when needed.

5.  After about twenty minutes or so, the risotto will be nearly ready.  The rice should be almost cooked through but still al dente and the sauce should be smooth, velvety and 'oozy'.  At this stage, the peas and the prawns can be added and mixed in thoroughly to heat through. 

6.  Finally, add the parmesan, take the pan off the heat and leave to relax for a couple of minutes.

Serve onto hot plates, garnished according to your own taste, with a light salad.

.

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.

.

Bramley Apple, Bacon & Black Pudding Risotto - it's Bramley Apple Week!

Yes folks, the next week has been dedicated to the lovely Bramley Apple.  Seems a bit of an odd time, if you ask me, as it's not the beginning of the season for Bramleys but instead coming to the end of their season - but then, they're available in the shops any old time of year if you're prepared to accept Bramleys from abroad.

Good old English Bramleys are still available in the shops now, though, so make the most of them while you can buy British!

Knowing that Bramley Apple Week was rolling towards us, I was having a bit of a brainstorm with hubby about what we could cook to honour our lovely Bramley.  We went through all the usual Apple Cake, Apple Muffins and Pork with Apples ideas but they all seemed so predictable.  Nice, but predictable.  We wanted something different.

So, we started thinking along the lines of what flavours go particularly well with apples.  The first one is the obvious pork.  So, what types of pork are there?  Loads of types of pork, loads of types of bacon, loads of types of side products from pork.  Hmmn.  That's not helping much.  Okay, so what sort of recipe don't you see very often, that includes pork products and apple?  Casseroles?  Loads.  "In sauce"?  Loads.  "Chinese?".  Quite a few.  Italian?  Hmmn, not so many.  Risotto?  ~thinks~  Nope, can't remember seeing any.  ~goes to internet to ask Google~  Nope, just one from Jamie Oliver.  Aha!

So, risotto.  Well, we know that bacon goes well with risotto, so that's a given.  What about the apple, though.  Hubby was warming to the theme by this time and came up with the ruse that if the apple was diced and pan fried to begin with, then included at the last minute to ensure that it didn't disintegrate, it could work.  But what else to put with the bacon and apple?  Sage?  Well yes, but he didn't want it to go along too herby a route.  (Hubby is the Chief Risotto Maker, so the end decision as to the recipe was his).  I began to think along sausagey routes and remembered the Black Pudding I'd used for the English Farmhouse Breakfast recently.  Done similarly, I felt sure it would stand up to a risotto. Hubby liked the idea and the Bramley Apple, Bacon & Black Pudding Risotto was born.

Now I really, really like risotto - and I really, really like hubby's risottos, as they're always very creamy (without the use of cream), moist and unctuous with some quite complex flavours.  This risotto, however, knocked them all into a cocked hat (as we say in the U.K.).

The first forkful immediately gives you that salty hit of the bacon with the background hint of sage.  Then, with something of a double-act, the Bramley apple comes in.  First sweet, then sour, it gets the music pumping and the stage set for the Black Pudding, whose earthy spiciness just gets that party going on your tongue.  And that's just the first forkful.

If you've never experienced black pudding before and have been cautious about doing so, this is the perfect recipe for you.  Because of the accompanying flavours, your tongue is allowed to taste the black pudding without it becoming dominant (as it so often can).

Do, please, try this recipe.  It really is completely gorgeous.

BRAMLEY APPLE, BACON & BLACK PUDDING RISOTTO  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

300g Arborio (or another risotto type) rice
30g unsalted butter
125ml white wine
1.2l vegetable or ham stock
30g Parmesan, very finely grated
8 rashers smoked back bacon, cut into small squares
1 large Bramley Apple, skinned, cored and cut into ½cm cubes
4" (yes, four inches) Black Pudding, skinned and cut into ½cm cubes
1 large Banana shallot (or 2 small), very finely chopped
1 tsp fresh Sage, finely chopped.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, fry the bacon pieces until crispy.  Set bacon aside on a plate and pour any bacon fat into a large saucepan.

2.  Add half of the butter (15g) to the frying pan, turn the heat to high and then fry the apple cubes for no longer than two minutes or until slightly coloured.  It is vital to not allow the apples to cook through and dissolve.  Remove from the pan and reserve.

3.  Immediately - and without cleaning the pan, toss the black pudding cubes into the frying pan and fry for two minutes.  Set the black pudding cubes aside and pour any remaining juices from the frying pan into the large saucepan.

4.  Add the remaining 15g of butter to the saucepan and gently saute the shallot until soft but not coloured.

5.  Turn the heat to high and then add the rice, toasting it in the butter and oils until each grain is well coated and hot.

6.  Pour the wine into the pan and stir.  Turn the heat down and continue gently stirring until the rice has absorbed the wine.

7.  Add the sage and the cooked bacon pieces before pouring a ladleful of stock over the rice.  Stir gently until the stock is almost absorbed and then add another ladle of stock.

8.  Continue adding the stock, a ladleful at a time until the rice is tender and 'oozy'. Remember to allow the rice to absorb each ladle of stock before adding the next.  This requires patience, but a true risotto cannot be made without following this rule.

9.  Once the rice is tender, add the parmesan and the cooked black pudding and continue to cook for another minute or so.

10.  Finally, gently stir in the apple cubes and then remove the pan from the heat immediately.

11.  Place a lid on the pan and leave it, off of the heat for a couple of minutes, to relax and to allow the flavours to  mingle.

12.  Serve onto hot plates.


.

Bacon & Brussels Sprout Risotto

Nobody was more surprised than I, when hubby suggested we have a Bacon & Brussels Sprout Risotto, instead of the planned Bacon, Mushroom & Sundried Tomato Risotto.

What did it for him, was the discovery of hordes of the little pale green beauties snuggled up to their stems at the bottom of our garden.  Now, as blogged previously, we've had a few sneak previews of them and he'd had a taste.  As a result, he knew that they weren't the hoary old tough brussels of supermarket fame and also knew that their flavour was really incredibly delicate. He also knows that they are one of my favourite veggies.

Now, the first and most important thing that I must stress if you are considering having a go at this risotto, is to be VERY careful of your salt content.  As the bacon, butter and stock all have the potential for high salt, it is very worthwhile using unsalted butter and low salt stock.  We didn't - and coupled with some bacon that was just off the scale for salt - it rendered the whole dish really very salty.  I could cope with it, but hubby couldn't and unfortunately he had to jettison his half way through.

Having said that, however, in my opinion this risotto was sublime.  Don't try to change the minds of sprout haters by serving it, unless you can find some tender, sweet, baby sprouts.  I can't help but think that because ours came out of the garden and have been caught while they are small and luscious, it made all the difference.


We've since had a brilliant idea, which I suggest to you as an alternative.  That is, we thought it would be lovely to have some roasted chestnut involved in the risotto.  Lightly crushed, the flavour of chestnut compliments both bacon and brussels sprouts and would, more than likely, be most unusual and quite delicious.


BACON & BRUSSELS SPROUT RISOTTO  (serves 2)


Ingredients :

350g back bacon, chopped
20 baby brussels sprouts, outer leaves removed
sea salt
250g arborio rice
2 banana shallots, chopped fine
knob of unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 litre hot, low salt, vegetable stock (made with some of the water used to blanche the sprouts)
pinch of dried basil
pinch of smoked paprika.


Method :


1.  Place a saucepan of slightly salted water on to boil.  Once boiling, add the brussels sprouts and blanche for 3-4 minutes, drain (reserving 200ml) and plunge into ice cold water.


2.  In a frying pan, dry fry the bacon until the fat has reduced and the bacon is beginning to turn golden.  Remove and reserve to keep warm - retaining some small pieces for garnish.


3.  Add the shallots to the frying pan and cook gently until they are softened but not browned.


4.  Place the butter and olive oil into a large saucepan.  Once the butter has melted, add the shallots and bring them up to a good temperature.  Add the rice, basil and smoked paprika and stir until the rice is completely coated with the buttery mixture and the whole is as hot as you dare.


5.  Return the bacon to the pan and add a ladleful of the hot stock.  Stir to combine.  The rice will absorb the stock, after which you should add another ladleful and continue in this vein.


6.  When the risotto is coming up to a simmer, reduce the heat and add the bacon.  Continue adding the stock, ladleful by ladleful.

8.  Once the brussels sprouts are cooled, drain them and cut each into quarters.


7.  When the rice is close to being tender and cooked, add the brussels sprouts and allow to heat through as the rice finishes cooking.


8.  Serve in warmed bowls with a little of the bacon to garnish and some grated Parmesan to sprinkle over.

Inflammation Factor (approx.) : +206 (103 per person)

.