This is a recipe made up of 5 separate stages so is therefore quite a long process but you could do 3 of them beforehand. Unlike most risottos, this recipe is cooked much longer and at a low temperature of 80
oC. The recipe is served with steamed cod but I used prawns and made half quantity of the recipe. I used prosciutto for the jamon and dried cherries for fresh or preserved ones.
The 5 stages are
1) Liquefied peas
2) Creamed peas
3) Cherry port reduction
4) Risotto
5) Steaming the fish
I did think you could make the risotto without the cherry port reduction for the children but really, the risotto on it's own is lacking something until the addition of every component of this recipe. Put together it was really nice and the cherry port reduction is a pivotal addition. In fact I might make some more to serve over ice-cream but that's another story.
A couple of queries if Dani is able to answer them. The liquefied peas are blended for 5 mins/speed 10
Is this right, surely not - a few peas in some liquid only took me 5 seconds to liquefy.
Creamed peas - after making this the recipe says to blitz for 2 mins/100
o/speed 10. I wasn't too sure about using heat to blitz, have never done it before so I left the heat off. The result was quite OK.
Because I used dried cherries and they needed to be reconstituted, I added them at the beginning of the port reduction on reverse to give them time to swell and take on the port flavour. Delicious. Make sure your reduction still has some liquid as this is nice drizzled over the rice as well.
The prawns were a really good accompaniment to this recipe. Once the water had come to the boil, I put some parsley, chives, oregano & sage leaves in the bottom of the steaming basket with the prawns on top and steamed them for just 2 minutes. I had none of the herbs suggested in the book.
I had fun making this recipe but you do need a bit of time for all the different steps.
