Comfort in Spring: Risotto

It's occurred to me that lately I have been cooking a lot of rice comfort foods, last month I made the ever comforting arroz con leche (this recipe a variation of Mexican rice pudding), but this month I have found my self making the savory comforting creamy side of rice: Risotto. Risotto is the perfect comfort food for spring, it is creamy and nourishing, but not heavy unlike winter comfort food, it shows off spring produce perfectly and is enlivened by winter citrus. Last week I made Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto; this woman really can do no wrong when it comes to comfort foods, this was gorgeous lovely creamy lemon offset by hints of earthiness with the addition of fresh rosemary. Here's a link to the lovely recipe Nigella Lawson's Lemon Risotto. Last night the risotto love continued with something I had been itching to make forever but had never found a recipe that met my needs: Asparagus Risotto. My first encounter with Asparagus Risotto was with Trader Joe's frozen Asparagus Risotto, which I will say is lovely, but expensive for such a small amount and so the years have gone by with me looking for the perfect Asparagus Risotto recipe, when a few weeks the perfect recipe fell into my lap, provided by the awesome website http://www.simplyrecipes.com/. And here is the recipe that last night the ended my quest for an Asparagus risotto recipe: Asparagus Risotto.

Just a note to those making risotto, always make way more stock than is called for or have hot water on hand, the arborio rice you buy will vary highly in how much stock it takes to cook. In both recipes I used Trader Joe's arborio rice and it required much more liquid than the recipes called for.

Wish to some day get a hold of other Italian rice varieties that are used in risotto.

Also the Asparagus Risotto truly shows off the wonder of risotto in that it can be so creamy with no cream added.

image of arborio rice provided by http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/basicrisotto/

What I've cooked lately: Coconut Slab

Alright, I've been gone for awhile especially on the cooking part of my blog, but I've had good reason basically since last tuesday I have not been feeling very good, and have been reduced to a diet of very bland foods because of it, and yes it was hell for a food head like me. But before I got sick I made Nigella Lawson's wonderful Coconut Slab which can be found in this book Forever Summer for my friend Liz's barbecue, well over all it was a hit, but I do have one problem with the recipe it has to do with the frosting, I liked how the cake looked with the frosting going over the sides, so don't if you make this recipe add more suger to the frosting, it looks absolutely perfect with the frosting going over the sides. And also for a very simple, comforting, and bizarrely extravegent drink (I've been on a saffron kick lately):

Saffron Milk
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
a pinch of saffron

Directions: bring all of these things to a boil and serve. Very good before going to bed.

Jubilence Soup

Jubilence Soup
aka Nigella Lawson's Happiness Soup's even brighter sister

Ingredients:
18 ounces yellow squash (around two squash) diced
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 boneless skinless chicken breast chopped
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon Madras Tamarind Hot Curry powder
a dash of cayenne (optional)
zest and juice of one small lemon
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup red lentils
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken stock

Directions
1. dice squash and slice garlic
2. Sautee squash and garlic in olive oil for about 2 minutes, add chicken and lemon zest and sautee another 3 minutes, until squash is tender
3. Add stock, lemon juice, curry powder, tumeric, lentils, rice, and dash of cayenne.
4. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes until rice and lentils are tender, make sure to stir so lentils do not burn on bottom.
5. serve.

And a nice creamy topping:

Ingredients:
a quarter of a cucumber, finely diced
a dash of salt and pepper
1/4 a teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
3 tablespoons yogurt
2 teaspoons mint chopped (or go by your taste on mint)

Directions
1. mix all together and a dollop on soup
2. enjoy.

This was absolutely delicious and will be made again. so very yummy.