Wild Mushroom Risotto

A nice creamy risotto. Suitable for vegetarians but easily adaptable for meat or seafood. I used a combination of Oyster and Chantelle mushrooms. If you can't get these then use brown chestnut mushrooms. Don't use button or closed cap as they really don't add any flavour to the dish.

Ingredients

1 tbsp Olive Oil
Knob of Butter
2 Shallots finely chopped
2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
250g Wild Mushrooms roughly chopped
Worcestershire Sauce
Chilli Flakes
Pepper to taste
150g Arboria Rice
Glass of Wite Wine
1 pint Vegetable or Chucken stock
50g Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Crème Fraîche

Method

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saute or frying pan on a low to medium heat. Add the chopped shallots and saute until cooked soft.



2. Add the chopped garlic and fry for another minute.



3. Turn the heat up to medium to high and chopped mushrooms and fry until golden (you may need to add a touch more oil at this point as the mushrooms will soak a lot of it up).



4. Add the Worstershire Sauce, pinh of dried chilli flakes and black pepper to taste.



5. Add the rice to the pan and stir until all the grains of rice are coated in the oil and glistening.



6. Add the wite wine to the pan and cook until all the liquid has been more or less cooked off.



7. Add a ladle of the stock and while constantly stirring cook until all the liquid has again been cooked off. Repeat with another ladle of stock.



8. After about 20 - 25 minutes the rice should be cooked and the risotto is a creamy consistency. (Note you may not need all the stock to reach this point but add enough stock so that the risotto is not too dry).
Add the grated cheese to the pan and stir until until melted.


9. Taste the risotto and season with salt to taste.



10. Stir in the Crème Fraîche until nice and creamy.



11. Divide between two serving bowls or plates and garnish with some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.

Options

Roast Buternut Squash Risotto: Cut a butternut squash into wedges, remove the seeds and roast in a 200C oven for 40 - 50 minutes. Remove the flesh, mash and stir into the risotto with the cheese.

Crab Risotto: Add some fresh cooked crab meat to the risotto right at the end to just cook through.

Asparagus & Pea Risotto: Replace the mushrooms in the main recipe with some chopped bacon. Add some asparagus when you add the second lot of stock. Right at the end throw in a handful of frozen peas and cook through.

Corn Bread

I have to admit this isn't my recipe but one I found on the web.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmothers-Buttermilk-Cornbread/Detail.aspx

I did find this one a little bit too sweet though, so if you halve the quantity of sugar or omit it altogether then it should work just fine.

Couple of tips:
In the recipe all-purpose flour is the American term for plain flour.
If you can't find Buttermilk then add some lemon juice to normal milk.

Venison Chilli

OK here's my first recipe - Venison Chilli.

Normally Venison isn't a cheap meat but Morrisons are doing just over a half pound (275g) in a vac sealed pack for less than £3 which makes it a bit more affordable. Venison suits a chilli really well as the gamey meat flavour is complimented by the spices in the rich sauce.

Ingredients:

275g Venison cubed
4 tbsp Plain Flour
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Coriander Seed
1 tsp Cumin Seed
1 tsp Fennel Seed
1 tsp Mustard Seed
1 Red Onion diced
2 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp Paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste
300ml Beef Stock (1 Beef OXO cube in 300ml hot water)
400g tin Chopped Tomatoes
400g tin Red Kidney Beans


Method

1. Place the flour on to a plate. Dust the venison cubes in the flour. Heat 2tbsp of the vegetable oil on a medium to high heat in a saute pan and fry the venison until browned on all sides. It might be best to do this in two batches so you don't over crowd the pan, replacing the oil between batches. Remove the venison and reserve to one side and clean the saute pan for step three.
   


2. In a cold non-stick frying pan add the Coriander, Cumin, Fennel and Mustard Seeds. Place on a medium to high heat and toast the spices until you can smell the aromas and some smoke is only just given off. Take of the heat immediately to prevent burning and place the seeds in a mortar and pestle. Crush the seeds to a fine powder and reserve to one side.
   


3. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of vegetable in the frying pan on a low to medium heat. Add the chopped Red Onion and saute until cooked soft.
   


4. Add the crushed spices to the onion and fry for a minute or two.
   


5. Add the Garlic powder, Chilli powder, Paprika, Salt and Pepper to the onions and fry for another minute.
   


6. Add the Venison back to the saute pan and turn the heat up to medium.
   


7. Add the tinned Tomatoes and Beef Stock to the pan and stir all the ingredients. Bring to the simmer and turn the heat down so that the pan is just on the simmer.
   











8. Cook uncovered for 3 - 4 hours and stirring at regular intervals to make sure the sauce is not catching on the bottom.
   


9. 45 mins before serving drain the Red Kidney beans, add to the pan and stir.
   


10. Serve with Long Grain Rice, spoonful of Sour Cream and a slice of Cornbread.
    

Introduction

My name is Alex and I'm 37. My cooking experience began about five or six years ago after getting addicted to cooking programs. Let's face it besides the football there's no other reason to watch Sky! Before that my skill level was reheating food at best (frozen meals, packet sauces with pasta etc).

I've basically taught myself the skills in the kitchen by copying what I saw on screen and found that I easilly picked it up and saw an improvement not only in my style of cooking but also in the end result - other people besides me could eat it without being poisoned lol.

I decided a while ago that I needed a place I could keep my receipes. Now these are recipes that not only have I pilphered from the web and magazines but also stuff I make up myself -with varying results. I also wanted to share them with my friends and family so decided a blog was the best way to go.

So here I am!

My cooking has various influences from my trying to replicate the stuff I ate as a kid from my mother (bar for the shoe leather beef! - sorry Mum xx) to copying TV chefs. My favourites being Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver and of course Nigella Lawson (mmm...Nigella...). I would say my favourite style of cooking is Mexican, preferably Native Mexican recipes rather than Tex-Mex.

I will try my best to add photos of the resulting finished recipes and where possible link to the original recipe on the web if I've nicked it.

I hope you enjoy the recipes and the blog, try the recipes yourself and feel free to leave comments.

Bon Appetit!