LEEK, TOMATO AND TENDER GREENS RISOTTO RECIPE

The clocks have gone forward one hour, its officially spring! Sunshine, blossoms on the trees and seedlings potted and germinating on the windowsill. Today we took the opportunity to start preparing the gardens, turning the soil, raking the dead leaves and fertilising the soil (organically of course). 


We actually wanted to clear out the beds and there were a few stoic leek, broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprout plants that had survived the winter and were sprouting tender greens, quite enough to eat for dinner so what to make?

Leek, tomato and Tender greens risotto.

The tomato and an onion were not from the garden, but we had them in the fridge and they made perfect additions to our risotto. 

Ingredients

2 tomatoes, diced

1 onion, diced

1 leek, chopped

A couple of handfuls of greens, roughly chopped

1 cup aborio rice

1 tbsp cream cheese (could use cream or yoghurt)

2 cups stock

2 tbsp tomato juice or 1 tbsp paste
Splash of white wine
Grated parmesan 
Salt and pepper 

Method

1. Fry onions and leeks in butter and oil until translucent and soft
2. Add rice and fry for a minute with onions 
3. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, and enough wine and stock to just cover rice
4. Simmer for 12 minutes topping up with stock whenever it get too thick 
5. Throw in tender green and simmer for another 3-5 minutes until rice is cooked
6. Just before serving add cream cheese, small knob of butter and parmesan cheese 
7. Season to taste. Drizzle with olive oil to serve. 

Pull the nice leaves and shoots off the tender greens, we used the broccoli flowers as well, they have a lovely purple colour which contrasts well with the greens and generally looks nice in your risotto.

Clean them gently then set aside.  You don’t want to put the leafy greens in until right near the end to retain their freshness, taste and colour. 

Dice the onion, chop the leek. Soften them in butter over a gentle heat until they go translucent. You don’t want them to brown, just soften. This makes a good base for any kind of risotto or sauce.

Add the rice so it soaks up some of the butter and oil. After a minute or so add the tomatoes and simmer for a minute

Add the tomato juice and stock to just cover the rice. If you have white wine a generous splash of that too. We used some tomato juice which we had left over, you could use tomato paste as well, to give it a bit of colour and more tomatoe-iness.

The rice should take about 12-15 minutes to cook usually. Add more stock whenever it reduces down and gets too sticky. Add the roughly chopped tender greens about 2 or 3 minutes before its ready. 

This was entirely improvisational but we put some Philadelphia cream cheese in at the end.  The cream goes well with the greens and makes the risotto thicker and creamier. You could use cream or plain yoghurt as well. 

Turn off the heat and stir in a handful of grated Parmesan, and season well. Taste and make sure everything’s coming together.

Finally add a small knob of butter to give it glossiness.

Serve and garnish with more parmesan and left over greens.

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AFGHAN SWEET PUMPKIN CURRY WITH GARLIC YOGHURT (BORANI KADU / KADU BOURANEE)

Some time ago I was taken for a quick bite to eat in Angel, North London at the tiny gem that is the Afghan kitchen. Despite its limited menu and even more limited elbow room I enjoyed this cheap and cheerful fare immensely. One dish however really made an impact on me; the Afghan spiced Pumpkin with yoghurt (Borani Kadu). The pumpkin was perfectly cooked with a sweet, slightly spicy tomato sauce and served on a bed of tangy garlic yoghurt. YUM! I recently bought a lovely organic pumpkin from the farmers market, and was a bit bored of making soup so I decided to branch out a little and recreate the Afghan dish. I did a bit of searching and came across this rather interesting set of Afghan recipes including one for "Kadu Bouranee". Different english spelling but essentially the same. I adapted it slightly for my own use (in particular using the oven instead of the stove top) and adding a hint of cayenne to give it more bite. But here is my adapted version, it was dead easy to make and I thought it turned out really well.

Ingredients:

For the Pumpkin

• 1 medium pumpkin or squash (1kg or approx 2lb)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil for frying
• Salt / pepper for seasoning

Sweet Tomato Sauce

• 4 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 tins chopped tomatoes (400g)
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup of Sugar
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, chopped fine / grated
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground coriander Seeds
• 1/4 tea spoon Black pepper
• 1/4 tea spoon Cayenne pepper (Optional)

Yogurt Sauce

• 1 tea spoon Crushed garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon Salt
• 1 cup Plain yogurt
• Garnish: Fresh mint leaves / Dry mint crushed

Directions:

Preheat your oven to medium heat (180 degrees / Gas mark 4). Peel the pumpkin and cut into 4cm (1 1/2") thick wedges. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Season each wedge with salt and pepper and fry the pumpkins on both sides for a couple of minutes until lightly browned. Arrange in a roasting pan and set aside.

Fry off garlic and ginger in the pan for 30 seconds then add the tomatos, water, coriander seeds, salt and sugar and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the pumkin pieces and cook in a medium oven for 30 minutes or until sauce has reduced and pumpkin is cooked and slightly soft.

Mix together the ingredients for the yogurt sauce.

To serve:

Spread yoghurt sauce and some of the reduced tomato sauce in yin & yang style dollops on the plate. Lay two or three slices of the pumpkin on top. Drizzle with some of remaining yogurt if desired and garnish with chopped and whole leaves of Mint.

Lovely served with basmati rice and a naan or pita bread.

Lovely!

Final comments :

Tomato Sauce

• Don’t be too worried about quantities / measurement - its the flavour combo that works. Make a garlicy / sweet / coriander seed tomato sauce that you like the flavour of then bake the pumpkin in it. Don’t be shy with the salt and sugar :)
• Make sure you properly grind up the coriander seeds (I crushed with knife - and kept getting them stuck in my teeth while eating)
• Don’t worry if the coriander seeds taste over powering - the yoghurt is there to balance it out!

Pumpkin:

• I seasoned mine with salt and pepper before frying
• Can add some cayenne pepper as well for some bite - or keep it mild.
• When frying pumpkin - use really hot pan and try and get some colour (edges a tiny bit burnt) - really looks good when coming out of the oven after a good simmer
• I baked mine in an oven as stove top was cooking them unevenly.

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