Risotto for tea…
I made risotto for dinner tonight for the first time in ages- in fact I don`t think I have made risotto in the last two years so it was a long time coming but when Achan mentioned that she had made pumpkin risotto a couple of weeks back it got me thinking about making it again for us. Luckily, Shun will eat risotto (unlike Achan`s husband- I guess mine doesn`t mind “wet rice”)- Shun wouldn`t eat pumpkin risotto though as he is not a huge fan of Japanese pumpkin because it is sweet (he liked Aussie ones though, go figure) so I had to think up something else.
So I made a bacon, asparagus and sun dried tomato risotto. I did take a photo BUT it is hard to make risotto look good in a photo so I am not going to post it because it doesn`t do it justice.
I made the recipe up, just based it off a normal risotto recipe. The cup sizes I used are Japanese cup sizes meaning 200ml.
Ingredients
2 bunches of asparagus
1 brown onion
1 handful of chopped up sun-dried tomatoes. I bought the kind not in oil but either would be okay.
4 garlic root shoots (this is an extra, if you are not in Japan/China it might be hard to find garlic root/にんにくのめ）
2 cloves of garlic (I used 2 teaspoons of pre-grated garlic from a jar but I guess that is about 2 cloves)
6 rashes of bacon
1600ml of water
4 chicken stock cubes
3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
30g butter
1 tablespoon of oil
1/2 cup of dry white wine (if you don`t have it, leave it out or a bit of Japanese sake might work)
2 tablespoons of parsley. Fresh is best but I just used the one from the spice rack!
2 cups of rice (I just used our everyday Japanese rice, and because it is starchy it works fine)
Method
- Cut Asparagus and garlic root up and put in a microwave proof bowl with an inch of water- steam in microwave for 3 minutes
- Bring water to boil on stove and add the chicken stock cubes- continue to boil for 5 minutes then turn off and keep covered.
- Melt butter and add oil in a separate pan- fry the bacon, garlic and onion until soft
- Add rice to pan and coat with the oil/bacon mixture
- Add one cup of the stock and continue to stir until water is gone. Continue to add cups in batches until you have approximately one cup of stock left to add. Half way through this process I added the wine as well. Keep the heat fairly high and stir continuously.
- Add the asparagus, garlic root and sundried tomatoes to the mixture and stir through. Then add the final cup of stock mixture and continue stirring until all water is gone. Turn down the heat to low. From start to finish this took me about 35 minutes but it is fine to do it for less or more as long as the rice is done and no longer hard.
- Stir through the cheese, parsley and salt and pepper to taste and serve!
This made enough for us both (with Shun going back for seconds) and enough for his bento tomorrow and one other lunch. So basically 4 serves. If you are doing it for 2 people then just half the recipe!
Shun`s thoughts : Looks like baby food but tasted good. He went back for seconds!
My thoughts: So yummy for a change but I had forgotten how tiring standing and stirring the stock mixture through for 35 minutes or so can be.
Shun has asked if I can make a mushroom risotto next week so I might have to do that!
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