chopo risotto

Another “accidental” risotto, which came about after seeing some lovely chopo mushrooms at the market yesterday. And then the guy made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (just before closing time on Saturday is a good time to hit the market). These chopos were cultivated, which don’t have the same deep flavour as wild ones, but still a nice change from regular white mushrooms. They were also small enough that I just cooked them whole. And thus a new (for me) risotto was born.

Ingredients and instructions below…

chicken in spicy peanut sauce

I kind of just threw this together one day last week and have ended up making it three times since. It’s very satisfying and also low-carb, though my flatmate had it over basmati rice and said it was wonderful. I’d never made peanut sauce before so just used some crunchy peanut butter as a base and it turned out quite well. Measurements for the sauce are a bit slapdash, but it’s easy to just add and taste as you go along.

Ingredients and instructions below…

spinach, langostine & chorizo criollo risotto

Yep, another risotto. This one with fresh baby spinach leaves stirred in at the end – it’ll look like a lot of spinach at first but it wilts down a lot. Also very meaty with lots of chorizo criollo, which adds a lovely texture and flavour and goes very well with the langostines. Add some ground hot chilis to spice it up.

Ingredients & instructions below the links.

asparagus, prawn & mushroom risotto

[click to enlarge]

It’s asparagus season in Seville and so I am always looking for different ways of preparing it. I’d never had an asparagus risotto before and thought … well, why not? It was gorgeous, with the addition of langostines and two kinds of mushrooms. And of course I saved enough asparagus to give to the cats as a treat.

Ingredients and instructions below the links.

bacon & seta risotto

Yeah I know I should be low-carbing, but every now and then I just need a good ol’ carb fix and I can think of nothing more satisfying than a nice risotto. I had started making this one with broccoli florets, then thought to try it with fresh arrugula, as in this penne & arrugula dish, and it turned out fabulous.

Ingredients and instructions below the links.

mushroom risotto

I’ve recently enjoyed a couple of very nice risottos over at Tre Fratelli and at Soravito. And it got my curiosity going as I had never made a risotto before and thought how nice it would be to make one at home, because there is a definite “comfort food” aspect to a good risotto. And so, using my usual modus operandi when trying something new and having no recipe, I took four different risotto recipes that I’d found on line and adapted them into one recipe I thought would work well. And as you can see, it turned out very well indeed. I couldn’t find any portabello mushrooms and used setas de chopo instead.

For my next risotto I want to use these dried wild mushrooms that my friend Darlene recently sent to me in a wonderful surprise care package from Canada…

Recipe and instructions are below the links…