Eats #8: Green Risotto
Ingredients: [Basic Risotto] 500ml chicken stock, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon butter, 1/2 large oinion, 3 sticks celery, 300g risotto rice, 125ml dry white wine. [Other] 75g butter, 1/2 clove garlic, nutmeg, 75g spinach, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, 350ml chicken stock, parmesan, 1/4 lemon, 100g soft goats cheese, olive oil.
Note: I reduced the ingredients by half to serve 2 people.
Difficulty: 2.5/5
Rating: 4/5
Last weeks recipe was “Spinach and goat’s cheese risotto” (page 129, Cook with Jamie)
First step when making any of Jamie’s risotto recipes is to make a basic risotto until 75% cooked. This can then be refrigerated (if necessary) and the remaining 25% of the cooking done just before serving.
To make a basic risotto finely chop the onion and celery and gently fry in olive oil and butter until soft but not coloured. Add the risotto rice and turn up the heat, add the wine and stir until the liquid has absorbed. Continue adding the stock a ladle at a time, stirring until absorbed.
The basic risotto can then be used as a base to make any of Jamie’s risotto recipes. Last weeks was spinach and goats cheese. To transform the basic risotto first make the spinach by frying the garlic and nutmeg in olive oil and butter then add the spinach and stir until wilted blitz in a food processor.
Cook the risotto the remaining 25% adding the stock a ladle at a time. Once cooked take off the heat and stir in the spinach, lemon juice, butter and parmesan and cover for a few minutes. Finally crumble in the goats cheese and stir until melted.
Serve and finish by crumbling over the remaining goats cheese, parmesan and lemon zest - done!
Summary
I’ve made many risottos in the past and can claim risotto as one of my specialities so I was very happy to draw a risotto recipe at last. The cooking process was fairly straight forward although lengthy but that was to be expected with risotto.
The celery in the basic risotto recipe was a nice addition and the discovery of Jamie’s 75/25% trick will make dinner party risotto a lot simpler in the future.
The overall dish was creamy and very fresh tasting and despite not being a massive fan of spinach worked really well and you could taste the subtle addition of garlic and nutmeg. My one mistake was using too much goats cheese, 200g instead of 100g, which made the risotto very rich.
All in all a lovely risotto and something I’d try again…I look forward to trying Jamie’s other risotto recipes.
Eats #8: Spinach and Goat’s Cheese Risotto
This weeks number is 129, Spinach and goat’s cheese risotto.
I love risotto and already make a mighty fine tomato or mushroom risotto so I’m looking forward to learning how Jamie Oliver makes his.
I must admit thought I’m not a massive fan of spinach and the green colour of the risotto does put me off slightly but as they say… “the proof is in the pudding” (or in this case risotto).
Eats #6: Tubular Yumminess…
Ingredients: [Vegetable Ragu] small handful dried porcini mushrooms, 3 carrots peeled and diced, 4 sticks celery diced, 1 large red onion diced, 1 leek diced, 2 cloves garlic sliced, 5 portabello mushrooms finely chopped, 5 x 400g tins plum tomatoes, large bunch of basil. [White Sauce] 285ml single cream, 500ml creme fraiche, 4 anchovy fillets, handful grated parmesan. [Other] sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, pamesan cheese, 500g cannelloni tubes, olive oil. [Spinach] 680g fresh spinach, grated nutmeg.
Difficulty: 4/5
Rating: 3.75/5
I finally managed to select something other than fish! I was delighted to be cooking “Honeycomb cannelloni” (page 76, Cook with Jamie).
First step… find a saucepan or cooking pot suitable for the job. The recipe clearly states that you need a saucepan/pot with a diameter of 20cm and a depth of 12.7cm so the cannelloni tubes can stand upright.
After some searching I found a cooking pot that I thought was suitable… unfortunately it wasn’t quite deep enough but It was too late to return the pot so I pressed on…
I started preparing the vegetables for the ragu. Peel and dice the carrots, leek, celery, onion and portabello mushrooms. Cook the vegetables in a splash of olive oil until soft and add the soaked porcini, portabello, garlic and a wine glass of water. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the tinned tomatoes and basil stalks. Reduce for 45 minutes then add the basil leaves.
The ragu was relatively easy to make but took a lot longer than expected. By the time I’d prepared all the vegetables and reduced the sauce almost 2 hours had past. Despite following the recipe to the letter my ragu hadn’t reduced to the consistency in the photo so I ladled off some of the excess tomato juice (which made a lovely tomato soup).
Next I prepared the spinach by wilting it in a splash of olive oil and seasoning with sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and nutmeg.
The final step before assembly was the white sauce. I mixed the single cream, creme fraiche, anchovies and parmesan. The photo in the book showed a creamy, thick white sauce, what I created was runny and had the consistency of single cream. I contemplated this for quite some time, and even considered going to the supermarket to buy more ingredients, but decided it was all part of the learning curve and challenge.
Finally I was ready to assemble the Honeycomb cannelloni. I poured 1 inch of white sauce into the cooking pot, sprinkled in a handful of parmesan, added the spinach and half the ragu. I pushed the cannelloni tubes into the layers and worked in circles creating the honeycomb pattern.
Unfortunately, as my cooking pot was the wrong size, I ran out of cannelloni tubes leaving a hole in the middle. I spooned the remainder of the ragu into the cannelloni tubes and finished with white sauce and parmesan.
Poped it in the oven for 45 minutes and served!
Summary
The outcome was surprisingly tasty and despite wrong consistencies and measurements the final dish worked well. The cannelonni tubes were filled with a delicious tomato ragu or a creamy, cheese sauce.
Each mouthful was a different taste combination and the anchovies gave the white sauce an extra dimension.
This dish also helped me understand the process of turning recipe into reality a lot clearer. One of the key lessons learnt is to use the recipe as a guide rather than an exact process.
I need to start using common sense and interpret the recipe, photos and descriptions to achieve the right textures and consistencies. It’s not enough to blindly mix the ingredients in the hope that the outcome will be as expected.
I also learnt the importance of preparation before cooking. In previous recipes I’ve tried to prepare parts of the dish whilst cooking others - making the process far more stressful than it needs to be.
Despite the little mishaps along the way this proved to be a very unusual take on cannelloni and I’d definitely try this dish again!
