Even if you think you don’t like broccoli, or blue cheese, this is worth a try. It’s great on its own, or if you’re trying to impress, it would make an excellent companion to a nice rare steak. The flavour is quite intense, though, so if you’re going to serve it as an accompaniment make sure you have a nice simple centerpiece (like a steak – I love steak) to your meal.
Ingredients:
150g Arborio risotto rice (don’t use regular rice, it will be a disaster!)
1 head of broccoli
50g good quality blue cheese, like Blue Vinney, Devon Blue or Stilton – anything creamy and flavoursome.
½ an onion, very finely diced
½ glass white wine
about 1 ½ pints good vegetable or chicken stock
knob of butter
1 egg yolk
toasted pine nuts, to garnish
1. Cut the broccoli into florets and blanch them and the stems in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Reserve a couple of florets and put all the rest of the broccoli (whilst still hot!) into a food processor with the cheese. Blend until you have a stiff paste. Set this aside to cool.
2. Heat the stock to a gentle simmer in a saucepan. In a deep frying pan on an adjacent burner, sauté the onions in the butter until translucent. Add the rice and stir until well coated with fat. Turn the heat up a notch.
3. Add the wine to the frying pan and stir until absorbed. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
4. Transfer one ladleful of stock from the saucepan to the frying pan. Stir until absorbed.
5. Repeat step 4.
6. Repeat step 4 again.
7. Repeat step 4. You get the gist. Add the stock in small quantities, stirring all the while, and only adding more when the previous ladleful has been absorbed. This process helps the rice grains to break down and release their starch, which will give the finished risotto a lovely velvety texture. If you add too much water at once, especially near the beginning of the cooking process, what you end up with is soggy, waterlogged rice in a thin gruel, which is not at all pleasant. Once you’ve repeated step 4 about eight times you can begin adding slightly more liquid each time, but be careful not to overdose the rice!
8. After about half an hour, the rice will be soft and fluffy, and the remaining liquid in the frying pan (of which there should be very little!) will be a creamy colour and consistency. Note that you may not have used all the stock by this point. Turn off the heat and mix in the broccoli-and-cheese paste you made earlier, along with the egg yolk and the reserved florets. The residual heat of the pan will slightly cook these.
9. Decant into bowls, and serve with a scattering of toasted pine nuts on the top.
