Pea Risotto

Risotto is a pretty basic dish once you understand how to make it. The key is using hot stock and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid. You can use whatever ingredients you have may it be some left over roasted butternut squash, dried porcini  mushrooms, fresh asparagus tips these will all make a  beautiful alternative.

You will need:

• One litre of hot chicken stock
• Half an onion, finely diced
• 25g of butter
• A sprig of fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 400g risotto rice, This is Arborio rice, it is a short grain rice
• 200g of frozen peas
• Some freshly ground black pepper
• 150ml of white wine
• 75g of Parmesan cheese to garnish

Simply heat the chicken stock in a large saucepan have your ladle at the ready.
In a separate saucepan, melt the butter and a little drizzle of oil on a medium to low heat ,fry the onion, do not brown but cook until translucent. Next add in the thyme with the onions and cook for a further minute and season lightly.
Add the rice , This is where you have to be careful, Turn up the heat and keep stirring the rice, don't allow it to catch. The rice should slightly change in colour.
Add the white wine and stir.
Add one ladle of hot stock to the risotto, keep stirring and allow to fully absorb, This is important. Keep repeating this process allowing each ladle of stock to fully absorb into the rice, this should take about 20 minutes, You want the rice to still have a slight bite but not a chalky gritty texture which often happens with risotto.
On the last ladle of stock, add the peas , You want the peas to still have a slight bite also.
Remove from the heat and grate in some parmesan cheese ,Stir and season.
Garnish with some shards of parmesan and if you like even thinly slice some fresh mint!

Lets talk about Wild Garlic!

 

The more I'm trying to figure out what kind of chef I am I see its coming back to basics and keeping food as natural and simple as possible, Great ingredients and doing very little with them. Food shouldn't be complicated in my opinion. The past couple of years I've started to appreciate food a lot more when I began to grown my own vegetables and my dad began to rare pigs. You respect the welfare of the animal , and I think that's just as important as the end product you end up with. Even more so when I find free food that many of us walk by without realising its worth, I myself am guilty of this, a little knowledge about all this great produce around us and your laughing!

Wild garlic being one of those, it grows wild all over Ireland, You will smell it before you see it and its a great product to make soda breads & pesto's with. Here's a simple Wild Garlic pesto recipe which you can keep in the fridge up to a week, its beautiful with pastas, dressing salads with and with fish.

What you will need:

• One large bunch of wild garlic
• 60g of toasted pine nuts
• 60g of parmesan cheese, grated
• 150ml of oil, I like to mix this between a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil as I find olive oil over powers the flavour of the wild garlic
• Squeeze of some lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

In a dry frying fan over a medium heat toast the pine nuts, Keep a close eye as they can burn quickly. Shake the pan a couple of times to ensure even cooking.
When golden set aside.
In a food processor , Add the toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese and wild garlic and blend to a smooth paste.
Through the funnel of the food processor slowly add in the oil until it begins to thicken.
Season and add a squeeze of lemon juice.