Asparagus risotto

I didn’t get to take a photo of this as we were starving and as it smelled divine.  Excuses, excuses…

This is adapted from the May 2013 edition of delicious magazine. The chef’s advice was a bit … hmmm … “Italian” (well, he is Italian, so what could I expect) – it’s full of do’s and don’t (which is good) and the list of ingredients is prescriptive (which is not so good, particularly when you're not living in the country where the brands he recommends can be bought in the local shop). This is my less ridged version.

There were only two is us for dinner last night, and we ate this between us.

150g asparagus – I used what Delhaize had the best value on, which was Belgian-grown white

150g risotto rice - I used the one-and-only brand that was in the shop

a good knob of butter

1 small onion

400ml of stock (if you have some white wine knocking around, make up the 400ml using some wine)

a packet of lardons

salt and pepper

3 well-heaped teaspoons of parmesan

Heat your stock in a saucepan, and keep it warm and close to you.

Wash the asparagus, chop off the ends and cut it into centimetre long chunks.

Melt the knob of butter in a saucepan. When it’s melted but not bubbling, add the chopped onion and cook it for a minute before adding the rice. Cook all of this until the rice has absorbed all the butter.

Ladle in some stock and stir it through the rice. Keep stirring until all the stock has been absorbed. Add another ladleful of stock, the asparagus and the lardons, stirring all the time until the stock is absorbed again. Season, and keep going until the stock is all gone and the rice is fully cooked.

Remove the risotto from the heat and stir through the parmesan and serve.

Home made granola

Between one thing and d’other, I ran out of muesli during the week (this is probably linked to my 'up-make' of smoothies*). So I decided to do something that I've until now considered as complete and utter madness** - make breakfast cereal.

While looking for something else on line I saw a recipe for homemade granola (or muesli) and decided to give it a go.  The result is very satisfying. The best part is that you can make it to how you like it.

Home-made granola 

So, in a large bowl, mix 125ml of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of honey, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Add 300g of large oats and around 200g of whatever nuts you have. I used up the ends of packets of almonds, walnuts and pistachios to make the 200g, but you can use seeds (sunflower, sesame, ground linseeds…) or whatever you have handy. Make sure the nuts and oats are well stirred through the maple syrup. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and spread the oaty mix over it. Cook this in an oven at 150° for 15 minutes. In the meantime, weigh out 100g of dried fruit – again, whatever you have lying around. I used a mixture of dried cranberries, sultanas and blueberries and some goji berries***. Sprinkle this over the oaty mixture and cook for another 15 minutes.

When its cool, store in an airtight container and use in your smoothies, on yogurt or wherever else.

* 365things smoothies contain: a cupful of fruit such as frozen mixed berries or frozen raspberries, plus a banana, a pot of yogurt, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dessert spoonful of granola, a splash of milk or fruit juice or sparkling water and maybe a spoonful of almond butter (think peanut butter but with almonds instead of peanuts. It is available from health food shops and is addictive. It is a good source of calcium, potassium and magnesium and contains lots of vitamin E. Vitamin E is like edible skin cream, so instead of spending a fortune on anti-wrinkle creams and the like, treat your skin from the inside. Careful though, as almond butter is quite heavy on the calories). Whizz all the ingredients in a blender for about a minute until smooth, adding more milk or juice to get it to your preferred consistency) and serve glass.

** why do I consider making cereal a form of madness? Well, unlike other processed food, porridge oats and muesli/granola are quite pure forms of food and they contain less nasty stuff than say processed bread, so I don't mind buying them, and I will spend a day making bread. And, until now, I just thought life was too short to make this stuff. Mind changed ;-)

*** I bought the goji berries in a health food shop after hearing they are incredibly good for you, with high calcium and iron levels. I didn't like the taste of them that much so they have been in the cupboard for a while. Added to the granola means that the taste is diluted a bit.

Something for the summer – key lime pie

This is quite a rich, quick, no cook pie, brilliantly offset by the bitter lime juice. There are a couple of things I’d change for next time, so read until the end! If you happen to have the ingredients lying around, it is the type of thing you could knock up if you were having some impromptu guests or if by some miracle, summer arrives. It is very rich, so you will get 10 portions out of it.

Take 375g biscuits (I used ginger nuts) and crush them in either a food processor or in a bag with a rolling pin.

Melt 150g of butter in a pot and mix the crushed biscuits through it. Squash this into a loose-bottomed 23cm cake tin and put it in the fridge while you get on with the filling.

Zest and juice 8 limes – I got about 350ml of juice from the ones I used. In a large bowl, mix 570ml of full fat cream and a 397g tin of condensed milk. Whisk these together with the lime juice for a couple of minutes and pour it on top of your biscuit base. Chill this for a couple of hours.

Next time: I made this in individual ramekins as I was a bit terrified of getting the cake out of the tin, even if it’s loose bottomed. I thought the buttery biscuits were a bit of an overkill, so I’d make the filling and serve it with the crushed biscuits sprinkled over it or, as I’d used individual dishes, put the un-buttery biscuits in the base, as they will absorb some of the liquid from the filling and the crumbs will stick to it. Or don’t crush the biscuits, and serve a couple of whole biscuits with the filling for people to dip or spread as they like. Finally, the filling’s colour was off-white, which was lovely, but I’d think about adding a drop or two of green food colouring just to pep it up a bit.

I should add that this recipe is from the BBC food website.