Believe it or not....... risotto

Now this might sound very odd, but I have never made risotto in my life. Now, as my mission to have as near zero waste whilst having as much good stuff in our diet (as opposed to tasty, but not overly healthy roast potatoes), I ordered some risotto rice in our shopping this week. Now I did this to almost force me to try making it - no excuse if its in the cupboard, right?

In addition, our shopping arrived yesterday and I ordered a fair sized pack of ham (thinking sandwiches for work), and Morrisons have sent us ham that goes out of date tomorrow (thank you, Morrisons)........

Yesterday, we had a roast chicken, half of which is nestled in the fridge as I type, so I am thinking that we make risotto for dinner tonight.

Now, I have had a look about online for recipes but there is nothing that really fits what I have - but I think I am getting the gist of what makes a good risotto; so, here is the plan;

Leftover chicken
Cooked (smoked) ham
Couple of rashers of bacon (finely chopped)
Onion (finely chopped)
Leek (finely chopped)
Chicken stock
White wine
Frozen peas
Butter
Olive oil
Black pepper
Risotto rice (about 250g?)
Couple of cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

Heat some oil, start off with the bacon and onion for a couple of minutes, add the garlic and cook for a minute, then add the rice and coat with oil (why does this need to be done?); add the wine and let it bubble off, then add the stock, chicken bits, ham bit, peas and leek, cover and let it cook for a while (10 mins?) and then add some butter to make it creamier.

Some recipes say to add cheese like Parmesan - I don't have any in the fridge, is it a deal breaker? Anything else we need to do/think about?

 

I might pop in some garlic, chopped capsicum pepper and perhaps a few mushrooms of you have them.. I shouldn’t worry about the cheese situation either..

 

I popped in a couple of large cloves of garlic, and we caved in and got some parmesan from the wee Tesco local thingy, which seemed to add a bit of a savoury edge to it.

For a first attempt, it wasn't bad - rice was slightly underdone, but otherwise it was really tasty.

Bonus of bonuses - there is sufficient chicken left over to make a chicken and vegetable curry tomorrow; one chicken, three dinners - just what I like!

 

All a learning curve, but sounds to me like you are doing great.!