Cheese and Pears

Risotto recipe: Shrimp Risotto With Peas

Posted on Nov 25, 2009 12:02:44 PM

Cheeseandpears is back, with a huge recipes backlog. The reason for staying away for so long is simple: I’m currently working on my plan to become rich, and as Bill Cullen would say, it takes time and commitment.

Anyway, it’s time for risotto. Seriously, do you know how to make risotto yet? I hear sometimes people declaring their love for Italian food claiming they do an excellent risotto. Even if I don’t claim I do, I’m always more interested in the making rather than the final result, which can be good or bad regardless of how good you follow the process. So, if you’re reading and you do an “excellent risotto” how do you do it? Do you follow the steps below? Or do you do it your own way? By the way, I recently found out (with horror) that, when she makes risotto, my sister adds all the stock at once. So there you go, another blow to the myth that you have to be Italian to cook Italian…
I already explained the steps in my very first post about mushroom risotto but if you’re too lazy to click on it I’ll sum them up here (click it anyway, it’s a delicious risotto recipe). I’m not sure if I’ll repeat exactly the same steps in the same way, as I AM too lazy to click on my own recipe.

For two people:

• 160-200g (6-7oz) risotto rice (buy the good one, don’t be stingy!)
• 1 liter (2 pints) vegetable stock
• half onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or 25g (1oz) butter
• half a glass of white wine
• more butter and parmesan
• the food you want to flavor the risotto with

1. Put the chopped onion in a saucepan with the olive oil, let it sweat at medium -low heat for 7-10 minutes. Don’t burn it.
2. Pour the rice and turn up the heat, let it toast for 1-2 minutes, keep on stirring. Set a timer to 17 minutes from when you pour the rice
3. Pour the wine, turn down the heat to medium and let it evaporate.
4. Pour a ladle of stock, let it absorb before you add another one. Then pour another one and so on. Keep on stirring to prevent the rice from sticking
5. When the rice is cooked, you may need to let it go one or two minutes more to absorb any excess of stock. Take it off the heat add a knob of butter and Parmesan, cover with a lid and let it rest for 3-4 minutes. Give a good stir and serve

What about the flavor of the rice? Well there’s no fixed rule. Depending on the recipe, it can be added from the very start, half-way or towards the end. It can be cooked separately or added raw to the saucepan. And of course it can be all these things combined together. This is what you do in this particular risotto recipe, so follow me if you want to kick it up a notch.

Now, this shrimp risotto with peas goes like this.
You’ll need the ingredients above (parmesan is optional) plus 100-150g (3,5-5oz) of precooked shrimps and the same quantity of frozen peas. The quantity here is variable, firstly because I tend to forget to write them down when I cook, secondly because it depends on taste. My advice is: train your eye and go for balance: your risotto shouldn’t be swamped in peas and shrimps, but you shouldn’t struggle to find them either.

Shrimps: before starting the risotto, heat a tbsp of olive oil with a clove of garlic, stir-fry gently the shrimps and 2/3 of the defrosted peas for about 15 minutes, then add them to the risotto almost at the very end of cooking time.
The other 1/3 of the peas should be added at around the 8th minute of cooking.

In this way the peas will have two different textures and colors, one part more brownish and cooked, the other mire green and raw.
The picture of this shrimp risotto recipe is miraculously good enough to show that.

Soup Recipes: Peas with Onion and Bacon Bits

Posted on May 12, 2009 05:50:38 PM

This is a grey area of soup recipes. Is it a soup? Is it a second course? Is it a pasta sauce? No need to decide. This is a real like-mamma-used-to-make classic I cooked for myself the other day as main course, and used as pasta sauce the day after (not suitable for spaghetti, choose a smal-sized short pasta).

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ onion, chopped
• 50g bacon, diced
• 150g peas
• 250ml vegetable stock
• ½ glass of white wine
• dry rosemary (optional)

Put the peas for the soup 4-5 minutes in boiling water if frozen. Heat the stock in a separate pan.

Heat the olive oil with the bacon, and sauté the onion until it’s lucid and tender.

Add the peas, turn up the heat and pour the wine. When it’s evaporated turn down the heat and add a ladle of stock.

From now on it works like a risotto: add a ladle of stock at the time and wait for it to be absorbed before adding the next one.

When the peas are cooked enough for your taste (after 20-25 minutes), the soup is ready season with salt and pepper and serve.

Did  you like this soup recipe? Try more vegetables