Spicy Risotto – A Cure For Colds*

I just made possibly the nicest risotto I’ve ever made. And it was really easy!

My wife is a big fan of risotto, usually I make it cheese free with tomato and pepper. However, she is a bit under the weather with a cold and I had promised to make risotto for her. I thought I’d make it a bit more spicy than normal. So, what I used was….

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
6 spring onions, finely sliced including the green bits at the end
6 cherry vine tomatoes, finely chopped
4 red shallots
2 heaped tablespoons of paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin
A pint of vegetable stock
3 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 sweet pepper, finely chopped
100g Tomato purée
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
250g risotto rice
Salt and pepper
Handful of mustard seeds.

Right, this is a piece of piss to make. Firstly get your vegetable stock on the go. I use a pint or so of water and add two or three vegetable stock cubes and boil that bad boy up. I use frozen peas as well as it adds a bit of green to the proceedings.

When that is nearly boiling, heat up some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, shallots and garlic. What I did as this point too was get a bit of ginger, used a garlic press and added the result to the pan. Once that has fried for a minute, add the rice and fry it all up for about 5 minutes.

Then, add the tomatoes, paprika, cumin and chilli powder. Stir it in and when the rice takes the colour, add the tomato purée. This should stick everything together, stir it around so it all takes and then add about half of the stock.

Stir in the stock until you get a nice consistency, the rice should become “Unstuck together” at this point. Keep stirring it and add the mushrooms, pepper and spring onion. Gently stir it, probably best to keep doing this for about five minutes, risotto can be a right unsociable bastard to cook, and when the rice has started to absorb the sauce and fluff out, add the rest of the stock.

You can leave this for a minute or two and then carry on stirring. Add the salt and pepper, it’s up to you how much, or even if you want any at all. The rice will absorb the sauce so after about twenty minutes from when you started frying the rice, it will be ready to eat.

If you want to add meat, chorizo is probably your best bet. All the paprika in the risotto makes it well suited. Slice your chorizo and fry it up about three minutes before the risotto is finished. We had it with some chopped raw mushroom, olives and sliced tomato.

The best thing about this risotto is the is no set way to make it, add and subtract whatever you like veg wise or even meat wise, and you’ll have a nice, thick and creamy spicy risotto.

If you throw up, I shall blame someone else. Lets say…Jamie Oliver? Yeah, Jamie Oliver.

*Not really a cure for colds.

Spicy Caribbean Sweet Potato Wedges

I love to cook. I’m a complete novice though, I just really enjoy it. Anyways, tried making these bad boys tonight and was deeeelighted with the results! Dead easy to make too.

Get a couple of sweet potatoes, I used one absolutely mahoosive one, and cut into wedges. Then, in a mixing bowl, I put two tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of paprika, a dash of allspice, chili powder, Cayenne pepper, oregano and thyme. I added a splash of Hot Pepper sauce as well.

Toss the wedges in the rub so that they are all coated, then just put them on a baking tray that you’ve put foil on, probably best to brush the foil in oil, I used nut oil. Then leave ’em in the oven (preheated to 200) for 40 minutes, turning them halfway through.

Had it with a Quorn Peppered steak and roasted veg. Did a Cajun sauce to go with it too. Lahhvly!