Beetroot Risotto

I'm going to be lazy and link my usual risotto recipe. This was exactly the same, but I boiled a few small beetroots for 40-50 minutes, until they were perfectly tender. Slipped out of their skins, cubed and stirred through right at the last minute, they made a beautiful addition to a risotto base, with a little feta and a generous squeeze of lemon juice.

Mung Bean Sprout Risotto

A strange-sounding combination, to be sure. It started out as an entirely different recipe - 'A risotto of spelt and pea shoots'. Then I attempted to obtain the ingredients from my local market:

Nigel: Now easily available from supermarkets and grocer's, this ancient grain has an extraordinary comforting quality.
Me: Do you have pearled spelt?
Shelf-stacker: *blank look*

Me: It's like spelt - but before it's been ground into spelt flour...
Shelf-stacker: We have pearl barley...
Me: Thanks...

I didn't even try for pea shoots. Pea shoots? Really? And Nigel grows them himself in a tray? How much time does this man have to wash things? I picked up a pack of mung bean sprouts and hoped for the best.

The remaining ingredients were an onion - substituted with a shallot - and vegetable stock - replaced with an amazing chicken stock we'd made with the chicken carcass at the weekend. OK - I didn't substitute the Parmesan or butter... cheddar and lard just didn't sound right!

Anyway, it turned out surprisingly well. Strangely nobbly complementary textures. It was very easy - just make the simplest onion and rice risotto base and then stir through mung bean sprouts at the end... I suspect the recipe might have been lost in substitution!

Mushroom Risotto

I made a fantastic lemon and green bean risotto which I seem not to have written down and will definitely need to do again. The method and base of that, and this, is the same as most of my risottos: gently sauteed carrots, celery and onion, stir-cooked risotto rice, and the main flavours stirred in at the end. In this case, a very large pile of well-fried mushrooms, a good handful of parsley and a handful of reconstituted dried mushrooms.

Pumpkin and Rocket Risotto

The carcass of the chicken from the other night boiled down to some great stock, and I used a good half of it in this lovely risotto, full of flavours I was simply craving. The rocket I bought turned out to be very spicy, so it needed a little more cooking time than a milder leaf like watercress.

Ingredients:

• 250g pumpkin, peeled and diced
• 100g feta cheese (optional)
• two sprigs of rosemary
• half a white onion
• a stick of celery
• half a carrot
• two bay leaves
• 200-300g of risotto rice, depending on how hungry you are
• 500-700ml of good chicken stock (vegetarians obviously substitute vegetable stock)
• a generous handful of rocket
• pumpkin seeds, to scatter over

Roast the pumpkin, rosemary and feta (if using), drizzled with a little olive oil, at 220 C for half an hour, until golden and tender. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, celery and carrot, and fry for a few minutes, until the harshness of the onion has cooked away. Add the bay leaves and rice, fry for a further minute, then add the stock a third at a time every five minutes, stirring well with each addition, to bring the gluten out and make the risotto creamy.

When the rice is cooked to your liking (I prefer mine with just a tiny bit of bite), stir through the rocket and roasted pumpkin mixture, carefully so as not to break up the pumpkin. Serve immediately, scattered with pumpkin seeds.