Another new normal, another risotto

Hello everyone. My name’s Katie, and I have a brassica problem. While everyone else has been stockpiling pasta and toilet roll, I’ve been panic buying kale and spouting broccoli at the farmers’ market. (Liz did say this might start out A Bit Middle Class.)

I’ve been working from home for two days now, and it feels both utterly alien – What’s a Teams and why do I want it? Why can’t anyone hear me on this call?? Will I ever see the contents of my personal drive again??? – and like I’ve never done anything else. The contrasts between the calm of the house, the birds twittering outside, the hysteria of Twitter, the relentless plod of the radio news, and the feared and unknown challenges to come is starting to make my head swim a bit.

This is not helping my tendencies to think there’s a Right Way to do everything and that I ought to find and implement it. So, with however many weeks of isolation looming, I’m trying to use up my impulse purchases in the most rational order, where ‘rational’ is a delicate balance of ‘time they’ll keep’, ‘chances of getting more’, ‘is there so little left we might as well use it up now to be tidy?’, and ‘is it too fancy for a Thursday?’. Thus was ‘Brassica risotto with fennel and lemon’ born.

Some key ingredients: curly kale, purple sprouting broccoli, half a lemon on its last legs (rind long gone), garlic (when I run out of garlic times are going to get rough), yoghurt, arborio rice.

Method:
Disentangle the pleasingly soft bits of kale/broccoli from the chewy rough bits. Pare off the worst of the rough stuff, then chop the stalks as finely as you can. Also chop a leek (not pictured) or an onion (if you haven’t nearly run out and are saving them for emergencies).

Put oil or butter or lard or something (I used sunflower oil) in a large pan, heat, add some fennel seeds if you have them (also not pictured). Dill seed would work, as would green aniseed. (I’m lucky to work, when I work out of home, near an excellent spice shop.) Fry a bit.

Add leek and tough veg. Fry until soft and nice. I added some butter to help it along.

Add sliced garlic, then rice. There wasn’t much arborio rice, so I topped it up with pudding rice (aka ‘short grain rice’). Fry a bit ‘until translucent’.

If you have cooking wine, slosh it in now. But only if it’s white. (If you had no fennel or similar, and you do have spare vermouth or Pernod or similar slosh that in.) Otherwise, start with stock, bit by bit or all at once, depending on what else you’re juggling.

When the rice is fairly cooked, add the rest of the greens, chopped fairly fine, with the rest of the water/stock. Cook a while longer until the greens are softening, but haven’t lost their bright colour. Squeeze in the lemon, and season to taste. It can take plenty of black pepper.

I served it with ‘herby yoghurt’: very aged Greek yoghurt (you can use brand new if you have it!) with chopped random early season garden herbs stirred in (oregano, sage, chives, rocket).

Unappealing picture:

It was pretty good: without the lemon juice it would be lacking something, definitely.

Take away points:

1. Greens with garlic, fennel and lemon is a classic combination. In other situations chilli works very well with them, too.
2. I’m extremely glad I have a very modest garden and spice collection that used to seem a bit unnecessary and now seems like a godsend.
3. Food photography is hard.