Diva Boutique Bakery & Cafe: Risotto..

Saturday night I decided to have a few people over for dinner, don't know why I did this...I was a bit hung over from a wedding the night before...and I had very little food in the house! To make matters worse, I had no motivation to go to the shop or even inspiration, so that when I got to the shop I would know what to buy. I took a peek in the fridge and what I had was, a left over chicken carcass, a picked at fully roasted duck and a few beets that I pulled from my man's garden... I thought about it...and I came up with a duck and beet risotto! And it tasted fantastic...

I started making my chicken stock..I had some garlic, carrot and onion, (didn't have any celery)threw that all into the pot with the chicken and cold water..the thing to remember with stock is to bring to a boil and then SIMMER...

While that was simmering I washed the beets, tossed them in a bit of olive oil lots of sea salt and pepper, then into the oven to roast..

So, once those two parts of the meal were done, I could start working on the risotto.

I know there are all different ways to do risotto, but I prefer the traditional way that takes 25 min of stirring...here is my basic recipe:

Start with a large sautee pan, melt butter(or use olive oil)...add to that chopped garlic, I like to use about 2 cloves. Chopped onion and sautee....Sautee for about 5 min, until onion and garlic becomes translucent... remember the heat should be moderate...I add in the arborio rice at this point and give it a little stir, then deglaze with white wine(about 1/2 cup)...let that simmer away for a min or two...then start adding your hot chicken stock...one ladle at a time, stir as you add and keep stirring until the stock has been absorbed into the risotto, then add another ladle full and continue this until the risotto is creamy and soft to the bite... To finish, I added the shredded duck meat and diced beet...generous shavings of Parmesan, salt and pepper and a bit of fresh herbs that I had around...It was sooo tasty...with this basic recipe, you can add whatever you like. For a vegetarian version, make yourself a lovely veggie stock... another favourite of mine is to add roasted butternut squash...