Pesto Risotto With Poached Salmon.

(If your wondering what is that on the right, its just iceberg lettuce with caesar dressing and toasted bread crumbs.)

This is something I made today with great success! Althought I made the pesto beforehand a few days ago. Pesto is really nifty because it can be used for so many things.

Firstly, I'll start with the pesto sauce. You can either use a food processor or the good old fashion way, mortar and pestle.

Ingredients:
Garlic, 2 cloves
Pinenuts, Handful
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt (I normally use Sea Salt)
Ground Black Pepper
Fresh Basil Leave, Handful
Parmesan Cheese, Small bowl grated

Directions:
1) Roughly chop the garlic. If using a food processor just chuck it in whole. Tear the basil leaves. chuck that in too. Note, use the leaves only. Blitz the garlic and basil leaves.

2)Now add the pinenuts in. Add a good glug of extra virgin olive oil in. Blitz till you get something like a purée.

3)Now add the cheese in. I would recommend not to put it all in so that you can get the texture you want. We are looking for a smooth purée texture. You can compensate by using more extra virgin olive oil if you find the texture too sticky.

4)Finally add salt and black pepper to taste.

Voila! Easy to make and quick. Now you can store it in the fridge or freezer if you plan to use it in the future.


Now for the risotto.

Ingredients:
Risotto Rice
Garlic
Onion
Butter
Dry White Wine
Parmesan Cheese, Grated
Appropriate Stock
Salt
Ground Black Pepper

Directions:
1) Sauté the finely chopped garlic and onions on low heat with a generous amount of butter. You should be looking for it to soften and turn yellow, not brown.

2) When you get that, turn up the heat and put the risotto rice in. Fry till translucent and stirring constantly.

3) Now add 1-2 glasses of white wine. I added 2 because I love the taste of wine :) Let the rice absorb the flavours of the wine. You should be smelling a fantastic aroma at this stage. Add a bit of salt at this point.

4) Once the rice has absorbed the white wine and the alcohol has evapourated, add in the heated stock. 1 ladle at a time. The reason for this is we want to get the correct texture. And not end up with porridge. So everytime the stock is absorbed into the rice, add in another ladle of stock. If you do run out of stock, you can use water. I made enough stock to fill 3/4 of the pot I was using and it was slightly more than needed.

5) You will notice the starch coming out from the rice which makes for great texture. We are looking for the risotto to be soft but still needed to bite. Once you get that, turn the heat off and add in the cheese bit by bit and stir. Add in some butter to enhance the taste and texture. Once you get a nice smooth texture, add black pepper and more salt if you want to taste then allow it to sit for a few minutes.

This recipe can be used for several different types of risotto's. You just need to vary the ingredients with your own creativity!



And finally, the poached salmon

Ingredients:
Salmon Steaks, skin removed
Onions
Butter
Stock
Dry White Wine
Salt
Ground Black Pepper

Directions:
1) Sauté the onions till soft with butter on low heat.

2) Turn up heat slightly and add stock. Put the salmon in and pour white wine over salmon. A glass would be nice.

3) The level of stock should be almost covering the salmon. Add some salt and black pepper to taste.

4) Now cover and let it simmer for about 15mins or when you use a fork to poke the salmon, it should flake.

Serve discarding the sauce and onions. This dish can also be served with a variety of sauces. Again up to your taste!