Recipes

Risotto all’Isolana

- Alex 3 Comments

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Risotto doesn’t happen nearly often enough in our household.  I don’t know why – maybe it’s the fact that it does take a bit of effort in the stirring, or that we never have quite the right things to go in it. And you know what, it also doesn’t photograph very well!

I was flicking through some cookbooks over the weekend looking for menu inspiration when I spotted risotto all’isolana in Antonio Carluccio’s Complete Italian Food*. As this is a risotto with meat in it it won instant approval from Andy.

Carluccio specifies luganiga sausage (which you peel and then crumble the sausage filling) which wasn’t immediately to hand. However, I saw no reason to be put off. After all, sausage is just pork and some flavourings – so as a substitute I used pork mince and … um, some flavourings.

The following made enough for two people for dinner, with seconds.

Begin by dicing an onion and gently frying it off in some olive oil and unsalted butter. Add a finely chopped clove of garlic and 150gm of pork mince. Keep the temperature reasonably high so that the pork doesn’t end up stewing. To fake luganiga I used some oregano, cinnamon, allspice and ground coriander. The cinnamon, allspice and coriander were all about ¼ tsp, and there was slightly more oregano. As always, there’s no substitute for tasting as you go.

Once happy with the pork and onion mix, add 200g of risotto rice (I used Arborio) and when the rice is well coated in the oil/onion/pork mix and starts to go transparent start adding hot stock. I heated up about 500mL and used all of that plus some extra hot water. Add the stock a ladleful at a time, stirring between additions and ensuring the stock is all absorbed before adding more.

Keep adding stock and stirring until the rice is cooked and the risotto is at the consistency you like. Finish the risotto by stirring through another 50g (or so) of unsalted butter and plenty of grated parmesan.

Serve at once.

It’s not the prettiest dish you’ll ever make but it’s proper winter comfort food: hot, simple and filling.

* Also available from Amazon US, Amazon UK or internationally through The Book Depository.

Chocolate Brownies

- Alex 3 Comments

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I’m lucky that, at present, I have more time for cooking (and thinking about food) than I would do normally. This means that most of our evening meals have become more interesting and more diverse.

It also means … more time to think about cake.

I have my favourite chocolate brownie recipe (thank you, Nigel Slater) but I’m not so loyal to it that I won’t try something else. I spotted this recipe for chocolate caramel brownies on taste.com.au in the run up to Valentine’s Day and decided it looked worth a go.

The first block of caramello chocolate was eaten so we had to have a second attempt (I bought the chocolate and made the brownies within 24 hours to prevent the same thing happening again). As you might expect, I also deviated from the recipe.

Begin by putting a 220gm block of caramel chocolate in the freezer (this is to make it easier to break/chop up). Grease and line (fully, not just base line) with baking paper a tin – I always use my smallish roasting dish for brownies and preheat oven to 160°C (fan, 180°C otherwise).

Melt 180gm of dark chocolate (broken up) with 150gm of unsalted butter (chopped). I used to be too scared to melt chocolate in the microwave but I braved it once and have never looked back. It’s a LOT quicker than standing over a double boiler, and because it takes less time I find I’m less likely to get distracted, start doing something else and end up with the chocolate seizing. Yes, you do need to keep an eye on it (I open the microwave and give the chocolate a stir every 30 seconds – 1 minute or so) but you’d be doing that in a double boiler anyway. So, give microwaving your chocolate a go!

I then tipped the chocolate and butter mix in to the KitchenAid and, using the flat beater, mixed in ½ cup of caster sugar. When that was well combined I left the mixture to cool a little (actually, at that point I went and helped bath the baby … you don’t need to leave it that long though!) before beating in 2 eggs.

Now, at this point the recipe adds in 1 ¼ cups of plain flour. That just didn’t seem right to me – plain flour and no raising agents? So I used self raising flour. Beat this in, along with 2 tbsp of cocoa.

When everything is combined (and I found the mixture to be very thick – almost dough like in the way it clumped together and came away from the edges of the mixing bowl) mix in the caramel chocolate, broken in to squares. It was because of the caramel chocolate that I used the KitchenAid rather than the trusty MagiMix.

Tip the mixture in to the prepared tin, smooth out as much as possible and bake for 20 minutes. The top of the brownie should be set.

Allow to cool before serving. The original recipe has you cool the brownies, cut in to heart shapes and decorate with extra cocoa powder. Trust me – you need none of that frippery!

These were very simple to make and, while they didn’t eclipse my current favourite recipe, I’ll definitely be making them again. Of course – you can substitute any flavoured chocolate you like for the caramel chocolate. A few ideas floated around the afternoon tea table were using Cherry Ripes, mint chocolate, orange chocolate and I reckon even adding KitKats might be interesting!

Salad Dressings

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Hmm, not sure it makes for the most exciting title but salads needn’t be boring and, with a bit of thought, they make a good (healthy) low effort meal.

Mostly a salad dressing is just some olive oil, vinegar, garlic, maybe some mustard but if I’m going to make a meal out of a salad I find I need a bit more inspiration.

This first dressing I like because it makes use of tahini. I buy a jar of tahini, needing a tablespoon of it for something or other, and then it hangs around the fridge for ages and ages – so I love recipes that use it. The original of this comes from Cuisine, but commits the culinary crime of using orange and the sugar is totally unnecessary. In fact, this is really a dressing which needs no recipe: just take olive oil, lemon juice, some mustard (I used grainy) and some tahini (when making salad dressing for two, I just use a teaspoon of tahini). Give it all a good shake and it makes a lovely creamy, rich dressing. This works perfectly well on a standard green salad but because it is creamy I don’t use it on a salad which includes feta cheese.

If you have a bit more time on your hands, then this dressing from Ainsley Harriott’s Friends and Family Cookbook.* This is a Caesar salad style dressing, so don’t bother reading on if you’re on some kind of low calorie health kick …

Crush two anchovies (I used a mortar and pestle to make this dressing), and add a clove of garlic. Make a smooth paste. Mix in 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I used bought – we had that lying around in the fridge too, left over from something a while back), 1 tablespoon of sour cream, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Finally add Tabasco to taste and any seasoning you find necessary. I put in plenty of Tabasco so no pepper required and the anchovies were salty enough.

I used this dressing on a green salad, made with Roma tomatoes from the garden, a few warm, diced potatoes and chicken (marinated in olive oil, paprika, garlic and parsley before being fried up – also thanks to Mr Harriott). It was absolutely brilliant – loads of flavour, and certainly enough for dinner.

Just not particularly healthy!

*Also available from Amazon UK, Amazon US, and internationally through The Book Depository.