Lemon Risotto with Chili Shrimp

with Bill Granger, well, not Bill Granger himself but one of his recipes. You must be thinking that L. and I have taken Chez down under these days, first a week of Donna Hay and now Bill! I have not made on of his prized recipes, in awhile and decided that I would make this for Goretti and Patricia's last meal with us; something special.

I love this risotto recipe as not only is it light in flavor; but, with ingredients as well - no cheese and no butter. Just the basics here, stock, olive oil, onion and rice and then flavored with lemon zest and lemon juice at the end. Served with it is a spicy garlic and chili shrimp. You quickly sauteed the shrimp with some olive oil just until golden and a nice pink, then at the very end you add this wonderful paste of garlic and chilies. The finished result is a nice spicy garlic shrimp (the hot part of your dish) cooled off with a warm and ultra creamy lemon risotto. I love to serve a simple oven roasted asparagus that is lightly drizzled with olive oil and sea salt with this dish, it really compliments the lemon in the risotto.

Definitely takes you down under for a night!

Roasted Fennel Rice (otto)

The past few months we have been big Fennel fans - love it so much that we are going to attempt to grow it this year, eeks! We love it sliced up raw in our mouths or in a salad, slow cooked with a chicken or now, roasted with shallots and garlic for the topping of a rice (otto) dish I had been dreaming up while on the treadmill - I do some of my most creative cooking thinking while working out!

Risotto also known as Arborio is a staple in our house. I ALWAYS have at least a cup of it in the "pantry" so that I can whip up a nice basic Risotto when in a pinch as what we should eat. Why should this night be any different?

I poured a nice glass of wine, turned on some Sade (it was just that kind of night) and started the prep work of roasting my sweet little fennel. Smells of licorice, garlic and shallots filled our house and they were caramelizing perfectly! Now it was time to heat up my stock and start the meditating process of cooking the risotto.

Where was it? Not where it should be. It should be somewhere is our tiny pantry. I tore it up, no where. Just a cup of brown rice. S#*&! I had a great filling and hot broth, what the heck I would give it a whirl. After, what seemed liked minutes, I realized this would never work. Rice does not make risotto. Tossed in the broth and slow cooked it. Luckily, it was somewhat soft and creamy rice so I tossed in a pat of butter and a little Parmesan at the end and topped the mixture with the lovely caramelized fennel. On the upside the nuttiness of the brown rice went nicely with the fennel and cheese. Not risotto but a darn good dish of rice (otto)

Duck Fat Risotto

For one of our holiday celebrations I made Cassoulet. While that bit of heaven was baking all day long, I skimmed off the extra stock and duck fat and tucked it away into the freezer for something special.

Not that cleaning out the kitchen is special but I just knew that special stock would make a wonderful risotto and it did! I kept it very simple, shallots, garlic, a little Thyme, white wine and the hidden gem. Now, L. claims he hates duck, well, he gobbled this up and was quit surprised to learn it was "duck". Served it with some simple sauteed spinach - lots of olive oil, garlic and Meyer lemon zest and the left over bottle of white Burgundy. For dessert we had some of that left over Bittersweet Chocolate Tart. Amazing what you can come up with, with all the things just laying around the kitchen. Too good of a meal for being a Monday.

Chicken Cutlets

We had a meal over at our friend's L. & P's house, while we were back east that was really fantastic, not only the company but the food. L. made a beef stew that was light and flavorful for the adults and then she breaded some chicken cutlets and fried them, for the kids. We are not big fans of fried food; but, these cutlets were outstanding and we could not stop eating them! So simple, too! She tossed them in flour and egg and then rolled in bread crumbs and panko and fried them up in olive oil. These little fried cutlets have been on our minds for days now, so we hit the market and picked up some chicks! I did not have any flavored breadcrumbs laying around so I crushed leftover croutons from last night and mixed with the panko. As well I tossed in some Italian flavored salt into the flour.

I made a light butternut squash risotto with caramelized shallots and garlic folded in. Went nicely with the chicken cutlets and a nice bottle of white wine!

Thanks, L., for introducing us to some good "fried" food! This will become a staple in our house!!!

49 Days! 57 Days!

until we will be doing some serious beach time in Costa Rica. Serious beach time means serious swimsuit time, which in turns means some serious pushing back from the kitchen table! L. will be heading down before me for a big bike race - coast to coast and then I will join him a week later for some much needed R & R. Now a girl and guy can not live on carrots alone, so we are cutting back to smaller portions and many more veggies! I loaded up the old veggie bin with some great local things and will we will be hitting the stove big time! You can expect some new easy veggie recipes to be seen in the next few weeks! We got pretty excited about an Abalone mushroom we found, so we got it. Now, it pretty much smells, looks and even tastes like Abalone - weird! Sauteed it with some shallots, garlic, white wine, Meyer Lemon juice and made Risotto, served roasted asparagus on the side. I am a sucker for food packaged in interesting ways. I found, this Bubalus Bubalis Mozzarella and had to get it for two reasons: 1. I liked how it looked and 2. have heard how great it is! So, to finish off our meal, we had a mozzarella and tomato (these were from our garden - how much more local can you get) salad. Now, this Mozzarella, is outstanding - ultra creamy, smooth taste, mouth-watering goodness - would be fantastic on a grilled pizza as well!

Sunday Night ........

We came home to find our garden flourishing ...... and fava bean glalore! In honor of the August Monthly Mingle I decided to do something with what is in our garden. First to answer the question of how we try to help the earth? Well, we do have an organic garden growing, hence this meal as well I try to shop locally and organic as much as I can and we also recycle. For dinner, I used all the favas from the garden to make a risotto. I used my basic risotto recipe; but, this time I browned the rice a little before adding the broth and wine. L. is Portuguese and loves spicy and favas so I sauted them with shallots, garlic, olive oil and a spicy red chili. I zested some Meyer Lemon (from a neighbors tree) over the top right before serving!

Zucchini Ribbons

The theme this week is: "Create something from what you have on hand"! I made some zucchini ribbons and created a risotto with a bit of chili flakes and lemon. Let me say one word to describe this meal, "Delicious"!

Wednesday's Dinner

I, was, again, inspired by the Traveler's Lunchbox! We dined on this outstanding Risotto - at first BF was curious & suspect about cauliflower in Risotto .... but, then one bite and he was sold! This will be a new staple in our household! As well I attempted a recipe for a berry Clafoutis ............ it looked pretty but was terrible!!!!! I need a better recipe - a more french one! ?????

This week is called ..... cleaning out the fridge!

Risotto with sauteed shallots, asparagus, shitake mushrooms and arugula (this was an afterthought .. when I decided I did not want to make a salad - added a nice zip to the dish). Finished off with zest of meyer lemon (love love love them). Apricots, which were warmed in the broiler and then I filled them Mascarpone cheese & then I drizzled with warm Lavender Honey.