Butternut squash risotto
I'd never made risotto until @blueyebutterfly and me made this one this afternoon. So here's a recipe that even I can't make go bad.
What you will need:
1 butternut squash
400g risotto rice
2 and a half vegetable stock cubes
2 cloves of garlic
pine nuts
olive oil / butter / some sort of low-fat spread or some shit like that
salt, pepper
rosemary
white wine / vermouth / half a can of Kestrel*
a kettle
How to do it
Honestly, it's a piece of piss. I don't know why I was ever intimidated by the idea of making a risotto - perhaps something to do with seeing Gordon Ramsay intimidate some poor submissive sap on television for making it too watery or something - but I'm glad to have popped my risotto cherry.
Firstly, get a fucking big knife and stick it into the squash. This is probably the hardest bit. My knives are a bit blunt and you're forever running the risk of turning into an episode of Casualty when attempting to slice apart something funny shaped like a butternut squash. You want to cut this into a few chunks - think sort of medium potato-sized bits. Scoop out the seeds and all that shit. Leave the skin on. Throw it in a roasting tin with a fuckload of olive oil for about 45-50 minutes at about 200 degrees or whatever your oven says. Shake it a couple of times for luck.
Get the squash out of the oven, scrape the flesh off the skin, and mash it around a bit in a bowl. Easy bit, this. Leave that to one side while you get started on the risotto.
Get some more olive oil or a knob of butter and heat that up with two cloves of garlic either finely chopped or minced in one of those pretty gadgets. I don't have one of them as they make the washing up bowl smell for weeks and I'll get in trouble. You can use a bit of finely chopped onion if you like, though we didn't. When they've been fizzing away for a bit, add the rice so it's covered by the butter/oil.
Most recipes at this point tell you to wait before it gets 'translucent' but we couldn't be arsed. You're meant to throw in some white wine or vermouth here, but since I was driving, we didn't - but you might want to.
Then it's a simple case of making 2 pints of vegetable stock and adding it gradually to the rice, as it gets absorbed. Stir it like a bastard to stop it going clumpy and shite. This is the boring bit, and seemed to take forever, though we may not have had the gas up high enough. When it's nearly all absorbed, have a look at a bit of salt and pepper and some rosemary. Fresh rosemary is nice, if you can be sure the cat hasn't weed on it in the garden.
Take the risotto off the heat, mix in the squash and the pine nuts, and that's about it. Bloody lovely. Serves about four normal humans, or two extraordinarily greedy people.
* This might not work as well as the other two
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November 2nd, 2010 - 16:58
You can add cinnamon, nutmeg or paprika if you want it to be a bit of a winter warmer.
And I’ll stop this now before it ends in me subscribing to Good Housekeeping.
November 2nd, 2010 - 17:13
Ace. We do something similar with a spicy tomato sauce to go with it – tinned tomatoes cooked pretty low, a few generic italian herbs and a bit of chilli.
I shall be trying this tonight I reckon…
November 2nd, 2010 - 17:14
Best recipe EVER
November 2nd, 2010 - 17:24
I now have to make this. Brilliant!
November 2nd, 2010 - 17:55
The alcohol in the vermouth will burn off so you could have added it.
November 2nd, 2010 - 18:56
Delicious! If you toast the pine nuts they are even more wonderful. Spread them on foil under the grill and watch them like a hawk as they can go from pale to carbonised in a blink. The best pine nuts are the shorter dumpier ones rather than the elongated ones sold as organic – the latter are less crunchy.
November 2nd, 2010 - 19:19
Personally, I think all recipes should be written in this way. “Stir it like a bastard to stop it going clumpy and shite” was a personal highlight.
November 3rd, 2010 - 11:17
This is one of my all-time favourites:
http://www.billybubbles.demon.co.uk/living/dhal.html
July 31st, 2011 - 13:31
I agree. It makes the recipe humanised and understable
November 2nd, 2010 - 19:54
Putting “shit”" in a risotto? Yugh!
November 2nd, 2010 - 20:53
Brilliant with fried sage leaves or a good dose of blue cheese crumbled in at the end too! There’s lots of great squashes and they all taste brilliant.
November 2nd, 2010 - 23:41
You should write a cookery book! I’d buy it ^_^
I can see it now – Cooking and shit, by Anton Vowl xD
November 3rd, 2010 - 09:20
That sounds good.
Risottos are lush. So easy and you can chuck anything in them. I make a nice red pepper risotto.
Being a complete muppet in the kitchen they are one of the few things I can make well, along with omlette, Toad-in-the-Hole and er, that’s about it. Oh yeah, fried egg sandwhich, too.
November 3rd, 2010 - 09:30
You are awesome, I have a butternut squash that I was looking to do something with.
November 3rd, 2010 - 13:39
I can’t endorse the low fat spread – see most of them are low fat because there’s lots of water in them, so if you cook with them the water boils off leaving a very small oily residue and you have to stick more in.
As noted above, the alcohol evaporates when you cook with it as it has a lower boiling point than water. I have made risotto with beer, and it was fine, but it was a real ale, so I don’t know about Kestrel.
I could have sworn I had put a risotto recipe online, but it seems not.
November 3rd, 2010 - 13:59
My wife is obsessed with butternut squash and it’s served up in risotto, soup, roasted and curried formats at least three times a week.
In a rare break from tradition we had a ‘Turk’s Turban’ last week. It’s a squash but slightly more nutty with a slight flavour of racism. There’s probably a recipe for it in the Mail on Sunday magazine.
November 3rd, 2010 - 14:23
Agree with previous – all recipes should be written like this, if Delia would just get off her high horse and write like this i might buy her books.
Also as above: “You’re meant to throw in some white wine or vermouth here, but since I was driving, we didn’t” – You’re a big girl.
November 4th, 2010 - 00:26
That is superb. I’d love a cook book written like this – made me laugh a lot
November 4th, 2010 - 19:38
Nice recipe, nicely delivered.
I’ve always found the better the stock, the better the risotto. To be honest, I think I’ve only ever made mushroom risotto, but perhaps I’ll go crazy and try some other core ingredient.
July 31st, 2011 - 13:36
I know I’m late to this recipe but I do wish all recipes were written like this. It’s not at all cheffy but sounds just great. It’s going to be one of my mid-week tries this week.