Risotto in the pressure cooker? Worth a crack I thought! It probably wouldn’t have occurred to me at all if Not Quite Nigella hadn’t posted recently about her Bolognese Risotto. Only problem – I had chicken I needed to use instead! Not to worry, trusty Google to the rescue. I found this recipe, which I adapted based on what I had in the fridge at the time – here is my version.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Aborio rice
- 2.5 cups Chicken stock
- 1/2 cup White wine
- 250 grams Chicken thigh, loosely chopped
- 2 tablespoons Olive oil
- 1 medium Onion, diced
- 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Grated parmesan
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Handful rocket
- dozen Cherry tomatoes, halved
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Heat the oil in the base of the pressure cooker.
- Brown the diced chicken on all sides and remove from cooker.
- Reduce heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir, coating well with the oil/onion/garlic mixture.
- Add the wine and allow to mostly evaporate whilst stirring.
- Add all the stock and the browned chicken.
- Stir, bring to a simmer.
- Close the lid on the pressure cooker and bring to pressure.
- Reduce the stove heat to low and put on the "low" pressure setting.
- Cook for 8 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure.
- Once released, open the lid and stir through grated cheese and butter.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and the rocket and stir through.
- Season with salt and pepper.
Jamie Oliver is one of my food heroes. I love his cooking style, but I also love his mission in life – to teach people to respect and enjoy delicious, healthy food. That’s a philosophy I can get behind!
This recipe is loosely based upon Jamie’s spinach risotto recipe in his Cook with Jamie book. Of course I’m rarely content to leave a recipe as is, so here it is with my modifications. Unlike last time I posted risotto on this site, this is a real one – it requires a closer eye and more time at the stove, but the results are lovely. Worth doing on a cold night when you enjoy the heat of the stove!
Details
30 min 40 min 1 h, 10 min
Ingredients
- 200 grams Aborio rice
- 2 cups Vegetable stock
- 1/4 cup White wine
- 1/2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1/2 tbsp Butter
- 2 Shallots, sliced
- 2 stalks Celery, finely sliced
- 1 bunch Silverbeet, chopped
- 1 tsp Butter
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 clove Garlic, chopped
- 1 Beetroot, roasted and sliced
- 1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
- 1-2 tbsp Soft goat's cheese
- 1/2 Lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- In a small saucepan heat the stock until it's simmering.
- Heat a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the butter and olive oil, then add the shallots and celery. Cook gently, without browning, for 10 minutes.
- Add the risotto to the saucepan, stir well with a wooden spoon to coat risotto with oil. This allows the grain to heat up and will ensure it absorbs the liquid properly.
- Quickly add the white wine to the pan. It should sizzle, stir quickly and let the wine evaporate.
- Add 1/4 cup of stock at a time to the rice, stirring constantly until it absorbs. Continue with another 3/4 cup of stock. Remove from heat while you cook the silverbeet.
- In another medium saucepan melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the garlic, nutmeg and spinach and cook, stirring regularly, until the silverbeet wilts down.
- Remove spinach from heat and then process in a food process until finely chopped, or chop yourself.
- Return the risotto to the heat, continue adding remaining stock 1/4 cup at a time until absorbed. You don't want this to be gluggy, so stop cooking just as the final bit of stock is absorbed. It will still be reasonably wet.
- Stir the spinach through the risotto, then add a little bit of butter and the parmesan and stir through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze a bit of lime juice through the risotto, again to taste.
- Finally, stir through the pieces of beetroot.
- Serve in two bowls, and crumble goat's cheese on top.
Risotto would have to be one of my favourite meals. I love mushrooms and I don’t think you can go past a good mushroom risotto. It’s often the thing I’m most drawn to on Italian menus.
However, when I don’t have mushrooms, I like to play around with my ingredients a bit. This time around I made a very easy and quick pumpkin, corn and chicken risotto. I realise now that this made for a very yellow photo! I hope you like the recipe anyway.
A lot of people have this perception that risotto is hard or very time consuming. I think this is a bit of a fallacy – it’s not difficult at all, but it is a bit time consuming and you do need to hover around the stove gradually stirring in the stock until it is absorbed. I am a fan of this method of cooking risotto, but it’s just not practical in summer. So this is my fallback recipe when I want the comfort of risotto, without having to sweat over the hot stove!
Be warned, this doesn’t produce a risotto with the same texture as if you used the traditional method. But I still love it. I found the chicken added a nice textural difference, and the corn and pumpkin added a gentle sweetness. This recipe is cooked without butter, so it is actually quite healthy. However, if you’re feeling decadent feel free to stir in a spoon of butter once the risotto has finished cooking.
Ingredients
- 3 cups Vegetable stock
- 1/4 cup Dry white wine
- 1 tbsp Finely grated lemon rind
- 1 medium Brown onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped or crushed
- 1 Chicken breast
- 200 gs Pumpkin
- 1 medium Ear of corn, kernels removed
- 1 1/2 cups Aborio rice
- 2 tbsps Lemon juice
- 1 cup Water
- 100 gs Baby spinach leaves, torn
- 1/2 cup Finely grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsps Sage, finely shredded
Directions
- First, I browned the chicken separately. I find this enhances the flavour. I set it aside until later.
- Heat 1 tbs of stock with wine and lemon rind in a large saucepan.
- Add the onion and garlice and cook, stirring, on a medium heat until the onion softens. You don't want the temperature too high here as it will burn the onion and garlic - the idea is gentle cooking.
- Add the chicken, mushrooms, capsicum, corn (or anything else you feel will be tasty) and cook stirring for another 5 minutes.
- Stir in the rice, juice, water and remaining stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.
- Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes until rice is cooked.
- Before serving, stir in spinach, cheese and sage.
- Serve with salad and crusty bread if you so desire.
|
|
Subscribe  follow on twitter
 by rss feed
 by email:
|
Share