Kiwisizzler

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Rare Beef, Salsa Verde, Ciabatta Toast

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Beautiful Ceiling!

Smoked Mackerel & Sour Cream Mousse and Basil Crisp

Baby Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto Crudo with Saffron Mayonnaise

Pickled Wild Mushrooms, Quail Egg, Watercress Caviar

My team and I recently catered a VIP canape function for our CEO at the Queen Mother’s former residence. What an amazing opportunity! The building is as pristine as if she had departed us only yesterday. It is full of amazing artwork, wall and ceiling decorations and paintings and is kept beautifully.

Our spec was that the canapes were for VIPS including the grandson of Winston Churchill and that they had to be perfect. Needless to say, they went down to a fantastic response and we loved every minute of it.

Here’s a delicious combination that is well worth the extra preparation time and effort. Perfect for a chilly autumn evening.

Make a batch of braised oxtail. I would suggest discarding the vegetables at the end of cooking, keeping only the meat stripped from the bones. Prepare some fresh salsify. Once peeled, thinly slice on an angle, blanch (to pre-cook) in boiling water and refresh immediately in very cold water. Put aside until ready to use.

Finely chop some shallots. Heat a little oil and add the shallots. Gently sweat without colour over a low heat. Add your rice and saute gently for a minute or so until it becomes slightly translucent. Add some white wine to just cover the rice and stir gently until just dissolved.

Add some chicken stock to cover, stir over a low heat until absorbed.

Add your salsify and some more chicken stock and cook until absorbed. Keep adding stock until the rice is al dente (firm to the bite) but cooked.

Add some chopped chives, salt, pepper, a knob of butter and some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Heat your oxtail in a little of the oxtail cooking liquor.

Serve the risotto topped with the oxtail and garnished with some fresh morels mushrooms (or replace with porcinis or chestnut mushrooms) sauteed in a little butter and moistened with a little of the oxtail braising liquor. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For more information and recipes for risotto click here.

The origins of this simple Sicilian staple take us back to around 1000A.D, when the Kalbids ruled Sicily as a Shia Muslim dynasty. At this time Sicily was an important island economically, being the gateway to Europe for Northern Africa, and it was during this period that the muslims introduced lemons, Seville oranges and sugar cane.

Resembling an orange, both in colour and shape, arancine or arancini are distinctly Sicilian. Arancia is Italian for orange with arancici being Italian for little orange. There are other versions such as the supli from Rome which is also made from rice with a filling of mozzarella and tomato sauce and then crumbed and fried. In some parts of Sicily arancine are often cone-shaped.

To keep it simple, we make a slightly undercooked risotto and put a tasty filling in the centre. After that we crumb it and deep-fry. The filling can be practically anything you want. The classics include flavours such as ragu (bolognaise sauce to us plebs), mozzarella and basil or even sauteed wild mushrooms.

1 medium onion or 2 shallots – finely diced

2 Tablespoons olive oil

250g Arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano rice

250ml white wine

350ml chicken or vegetable stock

40g freshly grated parmesan cheeseSalt and pepper to taste

75g ham – shredded

100g buffalo mozzarella – chopped

10g fresh basil – shredded

2 Cups flour

2 eggs

200ml milk

250g breadcrumbs

1. Heat the oil in a wide-bottom pan over a low heat.
2. Add the diced onion and sweat gently without colour, stirring regularly, for around 5 minutes or until onions are soft and starting to sweeten.
3. Add the rice and sauté gently for 1 minute.
4. Add the wine and stir until absorbed.
5. Add the stock and continue stirring over a low until absorbed.
6. Remove from the heat and add the parmesan cheese.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Leave to cool.
9. Mix the ham, mozzarella and basil.
10. Flatten the cooled rice in the palm of one hand.
11. Put 1 tablespoon of the filling in the centre of the rice and form the rice around the filling. Mould the rice into nice ball.
12. Mix the egg and milk.
13. Roll the rice in the flour, then dip into the egg mix, then roll in the breadcrumbs.
14. Deep-fry in hot oil (around 180°C) until nice and golden. Test the core temperature by inserting a sharp knife. If the arancine is not hot to the core, finish in a hot oven.

I LOVE a great risotto!

My beliefs of what makes a great risotto have been evolving since I cooked my first ‘proper’ restaurant dish on a quiet Sunday night at Bay66 in the summer of 1996. The dish was ‘Seared Lamb Fillets, Roasted Vegetable Risotto & Roast Pepper Vinaigrette’ and came from a book called ‘The Cafe Cookbook’, which showcases some of NZ’s top cafes.

It took me over two hours to make and tasted delicious. Since that moment, I’ve realised that like most Italian dishes, there is a difference of opinion around every corner and, whether you are right or wrong, it is the taste of the beholder that is the judge.

History

Risotto was probably invented around the fourteenth century AD when rice was first introduced to northern Italy, probably from Spain. It is known that rice was introduced to Spain and Sicily by the Arabs. The earliest recordings of the risotto method talk about a rice porridge made with milk and sugar.

Risotto originates from northern Italy, where the fertile Po Valley and the marshlands of the Veneto provide ideal growing conditions for rice. As a result, risotto has become the staple dish of the northern city of Milan.

While risotto is usually served as a ‘primo’ or first dish, ‘Risotto alla Milanese’ is served as a main course accompanying ‘Osso Bucco’ (braised veal shin) and is fragranced with saffron. Apparently this paricular dish was invented in 1574. The Duomo di Milano was being built and Valerius, an apprentice, was in charge of staining the windows and it appeared to all that he had used saffron in the pigments to obtain a brighter colour. He grew tired of the teasing and decided to return the joke by adding saffron to the rice to be served at his masters wedding. It turned out delicious and spread throughout the town, becoming the famous dish we know today.

The plague of 1345-1352 resulted in widespread devastation throughout Europe, resulting in the need for a reliable crop to help rebuild the recovery of the nation. Rice achieved this over the next 500 years, especially once irrigation and canals were introduced to the Po Valley, which is fed an abundance of water from the Alps. Today, Italy uses around 400,000 hectares and produces around 60 percent of the European crop.

The basics of risotto

There are three main types of rice used for risotto: arborio, carnaroli and vialoni nano. These are in the ‘superfine’ catagory. Arborio is the most common used outside of Italy but ideally carnaroli or vialoni nano should be used. Carnaroli is easier to cook and gives a firmer result but vialone nano gives a creamier texture and often absorbs other flavours better. The characteristic that unites these types of rice is that they are all very starchy, they are large grain, and they absorb a great deal of liquid while remaining firm.

One of the keys to a good risotto is obtaining a creaminess to the dish overall but retaining a firmness (‘al dente‘) to the rice.

Heat some butter or olive oil over a low heat in a heavy-based pan. Add some diced shallot or onion and sweat without colour until it smells nice and sweet. This is called a ‘soffrito‘. Add your rice (unwashed to retain the starch) and saute until the rice turns translucent and is well coated in the butter or oil – approximately 3-4 minutes. Add white wine, increase the heat to medium and reduce. Add ladles of very hot stock (chicken generally works the best), stirring continuously until the rice is al dente. It should be quite wet with separated grains. Add freshly-grated parmesan cheese (ideally grana-padano or parmigiano-reggiano) and a knob of butter to thicken and obtain the creaminess. Season and serve immediately.

Variations and Tips

When choosing your rice, use arborio for meat, carnaroli for vegetable risottos and vialone nano for seafood. If you only want to keep one type in your pantry, I recommend vialone nano as the best overall rice.

If making a seafood risotto, try replacing the white wine with vermouth and finishing with a squeeze of lemon.

Some chefs finish risottos with marscapone, cream or other dairy products. This is a bit of a cheat’s method to make the risotto creamy but hey, if you like it…….

You can flavour a risotto with practically anything and finish with different cheeses and use different wines. Start with the basics such as mushroom, roasted squash, roasted veges, etc and go from there. Before you know it you’ll be making ‘Risotto al Nero’ with cuttlefish ink and garnished with baby squid tubes stuffed with seasoned pork mince!

If you have any left-over risotto, try making arancini, orange-shaped balls of rice that are crumbed and deep-fried. Take a small handful of cold risotto (either plain or flavoured) and roll into a ball. If using plain risotto, you can fill it with ragu, mozzarella, basil, etc. Toss the ball in seasoned flour, then egg-wash and finally breadcrumbs. Deep-fry at around 175 degrees C until nice and golden. Arancini translates as orange and is a traditional dish of Sicily. When touring Sicily 2 years ago, we stumbled into a narrow lane in Palermo while searching for some ‘real’ food and found a tiny shop selling all manner of pastas, oils and fried delights. We bought two arancini con ragu, paid and were then beckoned to return by the owner who took great delight in giving us a feast of crispy fried vegetables in batter to sample. This is the true spirit of Italy!

Serves 4

Selection of seasonal vegetables, e.g. courgette, aubergine, capsicum, tomato, etc
2 Tbsp pinenuts
Fresh thyme
750ml hot chicken stock
Generous pinch of saffron
Olive oil
2 medium shallots
160g carnaroli rice
200ml white wine
200g frozen peas
3 Tbsp chilled butter
2 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan plus extra for garnishing
Chopped fresh parsley
Salt & freshly cracked pepper

1. Roughly chop the vegetables. Toss with pinenuts, olive oil, salt, pepper & thyme.
2. Roast together at 180°C until tender and golden, around 20-30 minutes.
3. Bring the stock and saffron to the boil.
4. Finely dice the shallots. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan over a low heat. Sweat the shallots until soft.
5. Add the rice and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
6. Add the wine and stir over low heat until absorbed.
7. Add half of the stock to the rice gradually, continuously stirring until absorbed.
8. Add the peas.
9. Gradually add the remaining stock until absorbed. The risotto should be quite sloppy and the rice al dente (‘firm to the bite’). To test the rice is cooked just enough, squeeze a grain between 2 fingers. It should be tender with a little crunch in the centre and you should see 3 white bits in the core of the grain.
10. Remove the risotto from the heat.
11. Add the butter, Parmesan and chopped parsley and season with salt & pepper to taste.
12. To serve, spoon the risotto into the middle of a plate. Top with the roasted vegetables and a few shavings of parmesan (use a potato peeler for this).
13. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over and around the risotto and serve. Squisito!

The final product!

Testing the rice - al dente