Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lemon-Kissed White Bean and Kale Risotto

33 minutes left to post this Daring Cooks' Challenge before the deadline! Between 1 p.m. and now I have burnt my fingers making cookies, cut my hand on a can, "run" 4 miles in 45 minutes at the gym (furthest ever), freaked out about the apartment beside ours in the building next door catching on fire and made this risotto. So I'm a bit tired. We'll see if I can string together coherent thoughts. If not just act like I did please...

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf. The recipes can be downloaded here. In addition to making risotto all Daring Cooks were to make their own stock.

Since I'm not eating meat this month I made roasted vegetable stock, which I had not made previously. The recipe creates a very rich, dark stock though I'm not sure the time involved is worth the flavor. It was my first time successfully keeping a stock at a simmer so it was a very clear stock, even if it was almost black, and that was exciting.

I liked the Eleanor and Jess' chosen risotto recipe. It was much simpler than the version I have used in the past and still creates a warm, comforting risotto. This time I added a bunch of Swiss Chard cut into ribbons, the zest of a Lemon, a tablespoon of Lemon Juice, a half cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and Salt and Pepper to taste to create a nutritious main course. I liked the end result! The lemon kept things bright and the swiss chard broke up the creaminess of the risotto and beans. In the future I would probably try to make the lemon flavor more intense as there was only a hint of it.

Thanks to Eleanor and Jess for hosting a great, affordable challenge!

6 comments:

  1. Lemon-kissed white bean and kale risotto WOW that is something to write home about it looks so beautiful and creamy well done on this challenge. And it sounds like it was a real challenge this all the dramas going on around you and congrats on the run it sounds like you are getting very fit. Superb effort. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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  2. oh my, i can't imagine how you managed to make risotto after a 4 mile run! If it was me, i would've gone straight to a bakery and treat myself with a little somthing for all the exercise (fail). And it's great how you kept yourself calm enough to make risotto knowing that your neighboring building was on fire, you're a true foodie indeed!

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  3. Wow I have to try this vegetarian risotto! I hope all is well now

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  4. Audax - Thank you! I am trying to counterbalance all the cooking and eating with some running. ;)

    Anjelikuh - Well! The building was out by the time I started, I really wanted to complete the challenge and a girl has to eat!

    Chef d - Thank you! Yes all is well now!

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  5. Sarah, despite it all, you produced a great looking risotto that, I'm sure, tasted as good as it looks. You have a fabulous blog and I'll be back often to see what you've been working on. Have a great day.

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  6. Mary - Thanks so much about the risotto and the blog. Today was beautiful. Hope yours was too!

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