From For the Love of
Food, Denis Cotter, Collins, 2011.
To begin, the chilli walnut crumbs were made ready. The
ingredients (2 slices of not-fresh bread, some dried chillies—sufficient to
suit your hot taste—2 tablespoons of walnuts and the same amount of chopped
parsley) were churned in a food processor to crumb them. This was then fried in a
small amount of olive oil until crisp and golden.
I tried to fry some capers to make them crisp but I
couldn’t seem to crisp them up. They were fried, certainly, but still soft.
The cauliflower was then broken up into small florets and the stem section cut into small dice. A leek was sliced thinly and
some garlic was chopped. A pot of stock was put on to simmer gently.
A goodly sized frying pan was put on to heat a couple of
tablespoons of olive oil. The leek, cauliflower stem and garlic was sautéed for
about 5 minutes. The rice was added and sautéed for another 5 minutes.
White wine, about 100 ml, was added and stirred until it had almost all been absorbed. Some hot stock, about a cup, was added then and stirred until it had
almost all been taken up by the rice. Then another cupful was added. This was
continued, adding stock and stirring until absorbed until the rice was cooked.
At the same time as this was happening, in another pan some
butter and little olive oil was heated and the cauliflower florets sautéed in
this until they were cooked. When the rice was cooked this was stirred in
together with a little more butter, grated Parmesan cheese and seasonings to
suit.
The risotto was placed into serving bowls. The capers
were placed around the edge. The walnut crumbs were scattered over the top and
a little bit more grated Parmesan over this.
This was a wonderfully tasty risotto. The creamy rice with
its bites of fried cauliflower was spiced by the crunchy crumble and every so
often you caught a bite of the vinegary tang of the capers.
I look forward to exploring the whole section of risottos in
this book.
Taste: ✔✔✔✔
Ease of
cooking: ✔✔✔
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