Okay so here it is… The first proper attempt.
There have been several experiments in the kitchen over the years and the frequency has increased since I decided to set up my own business. Although the business is really retail, it’s based around cooking and my real passion is home cooking, family meals and healthy kids.
There’s nothing wrong with fish fingers or chicken nuggets, for the adults or the kids, and I certainly haven’t stopped feeding them to my boys! But there can be a balance found between fun and nutritious.
Where possible, our boys eat with us – always for breakfast and lunch and sometimes for dinner. With 3 adults returning home any time between 4pm and 7pm, it’s not always possible for everyone to eat when the kids get hungry, between 4:30pm and 5:30pm!
Mid-week dinners, therefore, tend to be more “chuck and bung” – Chuck something from the freezer onto a piece of Pampered Chef stoneware and Bung into the oven for 20 minutes. The consultant who introduced me to the Pampered Chef also introduced me to the idea of a “jarra dish” – Pampered Chef stone with sides, breast of chicken per person, “jarra” (jar of) sauce! Chicken with a “jarra” korma, or a “jarra” sweet & sour.
However, my favourite mid-week quickie now is a dish I always shied away from before: risotto. It always took so much time – fry the rice, stiry, add the onions, fry again, stir, add the water, stir, boil, stir, add the veg, stir, add the stock, stir, simmer, stir, simmer. Before you know it you’ve been stood at the cooker for 45 minutes and missed all the chat in the other room! I know some people enjoy the process of cooking and I do, too, but when you have a family nipping at your heels or even just people you want to spend time with, it’s nice to be able to “chuck & bung.”
So I’ve been experimenting with “no-babysitting” risotto! It’s been pretty trial and error and my lovely family has had to swallow down a few stodgy risottos before I got it right, but this was accomplished two weeks ago.
Start by measuring out the risotto for however many you’re feeding… The packet usually advises 75g per person, but to be honest, I don’t know who they’re feeding but it’s certainly not my family! Maybe my kids, but not the adults anyway. We are all hale and hearty eaters and probably 110g to 125g is more like a good portion for us – assuming we’re having the risotto on its own! If 75g doesn’t go round everyone for you either, try being prepared with some “tear & share” bread to casually chuck onto each plate before serving, so it bulks it out more.
The next part is the “work” – chop your ingredients. If you want something with a bit of meaty chew, chop up some pre-cooked chicken. If you prefer veggie, chop up a handful of what you like. I almost always have as a bare minimum: onions, peppers, fresh garlic, fresh herbs. For a really bulky veggie version, use LOADS of mushrooms, chopped as fine or chunky as you prefer. I’ve seen me adding tomatoes, courgettes, spring onions, even celery.
Once everything is chopped, you put it all into your dish – I use my Pampered Chef square baker (cranberry glazed for me) for the four adults in our house, but it’s totally filled with this, so any more generous portions or any extra people, I’d upgrade myself to the rectangular baker (unglazed).
Mix it all up and add tinned tomatoes (one tin usually does our four, but this is when there’s loads of veg in it) and some cream (I use Weight Watchers as it’s extremely low fat and low-cal). Finally, add a stock cube (chicken usually, but veg stock if I’m feeding my veggie friend) and boiling water. I add the boiling water slowly so I can “push” all the ingredients down into it – you want the water to cover everything comfortably. Stir it once and push down again.
Bung into a pre-heated oven at 180 celsius for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, I usually remove it from the oven, give it a stir and decide if it needs anything else. Seasoning is completely to taste, but this is usually the stage at which I would add a TINY amount of salt or pepper. If it needs more water, cream or tinned tomatoes, I pop it back in for 10 minutes. If it’s ready… Enjoy!
Note re. ingredients: everything is YOUR choice. The ingredients listed are what’s usually found in my fridge drawer. If you want to use lazy herbs, go for it. If you want to remove the garlic, fine. The onions are really the only veg which I’ve NEVER done without when making risotto because so much of the texture and richness of flavour comes from them and is absorbed into them. If you want to try a different meat, go for it!!!! The preparation of ingredients shouldn’t be a chore or take too long. I usually allow 10-15 minutes from opening the kitchen door to start dinner to closing it again with the dish in the oven. Any longer than that is a waste of precious family time for me!
Just remember: let me know how it works it for you! You don’t need to become a total anorak like me, taking photos of every stage of preparation, but if you can send me a pic of the finished dish, that would be lovely.
Spring is upon us and it’s time to come out of hibernation. Things have been rather hectic for your Pampered Chef consultant. An Open University course, my oldest child starting nursery, my teacher husband trying to get prelims passed… The winter flew past quicker than ever.
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