Love and the Italian Winter

The second weekend in October was one where it was time to wind down after a hectic four weeks that included a birthday drink for a friend, a trip to Southport for a black tie event and several random encounters.

After wandering with the dog in the Autumn sun I decided to have a go at a new recipe which, with one eye on the clocks changing soon, had many ingredients contained in it that are associated with wintertime.

I listened to Tangerine Dream's groundbreaking offering Cyclone while preparing the vegetables for what was to become an Italian Winter Vegetable Risotto. Cyclone is groundbreaking, at least for Tangerine Dream, as it was their first album to feature vocals and is all the better and more interesting for this development.

The ingredients for the risotto were as follows:

4 diced and peeled carrotts.
1 diced and peeled white potato.
1 diced and peeled red onion.
2 garlic cloves finely sliced.
half a diced red pepper.
8 ounces of risotto rice.
8 ounces of diced baby corn.
Half a pint of red wine.
Half a pint of chicken stock.
Chorizo slices.

I took the vegetables save the baby corn pieces and fried them lightly in my wok while stirring them constantly for about fifteen minutes until they began to brown slightly. I then added the risotto rice and the baby corn and stirred them constantly too for about ten minutes until the rice began to become translucent.

The next step was to add into the wok half a pint of red wine and simmer it while once again stirring the contents of the wok continuously for about twenty minutes. After the wine had been absorbed by the food I then added half a pint of chicken stock and stirred and simmered this into the food for another twenty minutes until I had a rich mixture that wasn't overly runny.

I served the risotto after adding some slices of fresh chorizo to it right at the end of cooking. I even, as can be seen from the picture below, put one on top of a serving of risotto to decorate it.

I don't usually use winter vegetables in risotto as I find them a little bland and I usually prefer summery risottos like lemon and rocket for example. However this risotto was an exception to the rule as the wine and stock and made it rich and the chorizo and pepper gave a much needed edge to the slight stodge of the carrott and potatoes. Definitely a meal to give one some energy on a winter evening.