Celebration for Salla on returning the MA-work!

Congrats Salla! The work is about, what else than Pattern Bakery, and it will be presented in MOA 2009 in May. Will tell you more when the time comes, no doubt. Anyway, to celebrate it, we had fennel risotto, and something sparkling. Risotto is one of my personal favorites, and that's why the other girls have to eat it quite often in our meetings, but I haven't heard any complaints yet...

To make four portions of risotto, first slice 1 onion and soften in olive oil in a saucepan. Then add four deciliters of risotto rice, arborio or carnaroli and soften for a while. Add one cup of white wine, or sparkling wine or such and after it has soaked in, start adding vegetable stock one ladle at a time. Towards the end, add one deciliter of cream. (You can also leave the cream out, if you like) When the rice is al dente, it is done! Then add about 1 dl of parmesan cheese, some black pepper and salt to taste.

That is the basic recipe, and here's few suggestions how to make variations:
* add some cold smoked salmon when the risotto is ready
* add peas before adding cream
* canned artichoke hearts before cream
* add some chantarelles with the rice
* some prosciutto and goats cheese instead of Parmesan
* peas, prawns, fresh mint and basil, after the cream, no Parmesan
* fry chicken first, then lower the heat and start the basic recipe, add the onions and rice and so forth. After the cream, add roasted and peeled bell peppers.
* to make asparagus or fennel risotto like here, first cook the asparagus or the coarsely chopped fennel in a separate saucepan. When they are al dente, remove them and use the water for risotto. (I usually add vegetable stock to that water.) Then add the asparagus or fennel to the risotto after the cream. The green in the photo is the feathery bits from the fennel. Don't cook them, but add them on top when the risotto is done.