I bought some Arborio rice in Tesco, thought I may as well make an attempt at making Risotto. This is a dish my Mum makes a lot at home. So this is my first time. Let's just say it was a roaring success and my lovely girlfriend said "you can make this again, yum!"
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio Rice (Tesco brand will do, or whatever you think)
2 1/2 - 3 cups of vegetable stock.
1/2 Aubergine (sliced and diced)
1/2 Red pepper (sliced and diced)
1 Red small onion (sliced and diced)
4-5 mushrooms (quartered is best)
1/4 courgette (sliced and diced)
some grated cheese (parmesan is preferable, I used cheddar, it doesn't matter)
any other vegetables you want to add in.
Recipe:
Now I've seen a load of recipes using butter, but I don't. I think it makes it too fattening, my recipe doesn't need it either. It's creamy enough.
Season your pan first, by adding some olive oil on a low heat. Then add the cup of arborio rice. Fry the dried rice for two minutes with some diced onion to give it some flavour. Add all of your other vegetables to the frying pan as well. If you have a second frying pan, I recommend frying all your veg in this and then add it later as they may shrivel and dissappear into the risotto.
Boil the kettle on the side and in a seperate bowl, make your vegetable stock. I use Marigold Swiss Bouillon Powder. This stuff is hard to find, if you live in Dublin, you can buy it in the health food store in the Pavilions, Swords. I'm sure it's available elsewhere, but I don't know. Oxo cubes can also work, but they need to be stirred into the boiling water, until they break down and they're not as nice.
Anyway, use about 1 tablespoon of bouillon powder in 2.5 - 3 cups of boiling water from the kettle.
Add the stock a little bit at a time, each time stirring until the stock has been absorbed. The reason it is done like this, is to help release the starch from the rice and help give it a thicker taste.
Once you've added all the stock, your rice should be soft enough to eat. Add the grated cheese. Whilst on a low heat, let the cheese melt. Once the cheese has melted and been mixed into the rest of the risotto, it is ready to serve.
Add some more grated cheese to granish.
Enjoy :D
