PixieCooks

I went to my parents’ house for Easter and managed to persuade my mum to let me take pictures of one of her meals. (Of course, this ended up being in exchange for a lot of stirring, but I don’t mind helping!)

Risotto is a lovely, comfortable meal – and not nearly as hard as people think it is. Yes, there’s a lot of stirring, but it’s only 20minutes over a nice warm pan – what better on a miserable dreich day!

For 3, easily adapted
Ingredients

• 225g/1 cup Arborio (or other risotto) Rice
• Slightly More Stock Than The Rice Packet Suggests (you keep it warm, so allow for evaporation)
• 2 Onions, Diced
• 2 Smoked Haddock Fillets
• 1 Salmon Fillet
• Butter for Frying and Seasoning

Finely dice the onion and saute in a little butter – the trick is to soften, not brown.

Whilst the onion is softening put the stock on to boil (you want to keep it at a rolling simmer in a separate pan throughout the whole process of cooking the rice) and prepare the fish in a foil parcel – dot the fillets with butter and form the foil around the fish in a loose parcel to keep in the steam. You can actually use any fish you like here, and it’s a great way to serve those frozen fillets you can pick up in supermarkets.

Once the onion is browned, add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes

Add a couple of ladle-fuls of stock to the rice and stir in, keep the rice pan and the stock pan at a gentle boil throughout.

Place the fish in the oven. Depending on the size of the fillets they will take 15-18 minutes at gas mark 4 (180C/160C fan/350 F). This is almost exactly the amount of time it’ll take to finish cooking off the rice

Keep stirring the rice, to stop it sticking and to help break down the carbohydrate into that lovely gooey creaminess that risotto should have.

Every time the rice starts to almost catch (see picture, below), add a ladle-ful more of the boiling stock

Just before the fish is due out of the oven, taste the rice. It should be soft with only a little “bite” to the grains. Provided it is, keep stirring until it is nice and thick (if it is not keep stirring in more stock until it is!) and add a little bit of butter to finish it off.

Serve the risotto heaped on a plate with the fish stacked on top, for the eater to break it into the rice with their fork.

We finished out the meal with a simple pudding of plain yoghurt topped with honey and flaked almonds (very good for calcium!).

Thanks mum!