Well… this didn’t work out exactly as planned but …. I have been inspire by a fellow-blogger, Jonathan, from http://aroundbritainwithapaunch.blogspot.com/
His scarlet risotto has been ridiculously popular with his followers and I think it just looks so shocking on the plate that all I needed was an excuse to make it… thank you Adam and Karen and Jenny for letting me invite you around for dinner to experience this with us!
Now, for some reason my beetroots didn’t bleed into the rice quite as vividly as Jonathan’s did… I think i could have done with some beetroot powder… but they still went a stunning dark orange colour, which looked pretty spectacular on the plate and my dear guests all commented on how nice it tasted, so I can’t really grumble… The Viking even suggested I remake this and get the colour how I want it but you know what?.. that’s life and I can’t fake what happened.
I do, however, apologise for the picture quality… didn’t have my camera on me and the best photo is out of focus… double bad… what you gonna do eh?
RANT WARNING!!: So we’re down in London again this week for the second load of bus-like events and being totally mad we’ve decided to have friends around the night before to bitch and moan about the state of the industry and how those PR lovelies can’t seem to stop miss-behaving!… shouldn’t complain too much I suppose, we’re lucky to be working at all… NO! what am I saying? We’re brilliant and they should be so lucky to have our creativity on their teams to make their brands look so good! RANT OVER!!!
So, in honour of Jonathan and our new Kodak clients, who’s theme tomorrow is COLOUR, here’s this colourful, delicious and inspiring combination of jewel-like risottos.
I made them in tandem, which was slightly schizophrenic but quite do-able as long as you prepare double of everything and have it all ready to go Blue Peter stylie…
Ruby Risotto
1 fresh beetroot
onion – finely chopped
risotto rice
3 sun-dried tomatoes
salt and pepper
Dice the beetroot and add it to a pan full of water.
Boil for 20 mins until tender, then drain but keep the water as you’ll use this for the stock.
In a heavy bottomed pan sweat an onion in butter and olive oil, then add the chopped beetroot and the rice and let it all sizzle in the fat turn an evil shade of red. Then add the stock as per normal, little by little until you have your risotto. Add slices of sun-dried tomato and a knob of butter at the end for a glossy finish!
Emerald Risotto
3 bundles of asparagus
1 onion – finely chopped
risotto rice
glass of white wine
Parmesan
Pretty much the same as above but add a glass of white wine after you’ve added the rice, then the stock. Chop up and blanche your asparagus first then add it a minute before the end of cooking, with a fist full of grated cheese.
Now, either plate it gloriously onto halves of one large dish or individually if you’re feeling clever and watch it twinkle!
eat and of course, enjoy!
Yum, I love a good risotto. Must try the ruby one to see what colour it ends up being. Perhaps using red onion and a slug of red wine might help it along…!
thanks… it was actually a shame it didn't turn out brighter… if you see the link to Jonathans's one you'll see how bright red it should be but it tasted amazing!
Nice work. Love the idea of having two different colour risottos. I'm not sure what to say about the colour. Did you use fresh beetroot and how much water did you boil it in? I found that my stock water looked like a Jaws attack. It was so vivid. Maybe it's something to do with Swedish beetroot?
I've heard of people using red wine and radicchio as well as red onion for maximum effect.
It looks a pretty vivid red to me, but like you said the main thing is that it tastes good. I'd love to try this dish out (I seem to be saying this about a lot of the lovely food blogs I'm reading at the minute…don't know when I'll find the time!) Oh, and your pictures are great by the way.
Any suggestions on what white wine to use?