salsa de chipotle y tomato

This beautiful sauce is made from sweet roasted tomatoes and smoky chillies, and is recipe Number 2 on my seven day count down to Cinco de Mayo.

Chipotle chillies are simply jalepenos that have been smoked and they have a delicious, sweet flavour while still being very spicy.

I love this sauce with lamb cutlets, steak and chicken especially when cooked on a barbecue.

Salsa de Chipotle y Tomato (Roast Tomato & Chipotle Sauce)
Recipe from Mexican by Jane Milton. Serves 6.
Ingredients:
500g tomatoes
5 dried chipotle chillies
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2/3 cup (165ml) red wine
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 tablespoon (60ml) honey
1 teaspoon American mustard
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt, to taste
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place them in a roasting tin.
3. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they are charred and softened.
4. Meanwhile, soak the chillies in a bowl of cold water for about 20 minutes or until soft. Remove the stalks, slit the chillies and scrape out the seeds with a small sharp knife. Chop the flesh roughly.
5. Remove the tomatoes from the oven, let them cool slightly, then remove the skins. If you prefer a smooth sauce remove the seeds too.
6. Put the tomatoes in a blender or food processor. Add the chopped chillies and garlic with the red wine. Process until smooth.
7. Next add the oregano, honey, mustard and black pepper. Process briefly to mix, then taste and season with salt.
8. Scrape the mixture into a small saucepan. Place over a moderate heat and stir until the mixture boils.
9. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has reduced and thickened. Spoon into a bowl and serve hot or cold.
Note: instead of dried chillies, we used canned chipotle en adobo, which are chipotles already soaked and in a thick sauce of their own juices.

tamarind margarita

This margarita is the festive drink to kick off my seven days of Mexicana, all in the lead up to Cinco de Mayo!

The 5th of May, although not Mexico’s national holiday, is the day celebrated around the world as the symbol of Mexican heritage and pride. And this year it also happens to be the 30th birthday of my sister Shamu!!!

So, in honour of my Mexican friends, who have opened my eyes to true Mexican flavours, I have decided to post a week’s worth of Mexican recipes.

On Cinco de Mayo itself, I'll also post an extensive list of Mexican recipes from around the internet.

Real Mexican food is fresh, light and dances in your mouth. Although it may contain them, true Mexican cuisine isn’t bogged down by cheese and sour cream, nor destroyed with an overload of macho chilli. It’s all about balance to heighten the flavour experience.

One such example of sweet, sour and a little kick is the tamarind margarita. The sour pulp of the tamarind fruit is balanced with sugar syrup and bold tequila for the perfect, refreshing cocktail by the pool, seaside or just relaxing in your own backyard.

Tamarind Margarita
Recipe by Robot & Tia Bicky. Makes 2 – 4.
Ingredients:
125ml (½ cup) tequila
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
60ml (¼ cup) sugar syrup
Juice of 2 limes
Ice
Method:
Blend ingredients with ice in a blender until slushy consistency. Serve immediately.

breakfast miso soup

I discovered this healthy breakfast while on holidays in Australia's red heart, visiting Uluru (otherwise known as Ayers Rock).

There are so many tourists from all over the world that the resort offered a breakfast for all cultures. The Japanese station provided hot miso broth and I watched the Japanese girls whisk eggs and vegetables into it, then tried it myself and was very pleased with the results.

So once I came home I replicated it for Jonas, who also became a big fan.

You can have this for breakfast, or even have it as an afternoon or late night snack. It pretty good anytime of day.

Breakfast Miso Soup
Anna's very own recipe. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 stock cube (mushroom, vegetable or beef are best)
1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon shallots, soft green part
1 tablespoon shallots, hard white part
10cm piece wakame
4 teaspoons miso paste
2 teaspoons peanut oil
Sesame oil, for drizzling
Method:
1. Soak wakame in warm water for 5 minutes. Cut into thin strips.
2. Heat peanut oil in saucepan. Fry white shallots and mushrooms until tender but not soft.
3. Add 2½ cups of water and crumble in stock cube.
4. While waiting for water to boil, crack each egg into 2 separate serving bowls. Pass a fork through the egg a few times to break the yolk and white into smaller streaks, but do not beat or whisk.
5. Add 2 teaspoons of miso paste to each bowl.
6. One bowl at a time, strain the boiling stock into the first bowl, quickly stirring the egg as it cooks in the hot water and dissolving the miso. Once the egg and miso has blended through, the soup will have milky colour.
7. Divide the wakame and mushrooms between the bowls and serve.

This week, my Weekend Herb Blogging theme ingredient is wakame.

Wakame (ワカメor undaria pinnatifida) is a sweet, edible seaweed that has been grown for food for hundreds of years in Japan and Korea. It’s leaves are cut into tiny pieces which expand significantly during cooking. It’s best in soups or salads with soya sauce and rice vinegar.

Wakame is said to help burn fatty tissue, purify blood, strengthen digestion and regulate menstruation, not to mention its usefulness as a topical beauty treatment and for aiding skin, hair and reproductive organs.

According to Wikipedia “wakame is a rich source of Eicosapentaenoic acid, an Omega-3 fatty acid. At over 400 mg/100 kcal or almost 1 mg/kJ, it has one of the higher nutrient:calorie ratios, and among the very highest for a vegetarian source. A typical 1-2 tablespoon serving of wakame is roughly 3.75-7.5 kcals and provides 15-30 mgs of Omega-3's. Wakame also has high levels of calcium, iodine, thiamine and niacin.”

Wakame has also been nominated one of the world's worst 100 invasive species and is particularly damaging in Auckland, New Zealand and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Check out the WHB round-up from our host, Janet from Tastespace.

harissa roasted lamb

One evening I came home from work to the mouth-watering aromas of this lovely lamb dinner. After I’d mentioned I was craving meat, Jonas prepared this wonderful roast smothered in spicy, tangy harissa. It’s divine served pink with a Moroccan cucumber salad and a side of yoghurt & herb chickpeas.

Harissa Roasted Lamb
Jonas' very own recipe. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
1kg boneless shoulder roast
3 tablespoons harissa (see below)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Method:
1. Cover lamb roast in harissa. Refrigerate for a few hours to absorb flavours.
2. Preheat oven to 160’C.
3. Roast for around 40 – 60 minutes until an inserted knife produces clear juices.

Harissa (North African chilli paste)
Anna’s very own recipe. Makes 1 medium jar.
Ingredients:
2 small capsicums, char-grilled, skin & seeds removed
5 large red chillies, seeds removed & chopped
5 large red chillies, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, dry-roasted & then ground
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, dry-roasted & then ground
3 teaspoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method:
1. Purée all ingredients in a blender.
2. Pour into a jar and top with a little olive oil to seal. Keep in fridge.

middle eastern orange cake

I ate my first slice of this cake in 1996 and I couldn't believe my whole life had gone by without it.

The sticky-sweet-bitter orange flavour combined with the richness of almond meal is just too good to be true. I have fond memories of my mother and I devouring slice after slice at an ice cream parlour near her work.

It’s a commonly served cake in Sydney cafés and usually comes with a dollop of whipped cream, but I prefer it alongside thick, creamy, sour yoghurt to cut through the stickiness of the cake.

When I made this for my dad and stepmum (and Jonas!) for Easter Sunday lunch, I served it with King Island Dairy’s cinnamon and honey yoghurt, but sheep's milk yoghurt would also be excellent. You could also use frozen yoghurt or natural Greek-style yoghurt sweetened (only slightly) with honey.

This recipe, by Middle Eastern expert Claudia Roden (via Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion), is the pretty much the original version.

What has always put me off making it was that you had to boil the oranges for hours to prepare them. But, when the lovely Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella posted it on her blog, one very clever cookie (Julie from Cookbook Addict) pointed out that these days all you need is a microwave and 8 minutes!

How wonderful!

Now preparing this cake consists of zapping some oranges, cracking some eggs and whizzing everything in a blender. It’s absolutely delicious and so easy to make I’d bet $100 that a chimp could do it. (Any zoologists willing to test this theory out?)

 

Middle Eastern Orange Cake
 
Recipe by Claudia Roden (via Stephanie, with help from Julie). Serves 8-10.
 
Ingredients:
2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten
250g ground almonds
250g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
Yoghurt or cream, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC/170ºc fan forced. Grease and line the base and sides of a springform tin with baking paper.

2. Pierce the orange skins with a fork, microwave in a closed container on high for about 8 minutes, turning them around after a few minutes.

3. Cut oranges open, remove pips and chop roughly or pull apart into smaller pieces with fingers.

4. Blend oranges and remaining ingredients thoroughly in a food processor.

5. Pour batter into prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour. If cake is still very wet, cook a little longer.

6. Cool in tin before gently removing. Dust with icing sugar and serve with yoghurt.


This cake is unusual, because it uses whole oranges, my theme ingredients for Weekend Herb Blogging.

Wikipedia has a fascinating paragraph on the origin of the English word orange, a long journey through land and time:
“The word orange is derived from Sanskrit नारङ्ग nāraṅgaḥ "orange tree." The Sanskrit word is in turn lent itself as the Dravidian root for 'fragrant'. In Tamil, a bitter orange is known as ணரன்டம் 'Narandam', a sweet orange is called நகருகம் 'nagarugam' and நாரி 'naari' means fragrance. In Telugu the orange is called నరిఙ 'naringa'. The Sanskrit word was borrowed into European languages through Persian نارنگ nārang, Armenian նարինջ nārinj, Arabic نارنج nāranj, Late Latin arangia, Spanish naranja, Portuguese laranja, Italian arancia and Old French orenge, in chronological order. The first appearance in English dates from the 14th century. The name of the colour is derived from the fruit, first appearing in this sense in 1542.”

This week's WHB host is Katie from Eat This! Check out her round-up.

And check out what else can be made with this same cake recipe: Orange Cakes w Figs, Quince & Rose

anna in chocolate wonderland

Happy Easter everyone!

In countries where Easter wins you some days off work, this is the time for gorging on chocolate and catching up with the family.

Well, I have stumbled upon a chocolate goldmine! Lindt asked me to join an exclusive group of food bloggers as part of the Lindt Lovers Program.

I do like Lindt chocolate.
OK, so I love it.

Intense Pear, Intense Orange and Intense Mint are my chocolate bars of choice and in most recipes I cook with Lindt 70%.

So when I was asked to be part of this group, I was thrilled and said that it won’t be hard to convince me to love Lindt chocolate!

To kick off the program, the Lindt Lover bloggers were gathered in Sydney for some chocolate tasting and a Gold Class viewing of Tim Burton’s new film, Alice in Wonderland.

It was a great chance to meet the other bloggers as well as Lindt’s Swiss-born Master Chocolatier, Thomas Schnetzler.

Thomas seems to have such a patient, gentle manner which is probably a good thing when you regularly need to temper chocolate. But he’s also very generous with his knowledge and enthusiasm for chocolate and desserts.

New on Lindt’s Australian menu (and the favourite for almost everyone) was the “Touch of Sea Salt”, a flat, shiny 100g block of dark chocolate flecked with crunchy crystals of mouth-watering salt. The combination between the bitter-sweet chocolate and salt is just amazing and should be illegal it’s so addictive.

One chocolate fiend was so enamoured she offered me three blocks of dark chocolate for my one salt block, but being equally won-over I declined the offer. Jonas was pleased with this decision when he popped a square of salty chocolate into his mouth and swooned.

The event was great. There was some hobnobbing, some chocolate tasting, sparkling wine drinking and then a cosy Gold Class cinema chair to watch the movie (which I loved – very dark and quirky). I was surprised when halfway through the film attendants delivered enough food to count as my dinner and dessert.

Then after the film the Lindt team gave us two Lindt gift bags with delicious chocolaty treats and Thomas had prepared an egg for every blogger with our names elegantly pipped in white chocolate.


I went home overloaded with kilos of gorgeous chocolate and a goofy, chocolate-smeared smile on my face.

Too good to be true!!! Can’t wait for the next Lindt Lover event . . . . and another block of that sea salt chocolate.

povidlyanka - ukrainian semolina pudding

Povidlyanka (Повидлянка) is an ultra-sweet Ukrainian pudding that's a quick and simple dish to make on a cold evening.

I prefer the flavour of sour cherry jam, but you could use any preserve you like (blackberry, apricot or fig would also be delicious).

Povidlyanka (Повидлянка)
Based on a recipe from www.RussianFoods.com. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
150g cherry jam
100g semolina
10g rum or Madeira
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease ramekin with plenty of butter.
2. Beat egg.
3. Whisk in jam and rum.
4. Fold in semolina and all but a few almond flakes.
5. Pour into greased ramekin, sprinkle top with sugar.
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining flaked almonds on top.

gỏi mực bắp chuối (banana blossom & squid salad)

This recipe was part of a big Vietnamese feast I made in 2009.

I cooked up a storm using a beautiful cookbook by a Vietnamese- Australian family who run some very famous restaurants in Sydney.

Their food in the restaurants is fresh and exquisite, the flavours actually dancing on your tongue, and their cookbook truly helps you relive those memories at home.

This recipe is a combination of two separate recipes, but I wanted to combine squid and banana blossom so this was the result: tangy, spicy and fresh.

Gỏi Mực Bắp Chuối (Vietnamese Banana Blossom & Squid Salad)
Combination of two recipes from Secrets of The Red Lantern.
Serves 2 as main or 6 as part of banquet.
Ingredients:
1 calamari tube, sliced into strips
Juice of 2 limes
1 banana blossom
1 small handful Vietnamese mint, roughly chopped
1 small handful coriander, roughly chopped
1 spring onion (scallion), finely sliced
2-3 tablespoons Nước Mắm Chấm (dipping fish sauce)
1 tablespoon roasted peanuts, chopped
2 tablespoons deep fried shallots
1 birds eye chilli, finely sliced
White vinegar, for soaking
Method:
1. In a small bowl, add the squid strips to the lime and allow to marinate for 1 hour.
2. Fill a bowl with water and add 2-3 tablespoons of cheap white vinegar. This water will prevent the banana blossom from oxidising and turning dark brown.
3. Remove the dark, tough outer leaves of the banana blossom to reveal tender white leaves inside. Quickly slice, then immediately immerse in the acidulated water to prevent oxidisation.
4. Cook the squid over a very hot griddle until tender (2-5 minutes).
5. Combine the squid, banana blossom, Vietnamese mint, coriander, scallion, nước mắm chấm, chilli and roasted peanuts. Toss salad well.
6. Top with deep fried shallots and serve immediately.

The banana blossom is the gorgeous, crimson, tapered bud at the end of a cluster of bananas.

The petals (or bracts) are tightly wrapped and purple-red, concealing rows of frilly male flowers and a pale, tender heart that is eaten as a vegetable. It can be boiled or stewed, often in coconut milk, or it’s served thinly sliced into salads.

The blossom is slightly astringent, like banana peels, so when raw it’s best served thinly sliced and in spicy-sweet-sour sauces, such as this recipe.

The red bracts are so pretty cleaned and used to serve the final dish.

The banana blossom is my Weekend Herb Blogging ingredient, this week hosted by Graziana from Erbe in Cucina. Be sure to visit her blog to read the round-up.

Other recipes from the internet:
Banana Blossom Curry
Banana Blossom Salad w Chicken & Asian Pears
Banana Flower Vadai (patties)
Filipino-Style Banana Blossoms in Coconut Milk
Banana Heart Salad
Banana Blossom Stir Fry
Prawn & Banana Blossom Salad
Spicy Banana Blossoms

irish soda bread

It’s St Patrick’s Day, so I have to honour my Irish pals (especially M.E.) with an Irish recipe.

Can you believe more than 10% of Australians have Irish ancestry, and in New Zealand that figure doubles to 20%! Those Irish sure got around!

Jonas made this bread last night and it was superb. The outside was crunchy and almost sweet while the interior was dense and crumbly and simply wonderful.

It was the first time I have ever swooned over bread.

On this St Patricks Day I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a special lunch by some Irish government contacts (and at one of Sydney’s finest restaurants no less).

So Happy St Paddy’s Day to all the Irish out there! There may be only 4 million of you in Ireland but there's millions and millions more around the world.

Irish Soda Bread
Based on a recipe from allrecipes.com. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
2 cups (250g) plain flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
65g margarine, softened
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter, for brushing
40ml extra buttermilk, for brushing
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190'C. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine.
3. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and the egg.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet.
5. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 40ml buttermilk then brush loaf with this mixture.
6. Use a sharp knife to cut an cross into the top of the loaf.
7. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

taste of sydney festival

The Taste of Sydney took place in Centennial Park from 11-14 March this year and was designed as a showcase of Sydney restaurants and food/wine distributers.

I was lucky enough to get two tickets from the organisers for free entry (usually $30pp), so I dragged Jonas along and set out to see what new and exciting products are around.

Poor Jonas was a real trooper. Not only was it a hot day (which makes him grumpy at the best of times) but he was actually suffering from concussion after being hit on the head with a rolling pin on Friday night. No, this was not the result of a domestic dispute and nor was he taking part in a French slapstick comedy. The poor boy was at work when a huge metal rolling pin (that one of the chefs cleverly decided to store on the top shelf of the staff locker!) came crashing down on his skull.

My little sister, Stinky, also joined us which pepped up the mood from Mr Concussion (yes, I’m a harsh mistress on my poor injured Swede).

The stalls were full of interesting products and sample dishes. I was keen on the cocktails and spotted some interesting and tasty liqueurs.

Domaine de Canton was a popular colonial drink in French-ruled Vietnam and is made from cognac, ginger, vanilla beans, honey and ginseng. It had the strong fiery taste of ginger and would make a great thirst-quencher with soda and ice.

I tried it mixed with into a luscious and refreshing Indochine Caipirinha ($10) while Amy did a Pomegranate Caipirinha ($10) based on PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur, which was an alcohol with an unpleasant medicinal aroma but a good, tart and uniquely pomegranate flavour. The pomegranate caipirinha was sweet and definitely tasty too.

I tried another delicious beverage: Le Pere Jules Poire ($6), a French pear cider from Le Pays d'Auge in Normandy. It was moreish and sweet-dry, with a strong pear flavour. I wish I could get my hands on a case!

With his concussion, Jonas couldn’t drink anything so he bought a tasting pack from Otway Estate so when he recovers he can trial six of the microbrewery’s products including a stout, pilsner, wheat beer and a couple of ales.

It was also really great to see all the chefs at their restaurant’s stalls, talking happily to the hungry hoards. I spotted Matt Moran (Aria), Mark Best (Marque), Guillaume Brahimi (Guillaume at Bennelong), Armando Percuoco (Buon Ricordo)and Matthew Kemp (Balzac). And I hear Jamie Oliver was showing up later in the evening for an exclusive dinner event.

Each restaurant tent produced interesting dishes and I managed to try two:

Yellow-fin tuna with sweet pork crackling and ruby grapefruit from Flying Fish ($10)

Fagottini di Carne (home-made sausage) with parmesan and truffle egg from Buon Ricordo ($10)

Unfortunately there were a couple of other dishes I wanted to try but just didn’t have the $$:
- Alba White Truffle Popcorn from Jonah’s at Whale Beach ($8)
- Beef ribs smoked in watermelon with watermelon and avocado salsa from Danks Street Depot ($12)
- Sydney rock oysters with Vietnamese dressing, crispy shallot and baby coriander from Assiette ($10)
- Strawberry Jelly w Champagne Foam from Aria ($8)

My three most interesting discoveries of the day were:

Gorgeous retro Smeg dishwashers and fridges in vibrant kitsch colours. Now all I need is a home to renovate and install them into!

Sexy Cat, a lurid pink marshmallow liqueur. Unfortunately they weren’t giving out free samples so I didn’t try it, but it looked and sounded wonderful.

Diamond Salt which is supposedly fossil sea salt crystals from Himalayan Khewra, an area of the Pakistani Kashmir. These pretty pink crystals come with a grater to season your food.

It was a lovely day, with wonderful weather, and I forgot how pretty Centennial Park was.

I was glad I got the tickets for free entry, since it would have been a very expensive day otherwise. Instead I had a lot of fun and we spent about $30 per person on food and drinks.

caipirinha: two ways

Here are two delicious cocktails Stinky and I enjoyed while visiting the Sagabita Cachaça tent at the Taste of Sydney festival.

Indochine Caipirinha

Recipe from ThinkSpirits.com flyer. Makes 1.

Ingredients:
45ml Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
15ml Sagabita Pura Cachaça
10ml sugar syrup
3 lime wedges
3 kaffir lime leaves

Method:
1. Squeeze limes into a Boston shaker.
2. Add kaffir leaves and sugar then muddle.
3. Add Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, Sagabita Pura Cachaça and ice.
4. Shake and pour into an Old Fashioned glass.

Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur was a popular colonial drink in French-ruled Vietnam and is made from cognac, ginger, vanilla beans, honey and ginseng. It has the strong fiery taste of ginger.

Pomegranate Caipirinha

Recipe from www.pamaliqueur.com.au. Makes 1.

Ingredients:
15ml PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur
15ml Sagabita Pura Cachaça
22.5ml Simple Syrup
4 lime wedges

Method:
1. Muddle limes and simple syrup thoroughly.
2. Add Sagtiba Pura Caçhaca, PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur and ice.
3. Shake vigorously. Pour entire contents, including ice, into a rocks glass.
4. Garnish with a lime wedge and pomegranate seeds.

PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur has a slightly unpleasant medicinal aroma but a lovely, tart and uniquely pomegranate taste.

sage, apple & gorgonzola risotto

Ten years ago, in a room decorated with images of Winnie the Pooh (don’t ask!) my husband and I shared our very first kiss. Three years ago on this same day, we were married.

Love isn’t easy. There are a lot of things we have to suffer through.

He puts up with my insatiable curiosity, my requests for him to fetch me things and my tendency to tell complicated, exaggerated stories. Repeatedly.

I have to put up with his forgetfulness regarding domestic responsibilities, his fondness for all things XBOX and the fact that he’s a vegetarian. (Sorry veggo friends, but it’s tough to love a veggo).

But one thing we both share is a love of food and wine, and for Valentine’s Day we cooked this vegetarian risotto from a Jamie Oliver cookbook that my little sister, Stinky, gave us for our wedding gift.

Jonas has a bit of a man-crush on Jamie Oliver, and frankly I think he could do a lot worse.
In fact, for the record my Dad also has a man-crush on Jamie.

So when Stinky, who had spent some time waitressing at Fifteen when she lived in London, gave us this cookbook for our wedding gift, both Jonas and Dad were giddy as school girls when they opened it up and saw Jamie's own words scrawled across the pages.

It’s a nice full circle, to get a special little token from family, on a subject we both adore and from a chef we both admire for his imagination and yet simplicity.

So who was better placed to “cook” our Valentine’s Day dinner than Jamie?

As Jamie described in his book, this risotto is almost like a Waldorf Salad. The apple is fresh and sweet against the strong cheese and the walnuts provide perfect roasted crunchy texture. And while Jamie uses marjoram in his recipe, I switch to fragrant, sweet sage to combat the spiciness of the gorgonzola.

Sage, Apple & Gorgonzola Risotto

Anna’s adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s recipe. Serves 8.

Ingredients:
1 knob of butter, for frying
2 tablespoons olive oil, for frying
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g/14oz risotto rice
2 wineglasses of dry white wine
700ml/1¼ pints hot vegetable or chicken stock
100g/3½oz butter
1–2 small handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus a block for grating
200g/7oz gorgonzola cheese, diced
2 crunchy eating apples, cored, halved, and finely chopped, tossed in lemon juice
a small bunch of fresh sage, leaves picked and chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a handful of walnuts
extra virgin olive oil

Method:
1. Heat the stock.

2. In a separate pan heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions and garlic, and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring.

3. When the onions have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat. The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent.

4. Add the wine and keep stirring — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence.

5. Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt.

6. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes.

7. Taste the rice — is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.

8. Turn off the heat, beat in your butter, Parmesan, gorgonzola, chopped apple and sage. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

9. Put a lid on the pan and leave the risotto to rest for a minute so the cheese can really ooze into it.

10. While you’re waiting, gently heat the walnuts in a pan. Then either take the risotto to the table and let everyone help themselves, or divide it between individual serving plates. Put a block of Parmesan on the table for grating over. Sprinkle with the walnuts and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil before tucking in.

Note: Jamie used marjoram instead of sage.