my first daring cooks challenge - risotto

I decided I'd join the daring kitchen (www.thedaringkitchen.com) and start taking part in challenges, both the daring cooks, and the daring bakers.  Here is the result from my first challenge in the daring cooks:

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I followed the base stock recipe as provided in the challenge:

Chicken Stock

1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns
2 bay leaves
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice

I also added in about 500g carrots, just washed - don't worry about peeling them.

The end result was a beautiful chicken stock, I'll def be using this recipe again

The risotto recipe I chose was a Pea, Goats Cheese, and Herb Risotto that I found on www.luculliandelights.com while madly googling for goats cheese recipes. I am in LOVE with anything goats cheese at the moment, and peas are also a favourite of mine.

Pea, Goats Cheese, and Herb Risotto

About 1 kg unshelled peas which is about 250-300 g once shelled
1 fresh onion
450 g of rice, Arborio or Carnaroli (I used Aborio)
1 ½ cups stock.
Fresh herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, parsley and rosemary
100 gor more fresh mild goat's cheese,
A large knob of butter
Salt
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Read more: http://www.luculliandelights.com/2008/07/pea-goats-cheese-and-herb-risotto-or.html#ixzz0iCqwYYcY

 

The Risotto turned out beautifully creamy and the peas were lovely and tender, the goats cheese gave it a delicious bitey zing. The above recipe serves 4 greedy piglets as a main, or about 8 people as a side dish.