The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Quinoa risotto with whisky, pollock and mixed vegetables

For this post in Italian click this

Another “Surf & Turf”.
Oh yes baby! Apparently the one I told you about in my previous post wasn’t enough and on top of all that this one is even a fusion experiment.

This is not exactly a Summer recipe but I made this last week when here in Amsterdam it was practically Autumn and I was feeling cold and in need of some warm and earthy comfort food.
I had never used quinoa before besides from boiling it and dressing is with olive oil as a side dish. Since I’m experimenting with cereals - even though quinoa is technically not a cereal - that are not the usual wheat and rice I’m having fun trying recipes with ingredients that are quite new for me.
This “quinotto“, a quinoa risotto that is, is the first result of my experiments.
I can say that I’m quite satisfied with it since it tasted really nice!

The magic touch was given by using for the quinotto not the usual white wine but one of the “turfiest” Scotch whiskies on Earth, Ardbeg Ten Years Old (LUV it!). This divine liquid gives the dish such a wonderful and intense smoky flavour that just smelling it is a pleasure already. A classic Single Malt from Islay, the famous island called “the Queen of the Hebrides” with her fabulous whiskies, a place I definitely long to visit, hopefully very soon… 

Then there’s the porcini stock. You can make it yourselves by simply adding some dried porcini mushrooms to a home-made vegetable stock or you can use, as I did, the organic porcini stock from Vitam, which I find excellent (but I don’t know if it exists outside Holland and Germany…). I’d say dump the standard porcini stock cubes full of glutamate that would ruin the pureness of this dish, better to add some dried to porcini to a simple basic stock.
And of course we have the wonderful texture given by the quinoa that makes everything even more interesting.

The combination between this aromatic quinotto with the sauteed veggies and a humble fish like pollock, all piled up on top of each other thanks to my latest kitchen gadget (a food ring with pusher), is really an exceptional one.
But why should I keep on telling you about something that you’d better try yourselves?
And if you like, pair it with a little Ardbeg Ten Years Old mixed with some chilled water on a stormy winter night while sitting in front of the fireplace with someone special, pretending to be in Scotland. So romantic…

Quinoa risotto with whisky, pollock and mixed vegetables

Serves 2

1 big carrot
1 red onion
4 Spring onions, green parts included
2 small courgettes or 1/2 a big one
200 gr quinoa
vegetable porcini stock
1/2 dl. Ardbeg 10 yrs old Whisky
200 gr. pollock fillets
e.v. olive oil
salt
black pepper
1 dl white wine

Dice the carrot and the onion and keep them separated.
Fry the onion in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until soft, then add the carrot cubes.
Cook the carrot until quite tenderized but still al dente and put aside.

Warm up a few spoons of olive oil in a big enough pan, without onion or anything else. Toast the quinoa in it for one minute while stirring, add some whisky, stir further and let the alcohol evaporate. After that, keep on cooking adding stock and stirring regularly.
Once the quinoa is about half cooked add some of the chopped Spring onions’ green leaves (wash them first and remove the toughest and wilted parts).
Quinoa tends to stay quite al dente. Let it dry well (if it’s too moist it cannot be pressed in shape correctly) and leave it to rest for three minutes off the flame and with the lid on the pan.

In the meantime fry the Spring onions (the white parts with about 3-4 cm stalk) in e.v. olive oil, season them with salt and set aside.

Cook the pollock in the same oil you used for the Spring onions and add the white wine. Let it evaporate and season with salt and black pepper, then break in chunks.

Grate the courgettes in the pan with the carrot and onion mixture and cook for half a minute. Remove from the flame, season with salt and pepper and keep warm.

Place the ring on a hot serving plate a fill it with quinotto by a third. Level well with the pusher and cover with some vegetables (another third).
Level the veggies too and add some fish, pressing well with the pusher. Lift the ring carefully to keep everything in place. I rinsed the ring with hot water between ingredients.
Garnish with two fried Spring onions.

 

Fusion risotto with double butter, leek, Tilsiter cheese and pink peppercorns

I'm not the "light" cooking type and this risotto with double butter and Tilsiter cheese is yet another proof of this - as if one was necessary. ;)
Why double butter? Nothing to do with the traditional "doppio burro" recipe. The name comes from using butter twice: once for starting the risotto and then for sautéeing the leak in another pan before adding it to the risotto once this is cooked. Sautée is the right term since I don't cook the leek through and through but brown it just a bit keeping the rest bright green and slightly al dente.
And why fusion? Because Tilsiter or Tilsit is a Swiss - not an Italian - cheese. One that melts perfectly in the hot risotto and that makes adding any other cheese (parmigiano or grana) completely redundant. I love how it threads once melted.
The pink pepper corns are not just for the color but also for their great pungent and slightly tart taste that contrasts so well the heaviness of the cheese and the sweetness of the leek. Don't cook it together with the risotto as I did, adding it a few minutes before finishing cooking, because it tends to loose its bright color with the heat (see pictures). Just add it, slightly crushed or whole, as a finishing touch.


Risotto al doppio burro con porri, Tilsiter e pepe rosa

Serves 4

Ingredients:   

350 gr. risotto rice (Carnaroli, Arborio etc)
80 gr. butter
1 big leek or 2 smaller ones
2 liters vegetable stock
1/4 glass dry white wine
200 gr. Tilsit cheese, diced
a handful of pink peppercorns

Melt half of the butter in a frying pan and sautée the leek, cut in thick rings, until it's cooked but still nice and firm.
Melt the rest of the butter in a pan on low fire. Add the rice letting it become a bit translucent while stirring continuously for about a minute.

Pour the wine in the pan with the rice and let evaporate the alcohol on a medium-high fire. Keep on stirring until you smell no alcohol anymore.

Add a couple of ladles of stock (the rice has to be covered with stock) and keep on stirring gently until the rice absorbs the stock.

The most important thing to do while preparing risotto is to add stock constantly. As soon as the rice gets a bit drier you have to add some stock. Risotto has to "swim".

Let the rice cook until “al dente”, remove the pan from the fire and add the cooked leek and the diced Tilsit cheese (crust removed). Season further with black pepper if you wish.

Stir everything well to make sure the cheese melts evenly and leave the risotto to rest for 3-4 minutes with the lid on the pan.
Serve garnished with some pink peppercorns.