Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto

The quest for making good use of the plums I received is still going on. As you know, there are quite a lot of things you can do with them. I already did the recipes which take a great amount of plums like jam and plum butter. I even made a plum chutney.
Now, cake and jam and things like that are the logical choices for going with plums. Things you would think of right away. Therefore I try to do something else ... kind of pairing the plums with cheese, goat's cheese to be precise, in a risotto. I've heard it before you can do it also with pearl barley. Let's try it then and have a Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto.

Confused? Green White Cabbage Risotto

There is something lurking in the freezer part of the fridge, a few bags of frozen white cabbage. I couldn't possibly use the whole head of cabbage in one go for coleslaw or kimchi or for whatever. I needed a cabbage break. Into the freezer it went and stayed and stayed there. What to do with it?
Then I read something about cooking the cabbage with garlic and I thought by myself, why not have a risotto, a Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Isn't that a bit confusing? I don't know really, because I am kind of confused most of the time and simply try to go on. In this case here, however, I am just referring to this "Green" and "White" thingy. Well, not really. You already see, how we get the white cabbage green. Lets go for it then ...

Ingredients:
A quarter of a head of white cabbage
4 cloves of garlic (the more the merrier)
Vegetable stock
A bunch of basil leaves
A splash of olive oil
One small onion, finely chopped
200 g  of risotto rice
A splash of dry white wine (might be a bigger splash)
A knob of butter
50 g of freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Method:
The recipe unfolds with the leaves of cabbage cooked together with the peeled and halved cloves of garlic. Just cook them a few minutes together. Then remove the cabbage and the garlic together with a bit of the liquid and transfer it to a blender. Add the basil to the blender, too and ... blend it.
As for the remaining cooking water, you can mix it with the vegetable stock and keep it warm.
Now have the pot for the risotto ready and start softening the onions in some olive oil. Once you have achieved that, give the rice into the pot and go through it with a spoon to bring things together. Pour in some white wine and cook until most of it has been absorbed.
Then we can go on with the risotto fun part by adding one ladle of stock to the rice at a time and cooking until most of the liquid is assimilated. 
Keep going for about 18 minutes. Then toss in the knob of butter and the grated Parmesan. Cover the pot for two to three minutes. Remove the lid again, spoon the risotto through and season it with salt and pepper. Then it's time to plate up.
Enjoy your Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Maybe you do. At the beginning of the month I thought, maybe I get the chance to take part in Herbs on Saturday (Cooking with Herbs) from Lavender & Lovage this month. I just made it ...

All Good Things Come to an End ...

I guess it's over! All good things come to an end. That is at least what I heard. I'm not sure right now whether to tell it, but ... I might not even have heard it, but ... well ... you know ... again ... there is this song of that ... eh ... person and ... at least she sang it. There was also something about dogs barking at the new moon, but I didn't get that quite well. Maybe I'm not the smartest kind of person. 
Anyhow, the year 2012 is drawing to it's end. Was it a good one? That depends on any persons self. You ought to know it for yourself. With 2012 being over, this will pose a few challenges ... hm ... the first few days or even weeks of the year I have to focus on writing 2013 instead of 2012. Then it will be winter still as well and the coldest months might still be ahead.
Well, then, let's say it as it is: All good things come to an end. This will be the last you are hearing from me ...
However, before that is going to happen, have a brief look at the (somehow) most viewed posts of my blog in 2012:

On rank number 5 we find TMC - Tipsy Mint Cookies. Those greenish shimmering cookies had a really short life. They definitely have come to their end as well.



Next on number 4 is Rocket, Ricotta and Chocolate ... Triple Feature Random Recipe. In fact it was more then just a recipe. As the title suggest it were three. That was really a dangerous time for a lot of chocolate was involved here. On the positive side - if you want to call it that way - there was at least also some salad involved.



We are coming to number 3. Challenge warm up à la française ... escalope de porc aux champignons brought us to some French cooking. Even with seeing that now, I get hungry again, which in fact I shouldn't, because I just had something to eat. Well, it looked slightly similar.



We are heading for number 2 with some Leftover Risotto. That was relly a good way to use some leftover risotto, although you could as well use plain rice. I wrote about this at a very nice time of the year, in May. Thinking about that, I long for warmer weather.



Finally we come to number 1 and our all time favourite: Pass me that chorizo ... eh ... we are having a chorizo stew. Somehow it must have been someone else's favourite as well. Chorizo works!



As I said: All good things come to an end and so does our top 5 for the year 2012. Talking about that, which one was your favourite post for 2012 on my blog? Just let me know!
Now, this was the last you heard from me ... for the year 2012. 
See you next year then ...

Breaking Kale - Part 3 - Bell Peppers Stuffed with Kale Risotto

'Why does rubbish always have to come in three parts?'
That quote is from a computer game series - long time ago - that brought us the following as well: 'I once owned a dog that was smarter then you.' - 'He must have taught you everything you know.'
No worries, when you never have heard of this. It doesn't matter, has no bearing on the following anyway. I'm not going to teach you how to be quick on the comeback.
Let's rather focus on the 'Part 3' part.
A few days ago I brought you kale with smoked pork sausages. It wasn't all eaten up.
Then I brought you risotto with kale and smoked pork sausages. It wasn't all eaten up either.
Now I bring you ...

... bell peppers stuffed with risotto al kale and smoked pork sausages. Was it all eaten up?
We will see.
Is it a recipe? Well, what do I have to say. It's too simple. You just take some bell peppers and execute them by cutting them in halves and removing all the seeds from the inside.
Now you simply throw in your risotto ... eh ... fill your halves of bell pepper with some of the risotto. If you haven't got leftover kale risotto, obviously you can't do it. He he! 
Of course you could attempt a different version with a different risotto, but that consequently would be ... different.
Nevertheless, as you have arranged the bell peppers with the risotto in an oven-proof dish, place some bacon on top of every bell pepper half.

You might want to pour over some olive oil and then place it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180°C. 
After waiting that much time for your food, you just take it out, place it on a plate, sprinkle some parsley over it and maybe add some more olive oil.
Was it all eaten up?
Yes, it was this time. So we are not going to see THAT kale again and we don't have to think about another recipe and there will not be a part 4, although it was no rubbish.
Oh, I could have cut it into small pieces and have it on puff pastry, but ... that doesn't have to be now.
Maybe we go further with another dish next time and have more then 3 parts. What experiences do you have with leftovers? How far did you get, that is how often did you have to re-arrange the leftovers of the leftover?

Now still something else in connection with the photograph at the outset.

This was the first shot.

Then I added olive oil.

Somehow my camera didn't seem to like that, so I had to set the white balancing to another mode.

Or which of the three pictures looks best according to you?

Kale again - Leftovers for Kale Risotto

One thing leads to another. We can apply this to leftovers. Since I wasn't in the mood to eat Kale the whole week in the way I prepared it lately, I intended to be creative with my leftovers.
Another contributing factor was this celery I still had on stock and needed using up. 
In that case 1 + 1 was not 2, but ... kale risotto.

Since the kale part is already eh ... ready, we primarily need to focus on the risotto.
The basic risotto always goes the same way.
Start with some olive oil in your pot and add some finely chopped celery or onions and stew them for a while until they get soft (yes, always the same).
Then pour in your risotto rice and turn everything around to get your rice coated.
After that pour in some white wine or vermouth. Let it cook away.
In another pot you already have some stock ready (I used about one litre).
Ladle by ladle add the stock to your risotto. You only add another ladle of stock when the previous one has been absorbed. Repeat this until all the stock is gone. That should be between 15 and 20 minutes.
Now we add the leftover kale and the sausage, which has been cut into small pieces. Mix everything thoroughly.
To finish we add a tablespoon of butter and about a handful of grated parmesan. Cover the risotto and let it simmer for about three minutes.
After that mix again and then you are ready to eat. Plate up as much of the risotto you want to eat and grate over some extra parmesan.
Well, I couldn't eat all the risotto. And since I want to be creative with my leftovers, one thing leads to another ...

Risotto

My mother never cooked a risotto for me. Risotto is an Italian rice dish that is kind of creamy and oozy. It tastes very nice and like with pasta, you can have it in many different ways. Maybe one or two years ago I made risotto for the first time myself. The start is always the same: you heat up some oil slightly and put a chopped onion and a few celery sticks finely chopped. After 15 minutes or so you add the risotto rice (maybe 500-600 g). It  is a special Italian rice - Arborio is one of it. This kind of rice can absorb the liquid better releases starch better, so we can get this sticky creamy thing we desire. 

Right after that you add about 250 ml of white wine or white vermouth. When most of the alcohol has evaporated you can add chicken or vegetable stock. It's best to have it heated up in a separate pot. One litre would be sufficient. You add the stock ladle by ladle, waiting in between until the rice has absorbed the liquid. You do this until all stock is gone or the rice has the right consistency. 

When this is done you can remove the risotto from the heat, add 100 g of butter a handful of grated parmesan cheese and the special ingredients you want to have in your risotto. Today I had it with 200 g Gorgonzola cheese, 80 g goat cheese, and two apples in small chunks. You can season as well with salt and pepper if you need. All went into the pan and covered with the lit it was left standing for a minute or two so that all can melt nicely - or you say sit.

Time to bring it to the plate. A few lightly toasted walnuts on it and some extra parmesan grated on top.

Well I took the recipe for this risotto from the book "Cook with Jamie" (well it would be one down, if I would try to cook through the whole book).

This was just one kind of risotto. There is much more to explore.

 Bacon and beans risotto

Tomato and basil risotto

And there are many many more options. Just have a go. You will not regret it. By the way, in Italy risotto is normally not a main course, but a first course, a primo. However, do as you please!