My first encounter with risotto in the restaurant world was at Essence, Michael James' & Lloyd Hawthorn's restaurant on Jervoise Rd in Herne Bay, Auckland. As my first position out of cooking school, the brunch shift, I soaked in every detail eagerly filling the little notebook that sat permanently in my back pocket with all sorts of sketches, recipes & new wisdom. The dish on the brunch menu was kedgeree, a delicious old fashioned Anglo-Indian breakfast of smoked fish with rice, for which at Essence we made a risotto of curried apple slowly cooked with chicken stock & white wine, as the base for our kedgeree, to which smoked fish would be added. As part of my mis-en-plus, the responsibility for making the risotto was mine & I would rush up to the restaurant on Friday afternoon after cooking school, to begin prepping for the weekend.
I always took special pride making this risotto, I loved the way such a simple dish could transform with such a few slight changes. Immersed in the process of temperature & measure, naturally, I became secretly convinced that mine was the best. In this regard nothing much has changed! Risotto has since become an old favourite, revisited many times. Always it brings much pleasure, to stand guard protectively checking the onions as they saute, perhaps adding a little more thyme or stirring in the stock as the rice swells, to remember the journey I started, making a dish like risotto. Once more, then, it is the journey, the story, the memory of the dish that accompanies the celebration of this week's recipe.
I always took special pride making this risotto, I loved the way such a simple dish could transform with such a few slight changes. Immersed in the process of temperature & measure, naturally, I became secretly convinced that mine was the best. In this regard nothing much has changed! Risotto has since become an old favourite, revisited many times. Always it brings much pleasure, to stand guard protectively checking the onions as they saute, perhaps adding a little more thyme or stirring in the stock as the rice swells, to remember the journey I started, making a dish like risotto. Once more, then, it is the journey, the story, the memory of the dish that accompanies the celebration of this week's recipe.
ingredients: the risotto
butter&olive oil, onions&garlic, parsley stalks, thyme&bay, salt
aborio rice
white wine&chicken stock
pepperoni&chorizo, sliced thinly
parsley&lemon zest chopped&zested finely
Method:
The method for cooking a good risotto follows certain principles that can be used regardless of dish description. All my stove top risottos follow the same method; starting with olive oil & butter, diced onions & garlic gently sweated, thyme & parsley stalks, good salt, the rice added & stirred in with a wooden spoon to coat with oil, adding hot stock & wine by the ladle full until absorption point is reached & the rice is al-dente, which means 'firm to the tooth'.
*for this week's addition of Italian sausage, I sliced & sauteed the meat with a little onion&garlic separately, leaving it to the side until the risotto was nearly done before folding it through, along with the lemon&parsley gremolata
*to serve this week's risotto:
*I also prepared a little salad of spinach, toasted sunflower seeds & parmesan, which was tossed & put in the bottom of my bowl. the hot risotto was spooned on top & I mixed the lot as I ate it.
ingredients: caramelised onion tart with roast fenocchio
shortcrust pastry
olive oil, balsamic, brown sugar, thyme
red onions finely sliced
fenocchio bulbs&sprigs
method:
>my next blog will be about making & blind baking shortcrust pastry, so either scroll up & refer to that as a guide if yr not sure about it, or check out this link: www.taste.com.au
*preheat yr oven to 200
*first you need to blind bake the pastry cases
*for the onions, slice finely the sprinkle with salt, sugar, a few sprigs of thyme, a splash or so of balsamic & some olive oil & set on a low/med heat in the oven. I like to cover mine first for a while, so they sweat & soften first, then remove the foil/lid to allow them to get some nice colour as they caramelise
*for the fenocchio, slice off the stalks leaving only the bulb, cut 1/2 then into smaller wedges, a little oilve oil & salt, a few slivers of garlic, & roast them until satisfied
*to make the tarts, simply fill the bottom of the pastry case with onion, removing any woody thyme stalks, layer the fennel on top & warm in the oven for 5 minutes.
*to garnish the tarts, i like to dollop some creme fraiche on top, (a spoon of sour cream/marscarpone is fine) & add a touch of cracked pepper & lemon zest on top, a sprig of fennel to finish.
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