Potato “risotto” with smoked mackerel and horseradish crème fraiche

Regular readers will know of my fondness for risottos. What’s not to love about a dish that’s more comforting than a hot water bottle? The only downside is that they have a tendency to be somewhat bad for your waistline. In essence they are the equivalent to the first year you spend at university where it is almost impossible not to put on a stone or two of not very solid fat!

Given that I am trying to eat more healthily and cook with a more Scandinavian mindset, risotto hasn’t really had much of a look in. But when I found myself with a bag full of ageing potatoes that needed cooking I felt as if a compromise might be achieved. Marcus Samuelsson soon came to the rescue with his recipe for potato risotto which I took inspiration from and tweaked with the ingredients that lay expectantly in my fridge.

Ingredients:

I bag of potatoes, peeled and finely diced
2 shallots
1 clove of garlic
½ litre of vegetable stock
100 grams of peas
100 grams of spinach
2 mackerel fillets, torn into pieces
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
Grated horseradish
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Dill
Thyme
Tarragon

Method:

Peel your potatoes. Then finely dice them. This is quite laborious, but sadly, essential.

Sautee the shallot and garlic in olive oil then add the potatoes. Stir for a minute or two and then add hot stock and keep stirring. Add the thyme and tarragon. Then add more chicken stock and continue until the potatoes are tender. Be careful not to overcook. For me it took around 15 minutes.

Add the frozen peas and spinach and let them cook through. Then add 2 tablespoons of crème frache and a knob of butter and stir until the risotto is creamy. Don’t be as aggressive as you would be with rice because you don’t want to mash the potatoes.

Add the smoked mackerel and allow to rest so that the fish warms through. Season and serve with a dollop of crème fraiche on top and some grated horseradish and garnish with dill.

It was delicious. And for some reason felt healthier than a normal risotto. The combination of potatoes, dill, horseradish and smoked fish was unmistakably Scandinavian. I loved every single mouthful and went to bed dreaming of eating the leftovers for lunch!

Salted Chicken with Scarlet Risotto

I’ve settled into my flat in Gothenburg and took untold amounts of pleasure in unpacking all my kit that has arrived from the UK. Having lived without books and my kitchen kit for a month or so, the process of arranging my small library and kitchen was particularly satisfying. I now feel settled and ready to embrace everything that Sweden has to offer.

I’ve bought two Swedish cooking books to act as my culinary bibles – The Scandinavian Kitchen which is quite everyday and Aquavit for when you want to experiment.

I set off to the supermarket with the intention of cooking salted duck which I found in the Aquavit book. But when I could only find frozen “Anka” for 11 pounds a breast I decided a change of tack was in order. ICA Focus has a fantastic range of pork and beef. But if you want chicken, lamb or duck you’re in for disappointment. And even more so if you can’t understand the language. It makes it so hard to know what cut of meat you are looking at. Especially when they are butchered slightly differently to in the UK. I’m now determined to learn Swedish from a cooking perspective!

After 30 minutes of walking backwards and forward, in a mild state of panic, I selected a rather expensive, but very fine looking chicken breast from the organic section and decided to cure it in brine instead of the duck and to accompany it with a blazing red risotto stained with beetroot and sundried tomato. It was one of those spur of the moment about turns in a supermarket that transforms your mood from being a bit bleak to bouncing down the aisle to the checkout – eager to turn the hob on and get cooking.

Ingredients:

For the chicken

1 chicken breast
4 tablespoons of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
Loads of thyme

For the scarlet risotto

1 beetroot
Risotto rice
3 sun dried tomatoes
Salt and pepper

Method

Make a brine by boiling a pan of water and dissolving the salt and sugar. Once boiled allow to cool and add the thyme. Then submerge your chicken breast and weigh it down with a bowl. Allow to cure for up to 12 hours. The brining process makes the meat very tender and juicy. And means that the skin will crisp up beautifully. It’s a technique that pops up repeatedly in Scandinavian cooking.

In the meantime, dice a beetroot and add to a pan full of water. Boil for 20 minutes until tender. Drain the red water into another pan and reserve. This will be your stock.

In a heavy bottomed pan sweat an onion in butter and olive oil. Then add the chopped beetroot and your rice. Allow to crackle in the fact and watch it turn red. Then add the stock bit by bit as normal and enjoy the experience of making one of the scariest looking risottos you can imagine. Cut your sun dried tomatoes into slithers and lob them in to. They will add a nice tartish note to the sweet and earthy rice. Once the stock has absorbed and the rice is cooked beat in a wad of butter and watch it turn glossy like a tin of Dulux paint.

Dry your chicken breast and coat in oil and a squeeze of lemon. Roast for 25 minutes.

Assemble and eat.

The earthy risotto is the perfect foil for the salted chicken which is moist and graced with crispy skin. As a combination it works like a dream and is a great conversation starter because it looks so strange!

Scallop Risotto with Rosemary Petals & Fennel Flowers

When I go home to see my parents I always look forward to cooking with our Aga and using goodies from our garden. Mum’s herb garden is brimming with interesting varieties of thyme, numerous types of basil, umpteen varieties of rosemary and different gradations of sage. And Dad’s orchard is normally heaving with a range of apples, pears, medlars, quinces, plums, greengages and crab-apples, with mulberries, apricots and nectarines planned for the future. And that’s before you get into the issue of which mushrooms are edible, let alone which flowers you might want to scatter into a salad or use as a garnish.

I wondered long and hard about telling you about our amazing scallop risotto because I’ve banged on about them a lot in the past. But this one is worth it because it featured the subtle floral flourish of rosemary flowers and fennel blossom.

Simply fry 3 small onions in butter and olive oil. After 5 minutes add 500 grams of risotto rice. Listen to it crackle and then tip in a third of a bottle of white wine. Once this has almost dried up add your first ladle of chicken stock whilst stirring slowly. Keep doing this until the rice is tender (after around 30 minutes). Then add a mug of frozen peas and 300 grams of queen scallops. Cook for 4 minutes and then add some spinach which will wilt in the heat of the rice. Stir in some butter, season and allow to rest for a few minutes.

Serve with a garnish of purple rosemary flowers and honey coloured fennel flowers which taste of aniseed. The floral notes added a very subtle layer of flavours and interest that transformed this from just being a scallop risotto into a memory that will linger forever.

Mushroom and Chestnut Spelt Risotto

There can be few more perfect places to drink coffee and do some writing than at Rosie’s Deli Café in Brixton. I found myself tapping away on my keyboard, nursing smooth espressos and nibbling on moist brownies last Monday and realized it was my turn to cook.

Before I knew it my hands had picked up a packed of spelt, some dried ceps and a can of chestnuts and my brain had fixated itself upon making a risotto! I asked Rosie if I’d gone mad and she thought it might actually taste quite good…

I find myself making a lot of risottos. It might be because I’ve got a fantastic risotto book that has taught me the intricate details of what makes a good one. But it’s more likely the fact that the process of making one is the most cathartic thing you can do without a yoga mat.

I fried a large onion in a Hurcelean amount of butter, let down with olive oil until it was soft and then chucked in 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Then I poured in 250 grams of spelt and let it crackle in the hot oil. The nutty smell of the frying spelt was quite different to the aroma that wafts off Arborio rice. Then comes the fun bit as you slosh in a glass or two of wine and listen to the liquid vaporize and breath in the winey fumes. It’s the sort of sensory experience that makes me love cooking.

Then start to add your chicken stock enriched with the juice from the rehydrated mushrooms and a splash of mushroom essence. You’ll need a lot of stock because spelt takes a lot longer to cook than rice. Add the stock glug at a time from a large measuring jug until the spelt is softened and the no longer tense. This took the best part of an hour.

Then, as the spelt is absorbing the last lashings of stock, fry about 12 sliced mushrooms in very hot butter and olive oil and flambé in cognac. This will add a rich, warming depth that this super savoury dish others lacks. Do the same with around 10 chopped chestnuts and the rehydrated ceps before adding both to the spelt along with sage and thyme. The sage works brilliantly with the chestnuts.

Stir in butter, parmesan and roughly chopped spinach and allow to rest. You’ll see the risotto transform from brown ricey stuff to creamy, unctuous food porn before your eyes. To serve, ladle into a bowl and adorn with chopped parsley, more parmesan and plenty of pepper.

Although we had it on it’s own, it would be a great accompaniment to pheasant, pigeon or guinea fowl and reminded me of something I once ate at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow. Be warned however, that rumours of spelt being flatulence free are, in my experience, are nothing but hot air.

Salcombe Crab Risotto on a Campfire

I’m so pleased we’ve stumbled across Salcombe. We liked it so much earlier in the summer that we returned with Edwin and Anna who brought a beautiful old Alfa Romeo to the party and Nick and Harriet who are experts in fishing and outdoor living. So between the 6 of us we were well equipped for a long weekend of camping.

Higher Rew campsite nestles South West of Salcombe, protected from the sea by Bolthead which is renowned for lending itself to spectacular walks. Cowie and I arrived early and secured a prime spot at the top of the hill, hidden from all the other tents and blessed with a view that would have made Thomas Hardy, hard.

Thanks to some local knowledge, sent our way by Chris Smith (who I don’t think is the outed Labour Minister), we knew to avoid the fishmonger in the centre of Salcombe and instead to pay a visit to Yeoward and Dowie which is a boatyard on Island Street. Not only are they experts in mending and chartering boats, but they sell live lobsters and crabs!

We soon found the crab and lobster tank and were mesmerized by the shell clad beauties that jostled around like passengers in a Ryan Air queue. Lobster tentacles occasionally breached the water like U-boats erecting their periscopes.

In order to feed 6 we decided to buy a couple of large crabs which they very kindly cooked for us and kept in the fridge until we returned from our mackerel fishing trip.

We returned back to our campsite with the sun beginning to think about turning in for the day and set about making what turned out to be a fantastic crab risotto using our cataplana pan.

First of all Edwin and Nick did a phenomenal job of picking as much meat out of our crabs as possible with the help of a large screw driver and Cowie’s tweezers!

We then made stock with the shell, with a vegetable stock cube lobbed in for good measure as well.

Whilst the stock was bubbling away we also grilled a bunch of Cowie’s favourite vegetables which we added into the risotto towards the end to add some extra charry interest.

Once the stock was ready we set it aside along with the veggies and nestled the cataplana into the hot coals. Once it was up to heat we fried 2 onions along with some garlic until soft. Then we poured in a bag of Arborio rice and listened to it crackle. This has to be one of my favourite sounds. It’s so reassuring and is synonmysous with being able to enjoy cooking at a leisurely pace. It’s a million miles from the clack of a toaster or ping of a microwave. It’s the sound of cooking for pleasure.

Once the sizzling had died down we threw a good glug of white wine and felt our faces dampen and numb slightly with wine fumes. Once the wine had whooshed away we then ladled in the crab stock and stirred, religiously, for the next hour.

As the heat waned we found that clamping the lid of the cataplana shut worked brilliantly to get the risotto bubbling again. After 45 minutes it had swelled and thickened, taking on a creamy quality that was impossible to see in the dark, but you could sense from the feel.

At this point we mixed in the char grilled peppers and aubergines before adding half of the crab meat. Plenty of salt, pepper and a nudge of chilli helped to add some seasoning. Spinach added colour. And a lashing of crème fraiche and knob of butter added gloss and luxury. We thhen added a topping of the remaining crab meat to each portion and a sprinkle of parsley.

We ate it in the pitch dark, in a scene reminiscent of an outdoor Dans le Noir, and sat back in bliss. Given the context it is without question the most memorable risotto I’ve ever eaten or cooked and has to go down as one of the year’s main highlights.

Miso Skate Risotto

Wow. This is the best thing I have cooked this year. And I owe most of it to a chap called Thom Dinsdale who inspired this recipe by sending me his miso risotto recipe. My initial reaction was that it sounded a bit weird and terribly savoury. But. With the addition of the miso skate, some pak choi and Japanese mushrooms it was superb.

Go for a glass of wine after work. Have two or three by mistake and then hot foot it to Waitrose where you know they have all the clever Japanese stuff that this needs. Then realise that they have run out of white/shiro miso paste and hurredly improvise by panic buying sachets of miso soup. Next visit the fish counter and realise that cod is very expensive and opt for skate wings instead. Especially when they are on offer for £1 a wing. Result.

Then pick up some mirin, rice wine, pak choi, spring onions, oriental mushrooms including shitake and those tall skinny ones and zoom home as fast as possible because you’ve promised your house mate and their friend dinner. And you’re already an hour late before setting off!

Burst in. Grab all the saucepans and get cooking. Drink more wine as if it is Lucozade before a big match. Add miso sachets to a pan and add 2/3 of the amount of water that they suggest. Dissolve. Then remove enough liquid to use as a marinade and place in the fridge until cooled having added mirin and some rice wine vinegar. When it is cooled chuck in the skate wings. If you do this when the liquid is hot the fish will get poached.

Add more water to the miso liquid and let it heat up into the stock for the risotto. I added some dried mushrooms to give it more depth as well.

Add oil and butter to a heavy Le Crueset pan and melt. Chop several spring onions and dramtically add to the pan. Imagine you are Keith Floyd at this moment and don’t be afraid of miming a voice over. Feel free to spill most of the contents on the floor. And don’t worry about setting fire to the tea towel. There are plenty more in the drawer. Add a chopped onion and sweat until soft.

Then add risotto rice and let it crackle for a bit. Then pour in half a glass of rice wine or sake. Let this hiss away and then add the miso soup as if it was stock, one ladle full at a time. Stir continously. It will become wonderfully thick and glossy.

Remove skate wings from marinade and place in a foiled baking tray on top of some spring onions to act as a matress.

Pour over remaining marinade and add some ginger and a bit of chilli. Bake for 12 minutes in a hot oven until the flesh is cooked and the edge has browned.

Whilst the skate is cooking, do the stir fry by adding the pak choi and mushrooms to a wok with some oil and blasting over a high heat. Douse in a glug of soy towards the end and drizzle with sesame oil.

Amalgamate all the elements and serve. It is so delicious and relatively easy to do. My next evolution of this dish is going to involve using Gastronomy Domine’s recipe for miso glazed recipe that includes the shiro miso paste that I couldn’t get in Waitrose but adapting it for skate cheeks and skate wing to accompany the risotto. I can’t wait to give it a go.

Fishy Supper

Gilly loves fish. We tend to meet up for dinner once a month and it just seemed like a good idea to cook at home rather than splurge in a restaurant. Last month for instance we went to Zayna and had a fantastic Pakistani meal and the previous month we went to Silk which was good but very quiet.

Inspired by the passion fruit ceviche we had in India…

… we decided to replicate it with good old fashioned English trout. Simply chop up 2 trout fillets and marinate in lime juice, coriander, passion fruit and chili to taste. Leave for 20-30 minutes and then spoon back into the empty passion fruit shells for an effortlessly exotic treat. It’s a much more interesting version of the standard ceviche with the added benefit of it looking very sexy.

We followed this up with a very simple but delicious smoked haddock and prawn risotto – served with a goats cheese and roasted tomato salad. Simply make a standard white risotto with some good white wine and even better rice and stock. Meanwhile poach your smoked haddock fillets in skimmed milk laced with bay, pepper corns and mace and cook until the fish starts to flake. This photo below is one of my favourite cooking photos… I just love the colours. It’s like an accidental work of art.

Then stir in some frozen peas, spinach leavees and flake in two thirds of the fish and a good handful of frozen prawns. Cook until the frozen elements are no longer hazardous. Stir in a slurp of the mily fish liquor to lubricate and then serve with a garnish of chives, parsley and the remaining fish. To lift the dish to a new level, grate some lemon zest into a few tablespoons of creme fraiche and serve as a condiment – it lightens the risotto and adds some zing which compliments the smoky fish.

Yum.

We finished off with some roasted apricots, steeped in Courvoisier and crumbled with Amaretti biscuits which were far too tasty for something so simple. Unfortunately, because they were so delicious I didn’t get a chance to take a photo, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. All in all it was a raging success. The journey from sharp and sweet trout ceviche to creamy riotto, back to sweet and sharp again was fantasitc.

Butternut Squash and Goat’s Cheese Risotto with Harissa Sausages

Feeling a bit creative at the weekend after the macaron class, I decided to create something fun and seriously savoury to counteract the mega sugar hit from the macarons.

I made a very straight forward risotto with a shallot and lardon base and a “stock” improvised from anchovy essence, mushroom ketchup, soy sauce and boiling water. Whilst I was stirring the rice, the butternut squash was roasting in a coat of olive oil and salt and a couple of cloves of garlic with their jackets on.

In an adjacent tray my sausages were sizzling in a rose harissa glaze. Crisping up and emitting a spicy, Middle Eastern aroma.

I’m not going to go into the details of cooking sausages and a risotto! So you’ll just have to take my word for it that the combination worked brilliantly. Especially with a watercress and radicchio side salad dressed with a touch of balsamic vinegar. I can seriously recommend smearing sausages in harissa paste. It works like a dream

Just the sort of spicy, meaty, sauvory antidote I needed given my massive macaron induced blood sugar spike.

Roast Ham Risotto with Mustard and Parsley

Risotto is such a good way of filling up cheaply. And an even better way of making good use of leftovers and fresh herbs.

I made a standard risotto, but instead of stock made a liquor from mushroom essence and porcini powder to add some depth. It gave the risotto great flavour and avoided the humuliation of having to use just water!

Mum’s leftover roast ham made a great embellishment tasting salty, meaty and gorgeously sweet. I beat a good lump of butter and a few knobs of cheese into the rice before finishing it with a sprig of parsley which gave the dish some colour and a subtle peppery kick.

Ooze Riotto Bar Review

Cowie, Edwin, Anna and I went off to Ooze last night for a long overdue catch up over a half price dinner courtesy of my Taste London card. Cowie and I have been looking forward to trying Ooze out for quite a while. I’ve driven past it quite a few times in a taxi on my way to Charlotte Street and always wonder what it’s like. Reviews have been mixed. I remember Jay Rayner went mental about how awful the All Day Breakfast risotto was:

The Observer, 12 November
Jay Rayner does not enjoy the unfortunately named risotto restaurant Ooze, in Goodge Street, London

“If only there had been a straight up saffron risotto on the menu, or one with wild mushrooms and nothing else. Instead, everything is overworked, and the risottos – priced from £8 to £10 – become less a medium than a base. The wild mushroom risotto comes inexplicably with cherry tomatoes. There’s sea bass risotto with more cherry tomatoes, olives and basil. Or there’s the one I tried (so you wouldn’t have to), the all-day breakfast risotto: loose and watery (rather than creamy) rice, mined with fatty chunks of undercooked pancetta, two small Spanish sausages on top, and piled off to the side, a heap of warmed but not cooked cherry tomatoes. Buried inside was a poached egg which, when split, only added to the wateriness. (Meal for two, including wine and service, £60).”

Given the disappointing review above I was intrigued to see if they had changed their menu and responded to the problems mentioned by concentrating on the classics and not getting carried away with crazy concoctions.

It’s safe to say that they have. My porcini risotto was exceptionally good. Full of mmushroomy depth… although would have been nice if it had been made with un-reconstituted mushrooms as the dried ones seem to make me fart a lot! Anna’s Milanese was delicious. Full of safron and tasting slightly of lemon to match its sharp yellow colouring.

Mains were good too. Our tuna was beautifully raw in the middle and charred on the outside. Just how we like it. But my beans were a bit undercooked and chalky which was a shame. Anna’s lamb chump looked delicious too.

We thought we’d make the most of the half price menu so tucked into delicious deserts. Anna’s baked Alaska looked impressive and Cowie’s crumbled was extremely good too. But neither were any where near as good as the chocolate fondant that Edwin and I tucked into. This was true ooze. Chocolate spreading out from the centre and smothering my plate. You know when you’ve had a good pudding because you wolf it down and then hear from Cowie, “I didn’t want to try it anyway!”…. roughly translated as “how dare you eat it all… I’ve got food envy.”

Here’s our comment card for a slightly shorer review. Well done Ooze. Bloody good risotto. But would love to see some proper mushrooms in the risotto and a slightly more interesting range. Also, could be worth exploring quinoa and kemut grain risottos too for all those people trying to get lower GI carbs into their diets. Maybe they’ll put something on their Ooze blog about it. I’m impresed by their use of blogging as a way of keeping their business in perpetual beta.