paella, and butternut squash and goats cheese risotto

[helenic]

I've had a couple of people round for dinner lately, and have been rocking the rice-based dishes.

Paella

I made this for my parents on the grounds that I first ate real paella when on holiday in Spain with them, and liked it so much I ordered it the following night as well.

This serves 4, but if I was making it again I would make more, because there wasn't enough for seconds and we all wanted some.

1 onion
1 red or green sweet pepper
crushed garlic
risotto/arborio rice (I used pudding rice from the cornershop, and it was grand)
vegetable or chicken stock
assorted seafood (mussels, clams, prawns and squid rings are traditional, crab also works, or anything else you can get easily. I tend to use the mixed, pre-shelled and peeled packs from Tesco, which are dead easy and also 2 for £5 at the moment)
a couple of fillets free-range organic chicken
bacon or pancetta
couple of tomatoes
frozen peas or veg
white wine
saffron
paprika
thyme
fresh chilli to taste (I used a big green chilli from the garden)
fresh parsley

Chop the onion and saute in the biggest wok or paella pan you have, in plenty of olive oil. Before it gets crispy, toss in as much crushed garlic as you like, and give it a stir. If you're putting fresh chilli in, now is the time to add it. Add the bacon/pancetta and chopped chicken pieces, and seal the meat. When the white meat is white and starting to go brown, start adding the rice. Give it a good stir to coat it in the oil and meat juices. When it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, start adding stock. Continue adding stock and rice until you've got as much rice as you want to eat. Turn the heat down and leave it for a bit, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

When the rice has started to swell, throw in the seafood and let it cook in the stock. Add white wine, a good pinch of saffron and plenty of paprika and black pepper. Chop the sweet pepper and thyme, and throw that in. When the rice has nearly absorbed all the liquid, stir it and taste. Add more water/wine and let it simmer. Taste for seasoning - you can't really have enough paprika or black pepper in this. Add some fresh chopped parsley. When the rice is nearly ready, throw in the chopped tomatoes and frozen veg, and let it sit until all the liquid is absorbed.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon, more black pepper, a handful of fresh chopped parsley, and a huge glass of dry white wine.

Butternut squash and goats cheese risotto

I dreamed this up, having never heard of it before, but when I looked on the interwebs, lo! Many people had made it before, which was helpful in working out the best way to do it. Clearly great culinary minds think alike. It is simple and ridiculously delicious.

Serves two to bursting, although having nommed it all last night I do wish I had some leftovers for lunch.

1 onion
crushed garlic
risotto/arborio rice
vegetable or chicken stock
1 butternut squash
a couple of different kinds of goats cheese
fresh leaf spinach
pine nuts
white wine
fresh sage
fresh thyme

Peel and chop the squash. This is the hardest and most time-consuming bit of the whole process, especially if like me you have a naff peeler and instead have to attack it with an over-sized kitchen knife. Scoop out the seeds and pulpy middle and put it in the compost. Chop the meat of the squash into inch-sized cubes. I only used 2/3 of the squash to feed two of us, but use the whole thing, you'll be glad to have seconds.

Chop the onion, saute with garlic, and add the squash when the onion has gone soft. Cook it with lots of olive oil until it starts to change colour. Then start adding the rice, stock and wine. Season with black pepper, chopped fresh sage and fresh thyme. Don't use too much rice - the squash, spinach and cheese will bulk it out.

Toast the pine nuts under the grill, or dry-fry them in a separate pan. Don't let them burn, they go brown pretty fast. When the rice is nearly soft, start adding spinach by the handful. This wilts really fast so just keep adding it until you have the balance you want. I used about half of one of those big bags, but more wouldn't have gone amiss. Add the pine nuts, more black pepper, another smattering of chopped sage, another splash of wine, and chop the goats cheese. If you have hard goats cheese, cube it and add it to the pan to melt. If you have soft, just stir it through at the last minute, and save a few bits to crumble on top.

The result is packed with nutrients, and a sublime balance between the fresh-tasting veg and the sinfully delicious salty rich crumbly goats cheese. NOM.

Since I moved into the Snug, I've taken great pleasure from making my own stock. Someone on LJ (ailbhe?) shared an as-you-cook way of doing this which is pleasingly non-wasteful. When cooking, you save all your vegetable peelings, onion skins, carrot tops, pepper seeds, unused leaves in a bag in the freezer. This keeps for ages, so you can just keep adding to it. It starts to break down in the freezer, so when you open it it already starts to smell like stock. When you have enough (a bag the size of a bag of frozen peas), tip the lot into a stock pan and cover with boiling water. Add a quartered onion, a couple of sticks of celery, fresh rosemary, parsley and thyme if you have them, black peppercorns and salt. Boil it until the liquid is brown, then leave to simmer for an hour or so. The longer you cook it the stronger the stock will be. If you want stronger stock, leave the lid of the pan off and boil it to reduce. When you're happy, drain the stock into tupperware tubs and put the puply vegetable mash in the compost bin. The stock can then be frozen in tubs or ice-cube trays to make stock cubes.

Comments

[glitzfrau]

You put SPINACH in your butternut squash risotto! SPINACH! You blow my mind, young woman!

[helenic]

But it makes it all green and fresh-tasting! Do you not like spinach?

[glitzfrau]

No, I love it! I just have never added it to risotto in my life (and I make a lot of risotto.) It's an exciting new concept, though I'm scared it would get grey and straggly.

[helenic]

The trick is to add it right at the last possible minute, so it doesn't get the chance!

[gominokouhai]

The stock recipe's going to be useful---thanks.

[sashajwolf]

You can add pretty much any vegetable to risotto, provided you time it right. That's what I love about it - it's amazingly versatile. Generally speaking, if it's something I would normally roast or saute, I put it in at the start before the rice and stock, and if it's something I would normally steam or boil, I put it in towards the end, using the normal cooking time as a guide (but usually adding a couple of minutes to allow for the fact that it's cooking in a pretty dense mixture rather than just boiling water or steam.)