Butternut Squash Risotto

[poliphilo]

I'm territorial about my kitchen. Ourdert came round yesterday evening threatening to make tea, but I faced her down and continued with the recipe I'd planned- a butternut squash risotto. I'm cooking a lot of real recipes from real cookbooks these days . This one was out of the BBC's GoodFood mag. It was lovely.

I don't believe I've cooked with butternut squash before. As far as the taste goes it might as well be swede, but the texture is something else- really smooth and melting.

Comments

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

butternut squash is delicious - I tend to use it in curry, the sweetness balances out the spice of the curry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think- now I know how to cook it and what to expect- I'll be buying it again.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

I make a lovely curried squash soup, with lots of garlic and a little orange juice. And we used to make these tasty butternut squash ravioli, using baked squash, fried onion and garlic wrapped in a wonton wrapper and fried in butter or boiled.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Those both sound delicious.

[sculptruth.livejournal.com]

Oh I love butternut squash risotto! How did it come out? It's just perfectly suited for risotto with that texture.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was really good.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I love butternut squash. To me it doesnot taste at all like swede (turnips?). Squash is sweet, while turnip has a bit of a bite to it, at least that is how I taste them.
Would you be willing to post the recipe for butternut squash risotto?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah, swede is quite different from turnip. Turnip is indeed bitter, but swede- a yellow root vegetable- has a mellow, sweetish taste- a lot like squash in fact.

Here's the recipe.

1lb butternut squash
3 1/2 pints stock
4 dried porcini mushrooms
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
6 sage leaves
2 thyme sprigs
12 oz carnoli or arborio rice
3 1/2 fl oz dry white wine
2 oz grated parmesan
2tbsp marscapone

1. Halve the squash lenghtways, remove seeds, peel and cut into small pieces. Heat stock in pan with mushrooms and simmer.
2. Heat some oil in pan. Fry onion, garlic, sage and thyme for 10 minutes, tip in rice, cook 4 minutes, stirring all the time, add wine.
3. Add stock to pan gradually, allowing each ladlefull to soak in before adding the next, keep stirring. This should talke 20-25 minutes.
4. Take pan off the heat. Add half the parmesan and all the marscapone. Allow to stand for 3-4 minutes, then serve.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Sounds wonderful. I'll give it a try after I food shop- I need to buy some butternut squash and also the right kind of rice.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think the variety of rice matters all that much. I think it would have tasted as good with basmati- or any other kind.

[ryanstrong.livejournal.com]

It would probably taste slightly better, but it would take about twice as long to cook, and you'd probably have to cover it for the last 10-15 minutes. Also, the texture wouldn't be quite as good. I do it all the time, because I generally have basmati or a medium-grain brown rice on hand at any given time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good point. It was sufficiently labour intensive using arborio. It didn't do my arthritis any good having to stand for that long in front of the hob. Adding another 15 minutes to the cooking time would have been a killer.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I helped a friend's friend move into his new house (I'm good at unpacking), and he gave me some really good olive oil from his stash as a gift.

It's from Spain, from an estate.

He's even got special olive-oil-tasting jars, and is in a club. An olive oil club.

I don't know what to do with the stuff. It tastes a little like apricots.

Maybe I'll make your recipe! Wow--"porcini mushrooms"--are they in little cans?

I bet not.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Olive oil? You just cook with it. A really good olive oil will make anything taste that little bit better.

Alternatively you can mix it with vinegar to make a simple salad dressing.

In my experience porcini mushrooms come dried- in packets.

[craftyailz.livejournal.com]

Ourdert did explain that to her it is wrong for us to be doing things for her. To show her love she should cook, clean etc. for us. She just hates to see you working - you need to turn it round and ask her to look after me or something. ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I know. I'm just not ready to be the revered village elder. Besides which I'm enjoying my cooking.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Kate and I planted tons of squash, yellow crookneck squash, and now we will have to cook it. The only way I know is to cut it up and sautee it with chopped onions in butter. As I recall, it was a desperation vegetable, like brussels sprouts. But your risotto sounds exotic and delicious, partly because I am uncertain what a risotto is and it sounds difficult and European.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Risotto is just a dish made with rice. The recipe I posted above (in the comments) is a little labour intensive, but not otherwise difficult.

Ailz and I eat a lot of rice.