Risotto verde

Here are some photos of a recent dish done for work, it is a light and summery risotto made with baby asparagus, sugar snaps, peas, spring onions, tossed with a bit of pesto and topped with parmesan shavings.




To get the risotto green its best to make a white wine and cream reduction with spinach blended in for the colour, then save this for finishing the risotto, blanche all the vegetables so there al dente then chill, make up the risotto with white wine and veg stock, when it is al dente add the whitewine/cream/spinach reduction.
Add the vegetables last, cook whilst constantly stirring to make sure it doesn't stick for a couple of minutes, then serve in a deep bowl with some shavings of parmesan, and a sprinkle of fresh herbs, here it is mixed with a bit of pesto and dressed with a bit of olive oil, but a nice herb oil (basil, thyme,chive) or truffle oil would work well.

Confit of Belly pork with mash, braised cabbage, crackling and red wine jus

Heres a favourite of mine, slow cooked belly pork.

After stripping down the belly of excess fat carefully 'butterfly' the belly to double its surface area, rub it all in chinese spice, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and dried chilli, add some fresh herbs then roll tightly and tie.
Add it to a large tin filled with seasoned oil (1/4 olive 3/4 veg), cover in tin foil then place in the oven for 4 hours at 140 degrees.



The black pudding puree is made by pan frying some black pudding slices, blending them down with butter, red wine, a dash of cream and seasoning.

The braised cabbage is finely diced and added to a hot pan with a knob of butter, as it starts to soften and break down, add a cup of red wine and cook until soft.

For the crackling, I take it off the pork belly (ask for it with the belly from the butcher), rub it in oil and seasoning then place it between two racks to stop it warping, place in an oven for an hour or so on low, the idea with crackling is to dry it out more than cook it, so its best done slowly until all the fat is rendered out of it without burning the now dessicated skin else you will end up with either underdone chewy crackling, or with it burnt with an acrid taste.

The red wine jus is made by reducing 1/2 a bottle of wine by 2/3's with a dollop of redcurrant jelly and a handful of sugar.

Once the pork is cooked its best to let it cool for an hour then wrap tightly in clingfilm so it chills in a nice circular shape, afterwards slice and re heat in a pan or in the oven.