I like to make risotto. It's a meal that requires 100% of your attention. The ladling of the stock, bit by bit, means that you can't go and do anything else. Ladle, stir, ladle. It's quite zen in a way. Quite a chilled out, half an hour on your own. Anyway, you can pretty much stick anything into a risotto. One of my favourites is beetroot. It turns the rice a lovely purple colour. One of the best things about risotto is the way it totally comes together right at the very end - the addition of parmesan and herbs and a little bit of the stock just to loosen it.
But one of my favourite things, and of relevance to this blog, is the booze finish. A quick slug of spirit and in the closing moments can really transform the dish. For instance, when using fennel a slug of Ricard really works. The other week, whilst making it with the beetroot I realised that I couldn't find any vodka (beetroot and vodka - classic combo obvo!) in the amongst the many half bottles in the store! In a bit of an inspired move I had some Aviation gin on the side. Aviation is an American gin and is rye based but also not particularly juniper dominated like a traditional gin. It worked a treat.
Yesterday, I was using up a butternut squash in the risotto. The squash and onion, were giving it a sweet edge with the parmesan a touch of salt and sage giving it an earthy balance. What I wanted was a touch of smoke. Fortunately there was a bottle of Bowmore Tempest Batch 3 on the side from a tasting a did a couple of weeks ago. A perfect solution - a Laphroiag would have been too pungent - but the Tempest has the smoke balance along with a beautiful citrus orange touch which complemented the dish bang on. Also as it's cask strength it took seconds to burn off and I didn't need to use as much - which means a little bit more to drink!
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