LIGHT LEMON RISOTTO

Light Lemon Risotto with Garlic Prawns

I was looking for a summer risotto. Not generally associated with summer, risotto is a creamy and sometimes rich rice dish that has varying levels of success depending on your expectations. My expectations are high, and over my formative years at Thermomix in Australia as the recipe developer, I did not enjoy the time I spent with risotto, specifically the mushroom risotto, which ranged from a stodgy lump of rice, to a thick soup with floaties. I literally spent about 3 weeks of my life that I will never get back on that single recipe…and still the complaints roll in.

Can I just mention a few risotto tips and tricks?

• Always use a risotto rice. This would mean arborio or caranoli or nano all of which have excellent asborption properties whilst releasing the necessary starch to make the risotto creamy. Any other variety of rice will just give you a soggy, gluey mess.
• The ratio of liquid to rice should be a minimum 1.5. So, for 300g rice, you should have at least 550g liquid. Personally I enjoy a lot more liquid in my risotto than that, and as we are using the thermomix, and there is no stirring involved, it is easy to add much more. But never go under that ratio.
• Rice is quite bland, so add as much flavour as you deem necessary. Herbs, cheese, prawns, aromatics like garlic, leek, onions, eschalots etc, roasted pumpkin, capsicum, eggplant, pine nuts, lemon zest, butter, more butter, cream (which actually then makes it something called Mantecato) and of course anything else that takes your fancy.
• Don’t be afraid to add more liquid. If the rice seems to be absorbing it all, splash in some more alcohol, stock or water.

NEED:

Handful Italian parsley

zest 2 lemons

60g Parmesan cheese, cubed

2 cloves garlic

2 eschalots (French shallots)

20g Fini EVOO

300g risotto rice of choice

100g white wine

700g stock

40g lemon juice, fresh

40g Umami paste

Sea salt to taste

Cream to taste

Additional finely grated lemon zest to garnish

DO:

Place parsley into Thermomix bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 7. Remove from bowl and set aside.

Place zest and Parmesan into Thermomix bowl and mill 8 sec/speed 8. Remove from bowl and set aside.

Place garlic, eschalots and EVOO into Thermomix bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 4. Scrape down sides of bowl and saute 3 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add rice and white wine and saute 2 min/Varoma/Reverse + speed 1.5. (Not rocket science here folks, find a spot between speed 1 and speed 2 and call it speed 1.5!!)

Add stock, Umami, lemon juice and salt and cook 16 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed 1.5.

Add chopped parsley and a splash of cream if using and stir through 3 sec/Reverse + speed 1.5.

Serve piping hot with grated cheese amd lemon zest sprinkled over.

Fantastic when served with Garlic Prawns for a complete WOW factor.

I think this just might be a summer risotto…what do you think?