It Ain't Heavy - It's My Dinner

I'm officially in the festive mood, and what better way to warm my cockles on a cold December eve than to cook a big bowl of steaming hot risotto. It may not be the first thing one would think of when it comes to Christmas food but, in my home, this Northern Italian dish is a family favourite around this time of year. For a classically defeatist view of risotto and a suitable rebuke from someone who understands that non-Italians can make it just as well as Italians (and probably better), see this piece on the "Grocery Guy" blog. When I make a risotto, I seldom think of my prospective main ingredient in advance. I generally leave that decision to the gods of "use-by-date". So during my routine hunt around in the fridge, I found some shiitake mushrooms that needing using up, as well as a large pointed pepper on its last legs, so to speak.

Risotto parking at Grocery Guy

My effort at a shiitake and saffron risotto

I finely chopped the pepper and added it to my usual base of garlic and sliced red onion. Then for the shiitake. I cut these as thin as I possibly could get them (less than 1mm) and sautéed them just before adding them last minute. I used crème fraîche to give the creaminess a sour note, and a little grated haloumi to add a binding effect and remove the need for extra salt. The risotto was (as I had hoped and as confirmed by my mum) utterly to die for. So there - Andre was right. You don't have to be an Italian to cook a decent risotto. Here's my recipe.