Preserved Lemon Risotto

Apr 5, 2010 by glutenshmooten

Week 20 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Tangy.

I decided to finally use the Preserved Lemons I did way back in week 1 in another recipe from the same book, Moorish. The recipe I cooked was Preserved Lemon Risotto.

Ingredients

60ml olive oil

1 small onion, quartered

400g Vialone Nano rice (I have no idea what this is, I just used Aborio rice!)

60ml white wine

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock

1 preserved lemon, skin only, finely diced

1 tablespoon chopped celery leaves

100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

60g parmesan, grated

salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil, then discard. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with the oil. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated. Next, ladle in enough simmering stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.

Add a third amount of stock, and when half the liquid has been absorbed, add the preserved lemon and celery and stir gently until the stock is all absorbed.

Stir in the butter and parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Add the final 100ml of stock and stir until the butter and cheese have melted. Cover the pot and allow to rest away from the heat for a few minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed, and serve straight away.

I’ve never seen a risotto recipe that tells you to discard the onion at the start, I think I prefer keeping it in for that extra flavour. This turned out nicely, the lemon gives it a nice punch. You can serve this as a side with steak or as a light lunch. I had it for dinner with a really basic tomato, avocado and parsely salad. Yum!