It actually feels like winter in here right now. That lovely winter time feeling where you rug up in comfy knitted clothes and the warm lighting inside the house contrasts with the bitter cold greys of outdoors. So a big, warm bowl of risotto, with the rich taste of the Spinach Salad and followed up with the Quick Lemon & Raspberry Cheesecake was basically weather porn for me. Tonight I got to fastforward a few months and land right smack bang in the middle of my favourite season.
I really looked forward to making this week's meal, because all of it seemed so easy and tasty. And it was! Dear Housemate commented on the simplicity of the meal and we discussed the fact that, in terms of technical skill, it was probably the simplest meal so far. If you've made one risotto, you've made them all so cooking the main was a piece of cake for me. Just keep stirring! Due to the large volume of mushrooms involved in the meal I was a little bit concerned that Dear Housemate might not enjoy it. So for that reason I actually chopped up all of the mushrooms that were going into the risotto so that they were nice and small. The taste was perfect and the advantage was that the risotto was easily consumed by a non-mushroom-lover. And she actually liked it! And went back for more!
The salad was a bit of a disaster at first, but I think I managed to save it. For starters, I made the decision to ditch the mint leaves. After much experimentation and use in Jamie's other meals I have come to the conclusion that for me, mint must be reserved for beverages and desserts. I just can't handle the strength of it in my meals and I find it really difficult to enjoy anything it is added to. The salad worked really well without it, but I think the richness of the salad was due partly to the lack of a refreshing ingredient like mint. Then there was the cucumber... I bought a lovely green, firm healthy looking cucumber yesterday and popped it in the crisper overnight for use today. but today when I went to use it... It had basically turned to mush. So the cucumber was left out as well. But hey, the salad worked and it tasted great - not to mention how appropriate it was in the seasonal sense!
The dessert was the true winner here though (or tied for first with the risotto!). I had to leave out the hazelnuts due to an unfortunate allergy situation, but it didn't spoil the dish at all. I picked up some tumblers to serve dessert in from the local dollar shop (set of 6 glasses for $7? Thank you very much!) and that was basically half the presentation done! The only error I made here was that I prepared the dessert earlier in the night and popped them into the fridge to make sure they stayed fresh for when we were ready to eat. Unfortunately I didn't even remember they were in there until just as we were serving up dessert so the base had set and become quite difficult to crack through with a spoon. I think making sure it was out of the fridge ten minutes earlier would have made all the difference. I will definitely remember that for next time! Otherwise it was fresh, light, satisfying and just sweet enough.
So there it is - an awesome wintery meal for an awesome wintery day! The risotto is going on rotation I think. I love a good risotto and this was a really good one! Not too heavy and not too complicated. Meanwhile, the dessert is definitely going to be a dinner party favourite because it looks super impressive and it tastes awesome. Plus I need to get some use out of those tumblers!
Til next time - Bon Appetit!
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