HEAD BLOG

For the risotto I never seem to get tired of, just follow this very simple receipe. I may even update this with photos at some point.

Risotto rice
White wine (a glass of)
Stock (about a pint – one cube of veg and one of chicken)
1 white onion
Red pepper (roasted – either made yourself or a jar of ready roasted red peppers)
Chilli flakes
Prawns (raw)
Peas
Coriander

Get your stock on the bubble and keep it on a low boil
Use some of the oil from the jar of red peppers (tablespoon should be fine) and drop it into a hot heavy based saucepan.
Give that a minute or so and then get your onion in. Let it soften in the oil – you don’t want colour on it. Add some chilli flakes as it cooks. They are powerful hot so trial and error on this. I use what is commonly referred to as a “bit” sprinkled over the onion.
Stir in the red pepper.
Add the risotto rice and stir it about so that it soaks in the oil.
Turn up the heat. You need the pan nice and hot but you don’t want anything burning.
Once you’ve given the rice a good stir for maybe 30 seconds then it’s time to start making the risotto. So pour in the wine and begin stirring.
The wine should boil down quite quickly. Keep stirring.
Once it becomes fairly thick then add a ladle of the stock from your bubbling pan of joy.
Let this reduce down and add another ladle-full.
Keep doing this until the rice becomes softish. It’s nearly cooked so you’ll want to add the peas and begin frying your prawns.
Keep an eye on the risotto – don’t let it dry up (you may add a couple of ladles now which will warm the peas through and you can turn down the heat so it will continue to reduce and soften the rice but won’t over cook.
Fry off your prawns. Nice hot pan, bit of oil. Dry the prawns if they seem overly wet and give them a blast of ground pepper and maybe more chilli flakes.
Once they turn pink then they are cooked. Tip them into the risotto which should be pretty much ready.
Taste the risotto. Your stock should be almost gone anyway. If the rice tastes nice then you are ready to serve.
Ladle into warmed bowls. Sprinkle over some chopped coriander and scoff until you are happy.