Risotto Milanese with Butternut squash & Goat's cheese

Risotto is a bit of a winter wonder. Gloriously comforting and flavourful and can be the base for pretty much anything or the whole main show. The title isn't entirely accurate as Risotto Milanese usually has saffron in it, but I didnt have any..Doh! So if you have it, put in a pinch (after the wine time). 

Ingredients
1 onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
100g butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
ground black pepper
Arborio rice (about 75g per person)
A small glass of dry White Wine
400 ml (ish) Chicken or Veg Stock
25g Parmasan, finely grated
Butternut squash, peeled, deseeded & cut into inch-ish chunks
Method
Put the squash in the oven at 190oC and cook for about an hour or until bronzed and squashable (see what I did there?!). About half an hour in, start on the risotto.
Heat the stock in a saucepan over a medium heat.
Sweat the onion in a little butter and the oil over a medium heat, until translucent. Add in the garlic. Stir. Allow the garlic to colour a little before adding in the rice. Let this fry for a couple of minutes and absorb the oils in the pan.  
Add in the wine. Allow this to boil off completely, stirring regularly. Then start adding in the stock, about half a cup at a time. Allow the liquid to boil off almost completely before adding in the next half cupful, stirring regularly. 
When the rice is soft, but still with a bit of bite, remove from the heat and sprinkle over the cheese and remaining butter. Cover with a lid and allow it to sit undisturbed for 5 mins. 
Remove the squash from the oven. 
Chuck in some ground black pepper in with the rice, stir and plate up. Top with leaf, the squash, some crumbled soft goats cheese and the seeds of the squash (these will need washing and toasting under a hot grill - careful though, they will burn quick). 


Serves 2. Prep time 10 mins. Cooking time 1 hour. 

Broccoli, spinach & Stilton soup with walnuts & toasty Rye bread

Got a sad, down trodden, dry, discoloured bit of broccoli sitting in your fridge? Almost bin-worthy but not quite? Do not despair! This IS the way to see it off in style.

Ingredients (for 1 bowl)

Half a head of broccoli

1 brick of frozen spinach

10g Stilton plus a little extra to garnish

Ground Black pepper

A few tablespoons of stock or cooking water

A small knob of butter

4 or 5 walnuts, crumbled

Method

Cut the broccoli into florets and slice the stem. Chuck into a pan of salted boiling water, with the frozen spinach and cover with a lid. Boil for about 5 mins over a medium heat, until the broccoli is soft (the broccoli should be just a little bit overcooked, so it will break up easily and form a lovely smooth soup). 

Place the cooked broccoli and spinach in a blender with 3 or 4 tablespoons of stock or the veg water. Add the butter and Stilton and blend well. Add a little more liquid if it seems too thick. Pour into a bowl and serve immediately alongside slices of toast, garnished with the crumbled walnuts and a little more Stilton.

Prep time 5 mins. Cooking time 5 mins.

Speedy Roast Garlic and Lime chicken with sweet potatoes

This is sooo flipping tasty and much quicker than cooking a chicken in the normal way. If you cut the chicken down it's back bone with some sharp kitchen scissors and flatten the bird out on the roasting tray as much as possible, and slash it at its thickest parts (ie across the breast and thighs) it'll cook in a flash (wel, a bit quicker). Mine weighed just under one and a half kilos, which Delia recommends cooking for about an hour an a half and then rest for a half hour, whereas, using the slashing technique my chuck was done after an hour and I rested it for about 20 mins. Plus these incisions create pockets which your flavourings can be stuffed into (Garlic and butter here). 

Ingredients
A chicken
A large sweet potato, peeled and cut into hefty chunks
A red onion, top n tailed and halved
1 Lime, quartered
2 small cloves of garlic, bruised & sliced
A large knob of butter
Olive oil
Salt


Method
Preheat the oven to 190oC.
Prep the sweet spuds & onion and place on a large roasting tray.
Remove the butchers string from the chicken (if there is any) and cut the chicken at the thickest parts of it's breast and thighs, about an inch deep and on the opposite side, cut from top to tail following the line of the backbone. Place on a large roasting tray and using the heel of your palm, flatten the bird out as much as possible. Squeeze the Lime sections over the bird and place under the carcass. (I would've used a lemon, but I didn't have one). The steam emanating from these during cooking will give a subtle citrus accent to the meat. Stuff the cuts in the breast and thigh with a little butter and a slice or two of garlic. Drizzle the trays contents with olive oil and then season with salt.
Place in a preheated oven for 1 hour (a bigger bird may need a little longer). Once this time is up, remove the tray from the oven and allow the bird to rest for 20-30 mins (longer is fine) before serving. 

Fancy fruit with yoghurt, speedy berry compote, pistachio nuts, black sesame seeds and coconut

Not really a recipe, just a lot of fruit thrown together and a super simple berry compote chucked over the top. But it looked pretty, so I thought I'd put it up (and my mum, can rest safe in the knowledge that I get some vitamins).

In here, you will find...
1 pear, 2 plums, half an orange, a generous blob of plain Greek yoghurt, berry compote (a hand full of frozen berries, cooked for about a minute, in 20 sec bursts in the microwave from frozen, then mashed with a fork and a squish of honey), chopped raw pistachio nuts, black sesame seeds and a little sprinkle of dessicated coconut. Not a bad breakfast really.

Black pudding (and possibly sausage) pasta

This one is not a looker, but for tastiness its a 5 star.


Ingredients
1 onion, diced
100g of black pudding, cut into chunks or 2 sausages per person or both
1 small courgette, cut into chunks
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
Dried herbs such as Thyme, Sage, half a teaspoon of each (or 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs)
Half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and paprika
Salt & Pepper
Parmesan to serve


Method
Sweat the onions in a large pan over a medium heat for around 5 mins. Add in the black pudding and sausages. Allow the sausages to colour before adding in the courgette and garlic. Fry for a further 3 mins, to allow the garlic to release its fragrance. Then add in the tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and spices. Stir, breaking up the plum tomatoes as you go. Allow to simmer for 10 mins. Serve hot over freshly cooked pasta.

Milk chocolate & Macadamia nut chunk soft-baked spelt cookies

These are the cookies of my dreams! Yes, my dreams are filled with sugar. If you like big, fat, soft, chewy, sticky, sweet cookies, (like you get in the supermarket or at Subway), get these in your oven, fast. The knack of producing the soft, chewy-ness is in the baking time, so make sure that you don't over bake, by checking them every minute or so after the 7 minute mark has passed.

Ingredients


125g Spelt flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
85g butter, melted
100g soft brown sugar
50g castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
100g cooking milk choc
50g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped


Method 


Preheat the oven to 170oC.
Mix together the butter and sugars & add the
vanilla and egg. Mix.
Stir in the flour, bicarb & salt. 
Finally, add in the choc & nuts and mix.
Drop the mixture in teaspoon sized, roughly round blobs, onto a baking sheet covered in baking paper. Leaving a good gap between each one, as they'll spread out a good couple of inches either way during cooking.
Bake for 10-15 mins.

These little beauties are especially good served warm, with a glass of milk and will keep well for about a week in an airtight container (if they last that long).


Makes about 14 cookies. 
Prep time 20 mins
Cooking time 10-15 mins 

Nigel Slater's Pumpkin pan fry

Anticlimax, I believe is the correct description. Looked good, but tasted so meh! I think I ruined it by grilling the bread crumbs so that they were crispy. Had they had some softness, it would have probably have been a lot more edible. I adapted the recipe from Nigel Slater, (Pumpkin Pan fry). I cant fault the man for his food passion and ingenuity for making the most of leftovers and I must admit I usually do love love love Mr Slater's recipes, but this one just didn't do it for me. I just cant really get my head around bread crumbs as a meal. I'm trying to be open minded and I really want to like it, but I cant, I'm sorry Nigel. But, hey, you cant win them all. It's like tripe, I really want to like it, but then there's the texture and that weird taste that congers images of cow-pats. Anyway, I digress, (and if you're not peckish now, see a doctor, I suspect there may be something wrong with you!), to conclude, not a winner, but here's the recipe, just in case you're curious.

Ingredients
300g Butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into inch-ish chunks
1 red onion, top and tailed and cut into quarters
Olive oil
4 rashers of streaky bacon
A handful of fresh thyme leaves
2 small garlic cloves, squashed
A knob of butter
Half a Rye loaf, blitzed in a food processor to course crumbs
A handful of pine nuts, toasted
A few cherry tomatoes, halved
Salt & pepper


Method
Place the squash, onion & garlic in a roasting tin, drizzle over olive oil, season and roast in a preheated oven at 180oC for about 30 mins, or until the squash is softened and brown around the edges. Set aside.
Fry the bacon with the butter in a large pan over a medium-high heat until crispy. 
Finely chop the roasted garlic and add this to the pan. Stir. 
Add in the bread crumbs, pine nuts, roasted veg and tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes have relaxed (and by that I mean, they are starting to release their skins) and the bread crumbs have absorbed all the cooking juices. 
Sprinkle in the fresh thyme and serve immediately.
Serves 2. Prep time 10 mins. Cooking time 45 mins. Tasty rating 2*.