Oven-baked risotto with italian sausages

After the heat wave in Melbourne it's great to have a much cooler day today. And along with the cooler weather, comes indulgent foods like beautiful soups and rustic risotto's. I say rustic because I like the 'not so perfect' look of a dish, the sort of dish that your nonna may have served up 40 years ago in the village in Italy! As I love to make risotto's, I thought it was about time to try a risotto with some sort of meat. I love veggies in my risotto; leeks, roasted pumpkin, asparagus..... I also love sundried tomatoes. I came across a recepe in 'COOK' for an oven-baked risotto with italian sausage. So here it is:

1 litre chicken stock
4 spicy italian-style sausages
1 tablespoon oil
40 g butter
2 large brown onions, chopped coarsley
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup semi-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan - but I like to use Parmagianno Romano

1. Preheat oven to 180
2. Bring stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer.
3. Heat large frypan and cook sauages until browned all over. I removed them and sliced them thinly, then fried them again for a few minutes to cook the meat through. Then remove and set aside.
4. Heat oil and butter in same dish; cook onion and garlic until soft. Add arborio rice and wine, cook on low heat, stirring, for about one minute.
5. In a baking dish (I use the corningware bakeware) put in rice mixture from pan, stock, cooked sausages and tomato. Cover with foil, and bake for 25 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, stirring halfway through cooking.
5. Stir in cheese and fresh basil

Picture coming!

Risotto tips

When aiming for that perfect creamy risotto, there are a couple of things to consider. Firstly, I make sure that my stock is kept warm and close at hand on the stove. I always use a good-quality risotto rice such as arborio or carnaroli. One thing that is totally wrong when making risotto's is to use short-grain rice, it will never have the same creaminess or texture as arborio. I always use onion as a base to the risotto. I dice it up really finely and then slightly caramelize the onion, sometimes also adding either a leek (cut finely) or some shallots. I then add some dry white wine, and cook off the wine. After a few minutes I add my arborio rice, followed by adding some stock, stirring, add more stock, stirring..... About half way through my risotto cooking - say after about 8 minutes, I add my ingredient to texture and add flavour and interest to my dish, and this is where you can be creative. Sometimes I add some slow roasted pumpkin, or if you're making a seafood risotto some prawns and scallops. You can really add whatever your heart desires. I then add some more stock and continue to stir and cook risotto. I've never actually taken the exact time to make a risotto, but guessing I'd say about 18/20 minutes. Depending on what risotto I have made I will also stir through some parmagiano regiano cheese at the end - however this is a big no no if I am making a seafood risotto. The I serve up the risotto :) I will post some pics soon when I make my next risotto :)

Fried Risotto Balls

I make these when I have left over risotto. Usually the risotto is from the night before, and by sitting in the fride for 24 hours the arborio rice has set together and can easily be formed into risotto balls with boccocini cheese in the middle. If you're having people over, they make a really nice finger food snack, just make sure to make them a little smaller. If you are making smaller finger food size risotto balls, I find that there's no need for there to be any boccocini cheese in the middle. I make these up with whatever risotto I have left oever, whether it's sundried tomato or pumpkin and leek :)

Serving size: Serves 4Cooking time: Less than 60 minutes

INGREDIENTS

250g leftover risotto
Grated Parmesan, to taste
Bread Crumbs
Salt and pepper
Boccocini, cut into small cubes
flour
Egg wash
Vegetable oil for deep-frying

METHOD

In a large bowl mix risotto, Parmesan, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Roll into balls, press small piece of boccocini into the centre.Roll balls in flour, followed by egg wash then bread crumbs.Heat oil in wok till 180°C, fry risotto balls till golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper.

Oven Baked Fat Chips with Rosemary Salt - Jamie Oliver

I got this recipe in Jamie Oliver's Italy cook book. I've made these chips a few times. They're a good companion dish, especially when making homemade burgers. If I want to organise myself a day or so before a meal, I make the Rosemary and lemon paste and top it up with a little olive oil, put it in a glass bottle and store it in the fridge :)

Ingredients:
2 lb. large potatoes, cut into large chips 1 cm (½ inch)
Olive oil
1 bulb of garlic
Freshly ground black pepper
3 sprig fresh rosemary
Zest of 1 lemon
sea salt

Directions: Place a baking tray in the oven and preheat it to 230 degrees C.
Parboil the potato chips, skin on, for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, smash the garlic and chuck in the cloves, then add the potato chips.

Toss in the oil and season with pepper. Bake on the preheated tray for 15/20 minutes until crispy and golden.

Remove the leaves from the rosemary and put in the mortar with the lemon zest and salt.

Bash up to make a green paste, adding more salt if it is too wet. Push through a sieve, and sprinkle on the chips to serve.

Serves 4.

My thoughts on Olive Oil

Olive Oil in Italian in known as 'Olio d'oliva', and some people refer it as 'Liquid gold'. In places like Italy, Olive Oil is considered something you buy from a reliable source, someone that you know, and mostly locals. I guess this has been a tradition for hundreds of years. I also think that people have a sense of comfortableness when purchasing olive oil from the local supplier, and in some cases a sense of pride. As I think about my Italian heritage, I think about the pride that people have in their cooking, and in particular, the pride that they have when they can cook with products from their own town, it just makes their food 'taste better'!
I find olive oil quite amazing. It's been around since 5,000 BC, first in ancient Greece and then in countries like Israel and Egypt, and then eventually in Italy by the eight century BC. It was the Romans that planted olive trees everywhere throughout their empire. It's so evident today, when you drive through all the towns in Italy, olive trees everywhere. In particular, I remember driving through Soriano up to a small town where my mother comes from, Dasa'. I was surrounded by olive trees, so green, so lush, and so much character. Mum tells me about the days when she was younger and the town's people would pick the olives and would press them to make oil, then marinate them in flavours known to the Mediterranean. It was simple food, food for farmers and townspeople. Simple food that today massive corporations have made billions out of, simple food it was once - but now so 'gourmet' to foodies all over the world. And it's really been just over the last twenty years or so that everyone outside of the Mediterranean countries started talking about the health-giving properties in olive oil. It's now known that good extra-virgin olive oil is very rich in antioxidants that can help fight bad cholesterol, and help prevent heart attacks and cancer. And believe it or not that many years ago champion athletes at the Olympic Games were presented with olive oil instead of medals! That's how precious olive oil has been considered!

Red Lentil Soup

I love lentils, especially in soups. I found a really simple and yummy recipe from 'Marie Clare - Kitchen' cook book. I made the soup last week. To give the soup that special kick, at the end you add some cooked coriander and red onion, something new to me, and I must say that I do like the taste of fried coriander in the soup, so yummy :)

Red Lentil Soup - Serves 4

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
Cracked black pepper
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1 cup red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
2 red onions, finely sliced
1 bunch (90 grams) coriander

Method
Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a saucepan and add diced onion, ginger and pepper. Cook over a medium heat until the onion is soft. Add the carrot, lentils and stock, and bring to the boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add red onion. Wash coriander, and finely chop coriander, including roots, setting aside the top leafy bits for the garnish. Add the chopped coriander roots and stems to the red onion in fry pan and continue to cook, until the onion has caramelized.

To serve, ladle the soup into four soup bowls, garnish with a sprinkling of coriander leaves, then top with a spoonful of the caramelized onion. Yummy!

Pet Hates

OK OK, for those that personally know me, you would be aware that I absolutely can't stand bad coffee - in particular cafes that serve up skinny milk when you have requested full cream milk. I mean, what's the deal? It's really not that hard - skinny or full cream - two complete different milks that the end result is completely different. If you're anything like me, when you order a full cream coffee, it is absolutely devastating when you take you first sip of the desperately required coffee and you all you taste is the bitter taste of skinny milk. For some reason it happens all the time to me, and that's why it's turned into one of my greatest hates.

So hot in Melbourne today

What a day to start my own food blog - I guess the heat wave has enabled me to finally try and understand how to actually run my own blog - something that I've wanted to do for a while now. Don't let me start on the heat - I'm really tired from it now, it's so hot and dry outside. I've positioned myself in my dining room underneath the air-conditioner set on max, inspired to search food website and plan what I'm going to cook when the weather cool's down a little.