Why am I here?


Why am I here? Not in an existential way, just why am I here on blogger?

My intention is to record good stuff that I do - bike rides, baking, making and visiting - and the silly, clumsy stuff too.

Watch this space and I apologise in advance if my updates are a bit sparse. I never was much good with diaries...



Saturday, 22 January 2011

A food interlude...

Courtesy of Delia, this is one of my absolute favourite cold weather comfort food recipes.
I believe it isn't technically a risotto, because it is baked, but do you know what, it's easy to make and tastes fab so I really don't care. I hope you get round to trying it some time and enjoy it as much as we do.
Mmmmmm.

Roasted and Sun-dried Tomato Risotto


Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C)
For the roasted tomatoes:
1.5lb (700g) tomatoes
1 dessertspoon olive oil
1 fat clove garlic, chopped
Basil leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the risotto:
2 level teaspoons sun-dried tomato paste
4oz (110g) sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1oz (25g) butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
8oz (225g) risotto rice
10 fl oz (275ml) dry white wine
2oz (50g) parmesan, freshly grated
1 tablespoon double cream

Slice each tomato in half and put halves on a roasting tray, then season. Sprinkle olive oil, followed by and top each one with half a basil leaf dipped in oil first to get a good coating.
Put in oven and roast tomatoes for 50-60 minutes or until the edges of the tomatoes are slightly blackened. Remove them from the oven and then put the dish in the oven to pre-heat it, reducing the temperature to 180°C first. Now put the tomatoes and all their juices into a processor and blend.
Melt the butter in a large heavy saucepan and fry the onion for about 7 minutes until it is just tinged brown at the edges. After that, add the rice and stir to coat all the grains with the buttery juices. Now add the wine. Bring it up to boiling point, let it bubble for a minute then add the tomato paste and 12 fl oz (330 ml) boiling water. Give it all a good stir, season with salt and pepper and then add all the processed tomato mixture plus the sun-dried tomatoes. Stir again and bring it just up to simmering point, then transfer the whole lot to the warm dish, return the dish to the oven and, using a timer, give it 35 minutes. (I have never cooked it for this long - more like 25 minutes, so do check it earlier)
After that stir in the grated Parmesan and give it another 5-10 minutes – what you'll have to do here is to bite a grain of rice to check when it's ready. It should be tender but still retain some bite.
Just before serving, stir in the cream and top each portion with shavings of Parmesan and any leftover basil leaves.

No comments:

Post a Comment