SMOKED SALMON GOATS CHEESE RISOTTO

Another day, another Fay Ripley recipe and more goats cheese! Arabella and I had a lovely weekend with our best friends in West Sussex but then came home to an nearly empty fridge. Arabella wanted bread, cheese and saucisson and so we kind of compromised with this risotto as it included goats cheese!

I have made this several times before and it is super easy and so delicious. Pascal feels "icky" about the goats cheese and smoked salmon idea but I think it goes together like bacon and eggs or strawberries and cream!!

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
20g butter
250g risotto rice
800ml chicken stock
finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
150g soft goats cheese
150g smoked salmon, roughly chopped into strips
10g fresh dill or chives, chopped
A shaving of Parmesan
Black pepper

In a saucepan, fry the onion for 5 minutes until soft, in the oil and butter.

Add the rice and stir for a minute.

Add the stock and lemon zest and bring to the boil. 

Stir once and then pop a lid on and simmer for 15 minutes until the rice is cooked but still has a little bite.

Crumble in the goats cheese and stir until it melts into the rice.

Season with black pepper (I really dont think it needs any salt) and stir through the smoked salmon and dill. Er I forgot to take a picture here - I think I was just so keen to eat at this point!!!

Serve with a shaving of Parmesan and tuck in!

Wow - a big thumbs up from both Arabella and myself - we adored it. Risotto always used to be my favourite dish and it is again now. I rarely have it in a restaurant as it can easily be overcooked and rubbish, however this certainly wasnt the case here - it was creamy and delicious - a perfect 10!

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OVEN BAKED RISOTTO WITH PESTO GOATS CHEESE

Pascal has gone back to France and left me with an abundance of cheese and rather randomly a lot of basil so I searched though my recipe folder to see what I could cook. I found this recipe which I cut out of a magazine in April 2008 - it was definitely time to give it a go!!

Ingredients for 4 people:

Risotto

1.2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock

25g butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped

300g risotto rice

150ml white wine (I didnt have any wine so just used a little extra stock)

Salt and pepper

Pesto

1 shallot, peeled and chopped (I forgot to buy this so used a garlic clove instead)

30g pine nuts

80ml olive oil

70g basil leaves

A squeeze of lemon

To finish:

A knob of butter

200g freshly grated Parmesan

150g goats cheese

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C fan / gas mark 5.

Bring the stock to the boil in a small saucepan.

Melt the butter in a large casserole dish / saucepan over a medium heat and add the onion. Cook gently for several minutes until softened, without colouring.

Add the rice and stir for about a minute.

Then add the wine (or in my case some of the stock) and simmer until almost absorbed.

Pour in the boiling stock and season. Next cover and cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

While this is cooking you can prepare the pesto. As I mentioned I forgot to buy a shallot so just used a garlic clove instead - I dont think it made too much difference.

In a food processor, place the shallot, pine nuts, olive oil, half the basil and some salt and pepper and whizz to a puree.

Then add the remaining basil and a squeeze of lemon and whizz again.

When the risotto is ready, take it out the oven and give it a stir.

Mine hadnt absorbed all the stock - I dont know why - I ended up putting it on the hob for a few minutes.

Then add a knob of butter and the Parmesan to the risotto and stir.

Spoon in pesto and stir.

Finally stir in half the goats cheese and then serve with the remaining goats cheese on top.

This was fabulous, great flavours - Arabella literally inhaled her bowl and announced it her new favourite. I think when I cook it again I will cook the risotto the traditional boring way of slowly spooning in the stock and stirring continuously rather than putting it in the oven as my rice was a little soft….I like it to have a bite to it. However I loved the combination of the goats cheese and pesto and was very pleased with the dish. It was easy to make and tasted great. I cant believe I waited 7 years to cook it….the recipe is the same age as Arabella!!

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PEA BACON GOATS CHEESE RISOTTO

After the success of my Crab & Truffle Risotto I wanted to cook another one and today was the perfect day for it. Poor Arabella was home from school with a terrible cough and sore throat and so needed to eat something soft and warming….plus she is a goats cheese fanatic (her illness certainly hadnt affected her appetite)!

This is an old recipe of mine and was the first risotto I ever cooked and at the time I remember thinking I would "save calories" by using margarine rather than butter - what an error - definitely use full fat butter and lots of cheese!!

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
70g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
200g lardons
A bunch of thyme
400g risotto rice
150ml white wine
200g frozen peas
Salt & pepper
150g goats cheese
150g Parmesan cheese, grated

Chop the onion and remove the thyme leaves from their stalks.

Heat a knob of butter in a saucepan and add the bacon, onion and thyme.

Cook for 10 minutes until the onion is soft and the lardons are cooked. While this is cooking, heat the stock in a saucepan.

Once the 10 minutes is up, add the rice to the bacon, onions and thyme. Turn up the heat so it almost fries.

After a minute the rice will look slightly translucent. Next add the wine and keep stirring.

Next for your exercise!! Add a ladle of hot stock and a pinch of salt and turn down the heat to a fairly high simmer. Stir and stir until the stock is absorbed completely, and then add another ladle, and then stir some more.

When there are only a couple of ladles left, add the peas to the stock and then add them to the risotto along with the stock.

Keep on going until all the stock is used up and the rice is soft but still has a slight bite. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, half the goats cheese, and the Parmesan.

Serve with the remaining goats cheese and eat as soon as possible while it retains it lovely moist texture!

Oh my goodness, this was delicious, so creamy but so fresh - peas, bacon and goats cheese is a winning combination. For once I didnt even need to add extra cheese! Finally, if you are veggie, you can leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock rather than chicken. This is time consuming with all the stirring but very simple to make.

I am already looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow!!

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BAKED CHICKEN PORCINI RISOTTO

Happy New Year! I do love a new years resolution and so this year I am trying to eat more fruit and veg and do the 5:2 diet. So far so good….but then again its only been a week!

Tonight was definitely a 5 day so Pascal and I decided to cook a risotto and this has to be the easiest risotto recipe possible.

Ingredients for 4 people:

30g dried porcini mushrooms
180ml boiling water
500g chicken thighs, trimmed and chopped
400g arborio / risotto rice
1 litre chicken stock
2 tsp thyme leaves
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
50g butter, chopped
80g Parmesan, finely grated and some to serve 
Salt & pepper

Now I did put all the ingredients together for a photo but I forgot to take it - doh. I am obviously out of practise!

Anyway start by preheating the oven to 200C fan / 220C / gas mark 7.

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with the boiling water. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Crush the garlic and cut the chicken and then put in an ovenproof dish (3 litre capacity).

Add the thyme as well.

Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Next chop the mushrooms and add them to the chicken etc along with the reserved liquid.

Finally add the stock and rice, stir together and season.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Halfway through cooking, give it a stir.

After 40 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and stir in the butter and Parmesan for around 3 minutes or so until the risotto thickens. Season again if required.

Divide into bowls and top with Parmesan to serve. We also added a drizzle of truffle oil.

This was really good - I have never baked a risotto before but I definitely will again - so much easier than all the constant stirring and you wouldnt know the difference. I had ripped this recipe out of a magazine 2.5 years ago so I am very pleased I finally got round to cooking it and I would certainly recommend it! Yum!

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