Salmon and Lemon Risotto

Firstly I apologise for the truly terrible terrible photo, however I was starving and photography wasn't exactly on my mind. Next time I make this dish I will return with better photography.

We have decided that we ought to eat more fish. Generally speaking, outside of fishcakes, a tuna sandwich or haddock from the chip shop fish doesn't really feature in our diets much. I therefore thought I would try this risotto from BBC Good Food. It looked simple and tasty and had good reviews (note; I always read the reviews on BBC Good Food before cooking anything. Not only to find out if it is any good but also because people leave helpful advice on how they would change or adapt the recipe).

The main problem is an error in the recipe. it simply states 1 and a half boiling vegetable stock. Err, one and a half what?! I had no idea if we were talking pints or litres. I'd guess litres as normally the recipes say "ml" but in the end because I used less arborio rice I settled on two pints which worked well.

All in all this recipe was good, nice flavour which tasted better the more lemon juice I added. I only added lemon zest to the risotto and sliced up the lemon to serve with the meal, that way you could as much or as little lemon as you like. Mr M gave it an 8.5 out of 10 so not too shabby even though initially he turned his nose up when told what he was having for tea! Recipe serves 4.

Salmon and Lemon Risotto

Ingredients

1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
350g risotto rice
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1.5 litres boiling vegetable stock
170g pack smoked salmon, three-quarters chopped
85g mascapone lite
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley,
chopped grated lemon zest, plus squeeze of lemon juice
Handful rocket

Method

Fry the onion in the oil for 5 mins. Add the rice and garlic, then cook for 2 mins, stirring continuously. Pour in a third of the stock and set the timer to 20 mins.

Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the stock has been absorbed, then add half the rest of the stock and carry on cooking, stirring a bit more frequently, until that has been absorbed.

Pour in the last of the stock, stir, then simmer until cooked and creamy.

Take from the heat and add the chopped salmon, mascarpone, parsley and lemon zest. Grind in some black pepper, but don't add salt as the salmon will be salty enough.

Leave for 5 mins to settle, then taste and add a little lemon juice if you like. Serve topped with reserved salmon (roughly torn) and some rocket.

A nice easy dinner for after work when you can't really be bothered to make much more of an effort.

love & kisses
Mrs M x