guacamole

yum. seriously! i know some people wince at the sight of the fragrant green mush, but don't knock it 'til you try it... it's extra-tasty and easy to make... come on, you know you wanna! 

guacamole

serves as many people as you're willing to share with (but a comfortable 4-6 as a snack)

3-4 ripe avocados

2 roma tomatoes, deseeded & chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

4-5 spring onions, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (avoid the seeds & pith if you don't want it to be too hot...)

juice of 1/4 - 1/2 lime (or you can use orange juice, to shake it up)

cilantro & salt, to taste

i usually go with the following steps, but there is no right or wrong way to make this... as long as you think it's tasty, you're good to go!

1. put the avocado in a bowl, mash with a fork 'til lumpy (but not too smooth)

2. add in everything else but the lime juice, salt & cilantro; mix well with fork.

3. squeeze in lime juice, add seasoning to taste (i don't like cilantro, so i usually dispense with it, but whatever floats your boat...)

4. serve with nacho chips! 

NOTE : make sure you don't oversalt the dip, as you're typically serving it with already über-salty nacho chips... 

lemon risotto

taken from nigella lawson's nigella bites tv show/cookbook, lemon risotto.

lemon risotto

2 fat spring onions
1 stalk celery
knob of butter (about 1 tbsp)
olive oil
1 1/3 cup risotto rice (i use arborio)
1 quart vegetable stock
lemon & zest of 1/2 a lemon
approx. 2-3 tsps dried rosemary, chopped (or the needles from 1-2 sprigs fresh)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

step 1 : i usually start off by making the vegetable stock since it needs to be kept simmering - bring a little more than 1 quart (4ish cups) of water to a boil and add dried vegetable stock according to directions. keep on a simmer on low low heat with a ladle at the ready.

step 2 : in a large saucepan, melt the butter with a drizzle of olive oil (to keep the butter from smoking) on med-high heat. now, the original recipe says to blitz the spring onions and celery in a food processor 'til mushy, however i don't have a food processor, so i just finely chop them. same difference. throw them in the pan and cook 'til the celery's soft (about 2 min). 

step 3 : chuck the rice in with the celery and onions and mix well (the rice should be coated with the buttery oil) and stir for about 1 - 2 min. 

step 4 : now for the finnicky part : add in a ladleful of stock and stir the rice 'til completely absorbed. repeat this, one ladleful at a time until rice is al dente (roughly 20 min.) usually after about the 5th ladleful, you can let it be a little more, but always have an eye on the rice and stir quite often.

step 5 : when the rice is al dente, add rosemary and lemon zest. stir. remove from heat. stir in the mix of egg yolk, cream, parmesan and lemon zest until well blended. you can top it off with a bit of unsalted butter and salt and pepper to taste.

feeds about 4 (or 2 greedy people, depending on portion size...)