Courgette and asparagus risotto

How quickly did the holiday week go. Back to school tomorrow. Deep sigh. Tomorrow our house will be in total upheaval, as we finally are going to have works done on the collapsed ceiling in the entrance room. I want all the old plastering to be removed, but that means, everything will be covered with dust, even with the doors to the other rooms closed. So, if I disappear for a while, that would mean, I'm fighting the dust and serving endless cups of tea and coffee to the builders.
Tonight for dinner we had a risotto, later followed by a fresh fruit salad.

Courgette and asparagus risotto
Ingredients:
2 medium courgettes
100g asparagus tips
5tbsp olive oil
25g butter
300g arborio risotto rice
100ml dry white wine or prosecco
230g Roots Garden Peas blended vegetable blend
150ml single cream
40g Grana Padano, grated

Slice courgettes in half lengthways, then into thin crescents. Chop the asparagus. In a deep frying pan heat 3tbsp of olive oil, add the courgettes and asparagus. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
In a different frying pan add the sliced shallots to the hot olive oil (2tbsp), and sweat on a medium heat until softened. Add the arbotio rice, stir with a wooden spoon, so that all the rice grains are coated with the onion-flavoured oil.
Add the white wine, and allow it to evaporate. Keep stirring. Add the Garden peas vegetable blend, a bit at a time, as you would with the stock. Add the single cream too. Keep adding vegetable blend and cream, and a little bit of hot water for about 20+ minutes, until the rice is cooked. The time will depend on how al dente you like to eat your risotto. If you like it well cooked, you will need more time for cooking.
Add the fried courgettes and asparagus to the risotto in the last 5 minutes of cooking. The vegetables should still have a bite rather than turn into slushy mushy bio-mass.

Grate Grana Padano and stir in at the last minute. Serve with more grated cheese on top.

In this recipe instead of the usual stock I used Roots Garden Greens - cucumber, peas, kale & mint vegetable blend. It gave a lovely fresh green flavour to risotto.

For a different vegetarian risotto with Garden Greens, check out the Roots Collective Greens Risotto, cooked with broccoli, spinach and broad beans.

Since I used the remains of prosecco (leftover from Valentine's day dinner) and Grana Padano (which I keep in big chunks in the freezer), this recipe is joining in #KitchenClearout Linky, run by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Mushroom and chestnut risotto

Just in case you were wondering why I haven't been blogging much in the last month, I was super busy. My Mum was staying with us for a month, plus my in-laws came visiting from Italy for a week. That and the back to school hullabaloo left me with not much time for blogging. My in-laws have left, my Mum flew back to Russia this very morning (sob! I miss her already), and now I will need to catch up on one zillion posts that I have planned. I haven't been entirely distracted from my hobby, as I kept cooking and taking photos, but writing and editing photos was put on hold. 

When my in-laws were visiting, I cooked most of our dinners - apart from one evening when we went out to The Fleece. One of the meals that I cooked recently was a mushroom and chestnut risotto.

I have recently received my big prize from Grana Padano - a whole big wheel of cheese weighing 18kg (if you don't remember how I won it - have a look at the post - Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition). That's a year's supply of cheese. I didn't imagine it would arrive all in one go. I've been sharing it with friends and neighbours, and even insisted that my in-laws and Mum should take some cheese with them, though I do appreciate it might be funny to bring an Italian cheese back to Italy.
I have also been adding it to lots of meals. It is such a beautiful tasty cheese, wonderful to nibble on and excellent in cooking too.

I've had a pack of whole natural chestnuts which are already peeled and cooked and kept in a vacuum sealed bag since before Christmas. I remember they were on offer, and I was a tad over-enthusiastic and bought several packs. I suppose I could have kept it until the next Christmas, but I wanted to cook a risotto for dinner and liked the sound of the recipe printed in the back of the box.
I have adapted the recipe, halved the amount of chestnuts and used different mushrooms as well as did some other minor changes.

Mushroom and chestnut risotto
Ingredients:
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
200g mixed exotic mushrooms
2tsp butter
200g arborio rice
2tbsp olive oil
450ml vegetable stock + more if needed
100ml white wine (or mix of dry white and rose)
100g whole cooked chestnuts (for example, Porter Foods Whole Natural Chestnuts)
100ml single cream
Grana Padano, to grate over the risotto

Finely chop an onion, add oil to the frying pan and gently fry the onion for about 5 minutes, then add the butter and chopped mushrooms. I used a pack of mixed exotic mushrooms for extra flavour, but a combination of white and chestnut mushrooms will work as well. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
Add the arborio rice, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. The rice should be well coated in oil and butter. Pour the wine over the rice, cook stirring until the liquid has been absorbed. Ladle some of the vegetable stock over the rice, keep stirring while cooking. Keep adding the stock until most of it has been used, then add the single cream and chopped chestnuts.
It will take 25+ minutes for a risotto to be ready. For an authentic taste, it should still be al dente. If you prefer your risotto to be well done, keep cooking until you get your desired consistency and texture.
Serve hot, with a generous helping of grated cheese on top.
Grana or Parmesan, the choice is yours.

In case you're curious I love Gallo arborio rice for cooking risottos. It's a superior rice with an excellent taste.

As I used a semi-forgotten pack of chestnuts in this recipe, I'm adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Wild mushroom risotto with parmesan and clotted cream

Wild mushrooms' season has technically ended, but you can still get some in Tesco if you're lucky. Just make sure they're not soggy if you are buying the pre-packed mushrooms. I am still working through a selection of Rodda's goodies that I received recently for testing a couple of Rodda's recipes (see my posts Beef Stroganoff with Rodda's Cornish clotted cream and The ultimate creamy mashed potato with Rodda's Cornish clotted cream). I had in mind to cook a very creamy risotto with clotted cream. I also had some lovely girolle and chanterelle mushrooms which work beautifully in risotto.

Wild mushroom risotto with parmesan and clotted cream
Ingredients:
180g risotto rice
100g wild mushrooms (for example, girolle + grey chanterelle)
50g butter (I used Rodda's butter)
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
2tbsp olive oil
a splash of white wine (optional)
4 heaped tbsp Rodda's Cornish clotted cream
1 and 1/2 mug of stock
25g Parmesan, grated + more for garnishing

Brush off the dirt from the mushrooms, or wipe clean with a damp cloth. Chop them not too finely. Heat the oil and half the butter in a deep frying pan and fry the mushrooms for a couple of minutes. Tip them out into a bowl to set aside.
Cook the chopped shallots in the oil left from mushrooms until translucent.
Add the risotto rice and stir together with the shallots, so that the rice is well coated. Add a generous glug of white wine if you are using it. A splash of dry sherry would be lovely too instead of the white wine.
I made the stock from the I Dadi/Star porcini stock cube (one is more than plenty, if anything, half of a cube is enough, as the cubes are very salty, you really need to use them sparingly). Any vegetable stock will be a good substitute (or even chicken stock).
Add one ladle of stock at a time to the rice and stir, keep stirring until the liquid is absorbed and cook on low for about 15 minutes, occasionally stirring and adding more stock. As the stock was salty, I didn't need any additional salt.
Stir in more butter and clotted cream as well as the grated parmesan.
Serve with more parmesan shaved on top of risotto.

Typically I use the single cream in risottos, but adding Rodda's Cornish clotted cream this time resulted in a much creamier dish. My husband wanted a second helping of the risotto, and said it was exceptionally good.