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Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto

November 3, 2014 @ 22:54 By Gavin Webber 7 Comments

After harvesting our broad bean crop, it was time to show Kim a bit of culinary flare in the kitchen.  It was time to have a crack at Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto.

Until today, I had never made this dish.  But as I am a dab hand at a very yummy mushroom risotto, so I thought that this would be a cinch.  It certainly was!

I adapted this recipe from a few that I found online, using ingredients that I had at hand.  Here is the result to share with you all.

Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto ingredients

Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Arborio Rice
  • 2 Chorizo Sausages (I used Hot Sicilian Chorizo), sliced
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 350 gm double shelled Broad Beans
  • 2 cloves Garlic, smashed
  • 10 mint leaves, finely sliced
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 Leek, chopped
  • 3 Chicken Oxo cubes
  • 2 Tablespoons sour cream
  • 1 litre water

Method

  1. Fill kettle with water and bring to boil.
  2. In a large pot, add chorizo and cook on medium heat for 4 minutes until brown.  Remove chorizo and set aside, leaving juices and fat in pot.
  3. Add leek and garlic, and cook until translucent.
  4. Add rice and stir well, until it changes colour and looks like little beads of glass.
  5. Add wine and stir until it is absorbed by the rice.
  6. Crumble Oxo cubes in your hand and sprinkle powder all over rice.  Pour in ½ cup of boiling water into pot and stir to avoid rice sticking to bottom of the pot.  As the water is absorbed, add another ½ cup until the water is used up.  This takes about 20 minutes.
  7. The rice should be firm but tender to eat.  If not, add another ½ cup boiling water and continue to stir.  The rice should look plump, creamy, and ooze off the spoon when poured.
  8. Turn off the heat, add back the chorizo, broad beans, lemon juice, sour cream, and mint.  Stir well, season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
  9. Serve immediately.
Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto

Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto

Now just so you know, and before you make it, this dish is amazing.  It will blow your mind.

There were only four ingredients in this meal that did not come from my garden or were made by me.  They were the wine, sour cream, oxo cubes, and the rice, however we did have them in the stockpile cupboard or in the fridge.  Not a bad effort, even if I do say so myself!

Now if you haven’t double shelled fresh broad beans before, here is a tip.  Shell the bean from the pod, and follow these simple instructions.

Weigh out 100 gm of additional beans than stated in the recipe and place in a saucepan.  Pour in boiling water to the top of the beans and then using a high heat cook for 3 minutes only.  Drain, then rinse in cold water.  To shell the bean, use your thumbnail to make a nick or two in the outer layer, then simply squeeze out the inner bean.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

So there you have it.  Another delicious meal, mainly from our garden.

Fresh from our suburban food farm.

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Filed Under: recipes, Sustainable Living, vegetables Tagged With: Broad Beans, Chorizo

Salami and Chorizo – The Verdict

October 6, 2014 @ 21:28 By Gavin Webber 10 Comments

Four weeks ago, I made a truck load of salami and chorizo.  Today was the day to cut it all down and test to see if;

  1. I had created a masterpiece of culinary proportions, or
  2. Created enough botulism to kill a cow!

I was hoping for the former!

My precious

My precious

So once back in the kitchen, I smelt each one to check for any off odours.  There were none.  Test #1 passed.

The next check was to cut it open to check for off colours and check the smell again.  Test #2 passed.

Hot Sicilian Chorizo

Hot Sicilian Chorizo

On to the final and most crucial test of all.  The taste test.  I tried the Hot Sicilian Chorizo first.  Drum roll please…

It was bloody amazing!  It was a perfect combination of moisture and flavour.  The spices were not too hot and just enough for my palette.  Test #3 PASSED with flying colours.

Next was the Salami Calabrese.  It was just like the first one I made back on the salami course.  The fennel flavour combined with a slight hint of chilli is a fierce yet refreshing combination of flavours.

Kim told me that I was a pretty damn good salami maker, as did Ben.  I smiled from ear to ear.  A big thanks goes out to Sara at Sausagesmadesimple.com.au for teaching me how to make them.  I recommend her book Secrets in Salami, as it really helped reinforce what I learnt during the course.

So what does one do with so much dried preserved meat.  Well you vacuum seal it of course!

Sealed Salami and Chorizo

Sealed Salami and Chorizo

Enough small goods to last us for quite a while.  Mind you, having said that, we (Ben, Kim, and I) ate half a chorizo during the taste test.  Once you pop, you can’t stop or so the saying goes.  We better eat it somewhat sparingly as I will not be able to make it again until late autumn.

We have them all stored in the kitchen refrigerator for safe keeping.  There are doubles for when friends turn up, singles for the family, and I even made up a quad pack for a party sometime in the future.

Salami stacked up three high

Salami stacked up three high

Now that I have a large stash of small goods, I better get cracking on the cheese front.  I reckon that Caerphilly and Chorizo would be a wicked combination!

What do you think, have I mastered the skill?

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Filed Under: Preserving Tagged With: Chorizo, Salami

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About Gavin Webber

About Gavin Webber

An Ordinary Australian Man Who Has A Green Epiphany Whilst Watching A Documentary, Gets a Hybrid Car, Plants A Large Organic Vegetable Garden, Goes Totally Solar, Lowers Consumption, Feeds Composts Bins and Worms, Harvests Rainwater, Raises Chickens, Makes Cheese and Soap, and Eats Locally. All In The Effort To Reduce Our Family's Carbon Footprint So We Can Start Making A Difference For Our Children & Future Generations To Come.

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