Name: White Risotto
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 litre chicken stock; 3 green onions, white part finely sliced; 1 stalk celery, diced; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 tablespoons butter, divided; 300 grams Arborio rice; 150 ml Pinot Grigio; 60 grams Parmesan cheese

White Risotto

September 9, 2019September 8, 2019 Renee Leave a comment

We have been pretty much non-stop on the go in the beginning of August, including two late nights out in a row this past week. For an introvert who absolutely requires sleep and quiet time to feel normal, it’s been a blessing but also a struggle to socialise so much. Saturday was meant to be the first day I’d have to myself in a long time, and I was really looking forward to it.

Did you guess what happened yet? I woke up with a horrible cold that no amount of apple cider vinegar could abate. Sometimes I think my body manages to fight off illness as long as I keep moving, then when it senses I’m about to relax thinks, “Okay, you’ve got time for all these viruses now. Enjoy!” I assure you I have not. Or maybe this was the universe’s weird way of granting me my wish to stay in bed reading all day.

I did manage to make you some White Risotto over the weekend. Don’t worry, I washed my hands a lot and didn’t sneeze on it. This is a pretty basic risotto recipe, no frills or fancy flavors. I kept it simple because we’re turning the other half of this risotto into something even better next week. But sometimes simple, starchy, and savoury is exactly what you need when you’re feeling under the weather.

Because this is a pretty basic recipe, you’ll want to use the best ingredients you can find, but you know me. If that means Parmesan from a green bottle, I’m still gonna love it. But if you do happen to have some quality Parmesan cheese at your disposal, and you’ve been saving it for something, I’d whip it out here.

I hope you’re all happy and healthy, friends, and I hope you take some time to get into the kitchen and make this White Risotto for yourself because it’s completely awesome.

Recipe from Jamie Cooks Italy by Jamie Oliver.

Weeknight Chicken & Dumplings

September 2, 2019August 28, 2019 Renee Leave a comment

Um… hi. Remember me? Yeah, I’m still here. I know I disappeared for a while. It was unplanned but absolutely necessary as we’ve been crazy busy being alive. My baby was here and we ate and played and watched a lot of Parks and Recreation. It was awesome. I missed you, but not enough to look away.

We also spent a weekend in England catching up with an old friend to a fantastic Beatles soundtrack. Then we had different friends stay at our house for the weekend. In your reader’s world, this has already happened. In my writer’s world, I’m still anticipating. I predict it will be full of good food and tons of laughter. Life is good.

I’m sharing a recipe that I never dreamed I’d love as much as I do. This Weeknight Chicken & Dumplings is seriously awesome. Due to my vegetable aversion, I’d actually never eaten chicken and dumplings before, but now that I’ve tried this recipe, I want to eat it once a month. It’s the sage in the dumplings that really make this addictive.

I’ve called this Weeknight Chicken & Dumplings because I took some shortcuts that made this simple enough to make any day of the week. I used store bought chicken stock and pre-cooked chicken, so all you really have to do is chop some vegetables and mix up a batter. Everything else happens in the pot while you check Instagram or something probably better. I hope you have leftovers because you’ll be sad if you only get to eat this for one day.

Life moves fast, but you still have to eat. You might as well make it awesome. Weeknight Chicken & Dumplings is a great place to start.

Tear & Share Flower Bread

May 17, 2019May 16, 2019 Renee Leave a comment

I turned 40 a few months ago, but I’m still trying to learn some new tricks. I’m getting deeper into yoga and meditation, practicing being more chilled out, trying to apologize less, and generally owning my shit. It’s up and down. We’re still learning, ya know.

I’m also trying to learn how to make bread. This is not really something you can learn from books or TV. Bread making is tactile. Yeast is a living thing that needs attention. Bread dough can be different from one day to the next. It’s a beast that I don’t fully understand. We’re getting to know each other. It’s a process.

This Tear & Share Flower Bread is pretty approachable. It uses a mix of white bread flour and whole wheat flour giving it a hearty texture. It’s sorta cute without involving any complicated braids. Don’t be afraid. You can totally do this.

The petals are perfect for dipping into soup, and the center can be sliced for toast or whatever, or just torn off into hunks fr more dipping. Do what you want. It’s gonna be tasty.

Let’s do cool new things. Let’s make bread. It’ll be awesome.

Recipe from Tesco magazine

English Potato Gratin

May 1, 2019April 30, 2019 Renee Leave a comment

I’ve got a tasty little side dish for you along with a bit of a confession. People might think that because I write a food blog, and I talk about food all the time, that I probably make elaborate meals every night of the week. In real life, I usually don’t cook more than one thing at a time. With the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pretty much never make more than one dish from scratch for a meal.

Because of my laziness, side dishes often get shafted. Then again, I guess part two of this confession is that we sometimes have side dishes or dips or appetizers as dinner and skip a main dish all together. I try to act like an adult when people come over, but my husband gets weird non-dinner on a regular basis.

This English Potato Gratin is absolutely good enough to be its own thing. Of course, I’d also strongly encourage you to serve it alongside a beautiful roast chicken or even at a holiday dinner. It’s creamy and subtle, but in no way lacking in flavor. Just make sure you don’t skimp on the salt. A nice sprinkle of coarse sea salt on top before serving will really make it sing.

Unlike other gratins I’ve made in the past, the potatoes are actually boiled in the milk mixture to make sure the potatoes are perfectly tender. It also negates the need to fiddle with shingling your potato slices. Just boil them until they’re soft and then transfer them however they fall to your baking dish, then transfer that to the oven to brown on the top.

I hope you make this English Potato Gratin. Serve it with something delicious, or not. Just don’t skip this recipe. It’s gonna be awesome.

Adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson.

Bacon & Corn Risotto

March 13, 2019March 12, 2019 Renee Leave a comment

So… If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I broke my finger over the weekend. Instead of going to see Captain Marvel on Saturday morning, we spent the day in the hospital waiting to have surgery. I had two wires drilled into my finger, and it’s now splinted and bandaged. I won’t be seeing that finger again for three weeks.

It’s painful and annoying, but probably the most frustrating part is not being able to cook. I’m thrilled to get out of doing the dishes for a few weeks, but today I needed to peel and chop sweet potatoes, and you can’t do that one handed. You think of the pinky on your non-dominant hand as relatively insignificant, but when you can’t use it, you suddenly realise you actually need it for quite a lot.

Lucky for you, I made this Bacon Corn Risotto for you before my finger snapped. I wish I had a never ending pot of it. This is not a traditional risotto recipe, and when I made it the first time, I was skeptical, but after the first bite, all doubt disappeared. The mix of creamy rice and sweet crunchy corn along with the salty crisp bacon is absolutely ideal.

It was the addition of Greek yogurt that really threw me, but it give the risotto a perfect hit of acid and ensures that it’s ultra creamy. If you can stop yourself from going back for seconds, you can stretch this into three servings, which makes lunch the next day absolutely heavenly.

Life never seems to stop laying challenges at our feet. As long as we continue to rise up t meet them, life is good. If we can chase them with Bacon Corn Risotto, all the better.

bacon & Corn Risotto

Yield

2 big portions

Prep time

15 minutes

Cooking time

40 minutes

Difficulty

Easy

ingredients

6 slices streaky bacon
4 cups chicken stock, hot
1 green onions, sliced, whites and greens divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1-1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
Salt and pepper to taste

instructions

Put a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Use scissors to slice up your bacon directly into the pot. Cook your bacon, stirring occasionally, until crispy, then remove the bacon pieces to a paper towel lined plate.
You’ll want about a tablespoon of bacon grease left in the pot, so if your bacon has given off a lot of grease, you may need to drain some off. To your reserved bacon grease, add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the white parts of your sliced green onion, and cook over medium low heat to soften for about a minute.
Add the rice and toss it in the fat to coat every grain. Let this cook for a few minutes to get toasty. When it starts to smell nutty, you’re ready to start adding stock.
Add the stock about a 1/4 cup at a time, stirring all the while, until the liquid is absorbed before adding another 1/4 cup of stock. Keep adding stock until it’s all absorbed. It will take about a half hour.
Once your rice has absorbed all the liquid, stir in the corn, and let it cook for a few minutes to heat up the corn.
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the yogurt to combine. Give it a stir and taste before you add salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe from Frugal Foodie Mama

Category: Dinner

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