June 21 – Veg Dish – Baked Risotto

I have always fried my risotto in a pan but I have seen recipes that you can bake it in the oven and wondered how does it cook because you are meant to be stirring it all the time!

From my BBC Good Food May’s magazine issue, there was a recipe called ‘Baked tomatoes, mozzarella and basil risotto’ which I thought would be good to try out for our June’s veggie dish. I added some mushrooms and courgettes into the dish as it felt strange just having it with only tomatoes!

I was really surprised with how simple the method was as I wasn’t sure how the risotto was going to cook but it cooks in the stock and it was a bonus that it didn’t take long to cook! It was very delicious and the texture was great! The texture was soft but you have the crunchy bit from the breadcrumbs! I would definitely make this again! There was enough made for left overs for the next day!

Ingredients: 2 x tbsp olive oil, 1 x onion finely chopped, 300g arborio rice, 850ml vegetable stock, 100g cherry tomatoes halved, chopped up mushrooms and courgettes, handful of basil leaves chopped and save some to serve, 25g parmesan cheese grated, 150g ball mozzarella, torn into small chunks, and 25g Panko breadcrumbs (any will do).

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to GM6. Heat half of the oil in in a casserole dish, then cook the onions for 8 – 10 mins until golden. Add the mushrooms and courgettes and fry for a few minutes. Scatter the rice and mix well until coated and pour the hot vegetable stock and give a quick stir. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
2. Remove from the oven and stir the tomatoes, basil and half the parmesan and season everything. Flatten everything with a back of spoon and then add the mozzarella evenly into the risotto. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and remaining parmesan and drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil. Put the dish back into the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked through. If you want a more deeper crust, then you can grill it for a few minutes. Mine, was just fine from the oven and then scatter some basil leaves on top and serve!

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White Chocolate Blondies

Making ‘Blondies’ have been on my list to make as I wanted to bake a sweet treat for our picnics. We have been lucky recently as the weather has been quite warm for us so I wanted to make something that wouldn’t melt easily!

I would describe ‘Blondies’ like a cake/brownie! The texture is thicker than a brownie like a cake and inside is still soft which is like a brownie! You have to try out the recipe to see what I mean! So, what’s the difference between a blondie and brownie then? Blondie is made without chocolate being the main ingredient. Brownies are made with chocolate or cocoa powder. The typical blondie is made with white chocolate chips but you can add other ingredients such as nuts, dried fruits or milk/dark chocolate chips etc or simply have it plain!

This recipe was really simple, I think it took longer to measure out all the the ingredients than to actually make it! This recipe was from Deliciously Sprinkled blog and the instructions are very clear, I love it with pictures as well. I had to convert some of the measurements for the ingredients as she used ‘Cups’ as I normally weigh my ingredients in ‘Grams’. Please find below the converted version for your reference and I have tweaked the sugar intake as it is pretty sweet already with the white chocolate chips!

Ingredients: 280g plain flour, 1 x tsp of bicarbonate of soda, half tsp of salt, 170g soft butter, 80g granulated sugar, 80g light brown sugar, 1 x tbsp vanilla extract, 2 x eggs and 200g white chocolate chips.

Method:

1. Preheat over to GM 4 and line your square baking tin with baking paper. Whisk the dry ingredients – flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the eggs one by one and mix altogether in your mixer.
3. Add the flour until the mixture is just combined. Don’t over mix it because the texture would be heavy. Stir your chocolate chips or any other flavourings.
4. Press into your tin and spread evenly. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until it looks golden at the top. The texture should be abit hard at the top and slightly gooey inside. Then, leave to cool in the tin and slice it up and enjoy!

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