Travelling in Mary Janes

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The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Now, risotto. I love to eat risotto. I love this food. It makes me happy and warm inside, just thinking about it. So I was rather happy at this month’s challenge, especially since I knew for sure I’d be able to do it. I did this on a weekday night, after a whole day’s worth of working and teaching, so by the time I started the prep and photos, the light had gone. So please pardon the simple (and not that amazing ) photos.

Chicken and vegetable stock is a staple in my house. We use it for a large number of different dishes, so there’s always some in the freezer. No photos of the stock cooking, but it’s really not that hard to imagine. I went with the lemon risotto recipe partly due to a lack of imagination, partly due to a lack of time to think up different variations and mostly due to the fact that I really liked the sound of it and wanted to try my hand at it.

The Recipe

Preparation time:
Stock: 20 minutes prep time, 3 hours cooking.
Pumpkin Risotto: 10 minutes prep time, 20-30 minutes cooking. ,
Lemon Risotto: 10 minutes prep time, 20-30 minutes cooking.

Equipment required:
• 5 Litre stock pot, or other large pan
• knife
• chopping board
• tablespoon
• teaspoon
• sieve
• ladle
• hand blender (optional)
• wooden spoon or other stirring implement
• grater
• saucepans
• measuring cups
• scales

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn’t matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
2. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
3. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
4. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
5. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
6. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
7. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don’t need for later use.

Risotto Base

Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g

The Arborio rice that I used

Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).

2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.

4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two).
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
7. Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
8. Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

Preserved Lemon Risotto

Serves 4 as a starter or light lunch

Ingredients:
1 preserved lemon, peel only, finely diced. (The lemons from last months challenge should be perfect by now, otherwise you can buy them. Regular lemon zest will work as well.)
celery leaves, from the heart, finely chopped 1 Tbsp
unsalted butter 3.5 oz 100g chilled and cut into small cubes
parmesan cheese, grated 2 oz 60g

Directions:

1. Make the base until the end of step 8.

Finely sliced celery leaves - yay for slapchops wannabe!

No preserved lemons, but fresh lemon zest, coming right up!

2. Stir through the preserved lemon

I also added sliced mushrooms

3. Add the final 100ml of stock and butter and stir until both are completely absorbed. Stir through the parmesan, stick the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes.

The finished dish

The verdict? Delicious! We also stirred through cream cheese instead of the recommended goat’s cheese (I was cringing at the price of goat’s cheese..) and it really helped with the flavouring. Easy to make, and extremely easy to eat (way too much of it!). I’m drooling just remembering what it tasted like.

Should you like to be part of the Daring Cooks Challenge, feel free to join us at The Daring Kitchen. There’s also a Daring Bakers team if you are more of a baker than a cook, but personally, I think I’ll stick to cooking.

If you participated in this month’s challenge, please do leave your link! I’d love to come and have a look at your version of this month’s challenge. Till next challenge, cook on!