Risotto con Fiori di Zucca

Risotto con Fiori di Zucca by Amber

Oil for sautéing
2 shallots, finely chopped
3 small zucchini, sliced thin
8-15 zucchini flowers, sliced
350 grams of riso carnaroli
½ cup of white wine
About one liter of broth (a little less!)
50 grams of grated parmigiano
30 grams of butter
Saute shallots for 5 minutes then add zucchini and half the chopped zucchini flowers. Saute until soft. Add rice and make it how you would any risotto. First adding wine and stirring until rice turns clear then adding broth slowly and cooking until rice is tender. About half way through add the remaining zucchini flowers. Turn of the heat, add knob of butter and cheese and combine. Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

One thing, my husband was devastated I wasn’t planning on frying the zucchini flowers so I fried him a few in a basic pastella (made with flour and carbonated water-hence the “garnish”)

Amber’s Risotto with Leeks, Parmesan, Lemon and Rosemary

 

4.5 cups of broth (vegetable or chicken)
2 large or 3 small leeks, washed and sliced thin
1 large shallot, sliced thin
1 tsp of finely chopped rosemary (optional)
Zest of one small lemon or half of a large lemon
White wine
400 grams of Carnaroli Rice
Olive Oil
Small knob of butter
70-100 grams of parmigiano
S and P, Q.B.!!
Saute leeks until tender about 10 minutes in a bit of oil. If pan dries out too much or leeks start to color, add broth.
Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan large enough to cook 400 grams of risotto. Saute shallots until tender. Add rice and toast until rice starts to turn transparent. Add wine (about one turn around the pan) and cook off. And add 2 cups of hot broth and continue stirring. When liquid is almost gone, add 1.5 cups of broth, rosemary if using, cooked leeks, and lemon zest and continue cooking and adding broth as necessary. Add salt as necessary keeping in mind whether your broth is salted! When rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Add a small knob of butter and all of the cheese. Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Thai Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry by Giselle Stafford

We ate this tonight and I can say that it was really good with a nice but not too powerful kick.  Omit the chopped chilli if you want this milder.

Serves 3 or 4 (or a couple of hungry’ns!)

 

What to get

1 good sized skinless, boneless chicken breast sliced or cubed

 

1 large red onion, cut in half then sliced with the rings, not against them.

 

1 small birds-eye chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped

 

1 stalk lemon grass, finely chopped

 

1 small nugget of ginger finely chopped.

 

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

 

Teaspoon red (or green) thai curry paste

 

Couple of Kafir lime leaves

 

Few shakes of fish sauce.

 

1 sachet creamed coconut with about 150 ml water or half a tin of coconut milk (shake 1st)

 

Chopped fresh coriander (1st choice) or fresh parsley (2nd choice!)

 

 

Serve with either Jasmine or Basmati rice & Raita.

 

What to do

Heat up some ordinary oil (ground nut, sunflower or similar) in a wok or largish frying pan.

Throw in the onion and chicken and cook until the chicken has sealed and the onion is slightly softened.

Add the chilli , ginger and lemon grass.

Add the sweet potato.

Mix all well and stir fry for a few minutes, not letting anything burn.

Add the curry paste, and stir through.

Add lime leaves and fish sauce, stir.

Add the coconut and water and stir well.  Add a little more water if necessary.

Turn down the heat and cover.  Simmer for about 30 mins or so or until the sweet potato is cooked through and the coconut milk has thickened.

Sprinkle with the coriander or parsley and serve with rice and raita.

 

Singapore Noodles….sort of…. by Amber

Adapted from Ching-He Huang’s Chinese Food Made Easy.

 

 

Oil for sauteing
1 minced clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger
1 small red chili (or more, your choice)
10 white mushrooms, sliced
1 large or two small zucchinis, julienned
1 small red pepper, sliced thin
1 carrot, julienned
200 grams chicken, diced, and coated in flour
100 grams of rice vermicelli
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 egg, beaten
2 large spring onions, chopped
2 tsp tumeric
dash of sesame oil.

Cook pasta according to package directions and set aside.
Heat oil in a large wok and add red chili, garlic and ginger. Let cook until it is fragrant. Add Tumeric and combine. Add vegetables and cook for one minute. Add chicken and cook through. Add noodles and combine, then add soy and oyster sauce.
Push everything aside and cook egg. Combine, remove from heat, add spring onions and a dash of sesame oil.

Serve.

RICE WITH VEGETABLES AND SOY SAUCE by Marta Blay

 

RICE WITH VEGETABLES AND SOY SAUCE

Ingredients (6 persons):· 300gr. rice· 1 onion· 1 leek· 1 carrot· 1 chicken breast-1 tablespoon olive oil· 1 egg· 3 tablespoons soy sauce
Preparation:
Cook the rice. Chop vegetables and breast. Heat a skillet or wok with oil and saute the chicken breast, add the vegetables and sauté. Add above fried rice-shaped mountain. Break the egg into the middle and mix with vegetables. Season with soy. Serve hot. Decorate with strips of chives. Recipe by Anna Blay

Kung Po Turkey? by Dwight Stanford

 

2tbsp sesame oil heated in wok
add 2 chili peppers,diced
1/2 cup fennel, diced
1/2 cup cauliflower, diced
1/2 cup carrots, diced
(1/4-1/3 cup of shelled, halved peanuts if no allergy)
100 gm/person cubed turkey breast (or chicken breast)
cook several minutes until turkey is fully cooked
boil 80-100 gm/person of rice (I used faro, rice and orzo)
de-glaze the wok with 1/2 cup white wine and a tbsp of sugar and when partially reduced use as a sauce for the wok ingredients.
Plate the rice and flavor with soy sauce to taste, top with stir-fried stuff and the sauce and serve with a nice Riesling or Gewurtztraminer.

Coconut Rice by Kim Vanzi

adapted from From The Essential Asian Cookbook

 

It was really good. Put the onions, garlic, ginger in a pan with some oil cook a bit then throw in the rice and turmeric cook about 2-3 minutes, then put in the hot coconut milk bring back to a boil. Throw in Curry leaves if you have and salt bring heat to very low, cover and let cook for 25 minutes. Take lid off and turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes and done. Top with cucumbers, hard boiled eggs and hot pepper slices or red pepper if you don’t like heat. I also added some small shrimp.

Orange Risotto with Prawns and Feta by Jo Williams

Ok. Looks messy…I meant to take a photo of the risotto on its own and forgot. So basically orange risotto with prawns and feta.

For 2 people:
half a mug of rice
prawns (as many as you want)
2 oranges
some butter
a big piece of onion
dash of white wine
veg stock.

Put oil and a teaspoon of butter in frying pan and add a large piece of onion for a min. Add the rice for 2 mins and then the wine. Add the prawns and slowly add the veg stock and juice of 1 orange until rice is cooked and then fold in the cleaned pieces of the other orange, feta, teaspoon of butter and salt and pepper. Recipe doesn’t need the feta or the feta can be substituted for Parmesan, goat’s cheese, blue cheese etc etc

Smoked Salmon Cucumber Sushi Rolls by Kim Vanzi

Smoked Salmon Cucumber Sushi Rolls

I love sushi, but have to watch the raw fish so I figured I would try it with smoked salmon.  Add a bit of cream cheese to counteract the amount of salt in the soy sauce and the salmon plus the refreshing cucumber.  For the rice I used this recipe Sushi Rice (from japanese.about.com)  and in that recipe I substituted the rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar with a pinch of sugar (came from The Cook’s Thesaurus).  This is very important to follow the recipe precisely or the rice will not have the right texture and stickiness needed.

Sushi Nori Wraps
Prepared Sushi Rice
Finely sliced cucumbers partially skinned and with the seeds removed
Finely sliced carrots
Smoked salmon pieces
cream cheese
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Soy sauce, wasabi, ginger

It is best if you have a rolling mat but if not you can use a kitchen towel and plastic wrap.  Take your mat I like to put plastic wrap on that too just because I am a neat freak, but you don’t have too.  Place the nori sheet on the plastic wrap, wet your hands with water and take the rice and pat it all over the mat leaving a space above of about 1 inch with out rice, keep wetting hands to press the rice down.  Then top with Salmon going across in a row.  Same with the vegetables.  I put a small layer of cream cheese mixed with some wasabi in a line after the salmon and before the vegetables.  Next is the hard part roll up your sushi slowly, tightly, and squeezing to make sure everything is tight.  Do this to until you have about 1 cm left. Then wet the nori slightly with your finger dipped in water continue to roll to the end.  Take your log of sushi to a cutting board with a very sharp knife you can cut it into an 1 and 1/2 inch segments. Dip in toasted sesame seeds.   place on a nice dish an serve with chopsticks, soy sauce, extra wasabi, and ginger.  Get some sake and make a whole Japanese meal.

Note:   IF you can get really fresh fish you can do it with fresh fish instead of smoked salmon.  You can also just make an all vegetable sushi.  Shrimps, eel and octopus should always be cooked.

Letizia’s Risotto con Asparagi e Pancetta

From Letizia’s Blog at Madonna del Piatto 

Ask 2 Italians what’s the correct way to prepare pasta. You will get the same story from both: al dente, toss with sauce, serve piping hot. Ask two Italians how to make a risotto. You will get 2 stories. Ask 4 of them, you will get 4 stories.  Stir, don’t stir. Use only butter, oil’s forbidden. No! olive oil’s  OK. Condiments at the beginning, no, at the end. Rest, don’t rest. Finish with cream? No cold butter! Vialone? Arborio? Carnaroli?

Read more and for the recipe..