Wednesday 21 July 2010

Post 117: Courgette and Mint Risotto (a la Jeff Brazier, off of Come Dine With Me)

Muses: Man Ray had Lee Miller, Warhol had Edie Sedgewick, George Harrison had Patti Boyd, Eric Clapton had Patti Boyd too and Capello has Emile Ivanhoe Heskey. Last week, I found myself with an unlikely muse for inspiration; the former consort of sadly deceased reality TV star Jade Goody - Jeff Brazier.

 
Jeff looking boyishly young beyond his still tender years and the tough times he must have endured through being the former consort of sadly deceased reality TV star Jade Goody appeared on last week's Celebrity Come Dine With Me. His chosen main course was risotto with courgette and mint. He looked like he knew what he was doing and it looked nice when served; so I copied him.

 
Although I know that all recipes from Come Dine With Me are on the Channel 4 website, looking it up felt like a lot of effort - so I took Jeff's idea and went with my own flow. Recipe:

 
  • 1 big onion chopped small, with 3 cloves of garlic fried slowly in olive oil
  • 1 pack/200gs chopped pancetta (Jeff's didn't have pancetta)
  • once also browned in with 200gs Risotto rice for a quick stir
  • and then a continual adding and stirring of ~1.5 to 2 pints of vegetable stock
  • in the meantime, I fried a biggish courgette (Jeff appeared to have boiled his) and washed and roughly chopped a handful of mint
  • Once the rice was cooked (which always takes much longer that TV Chef's claim), I then stirred through the courgette and mint.
  • To serve, I then added a big pile of grated parmesan (Jeff had used mozzarella, for stringyness).



 
Bar the pancetta and the rice everything for this had come out of my garden; so that was pleasing too.

 
All in, I'd declare myself happy to follow Jeff's muse again should he re-appear on celebrity masterchef or similar. Thanks Jeff! All in, this was very nice, very easy and very light for summer.

3 comments:

  1. I was impressed with Jeff too. Janice Dickinson on the other hand... blimey, I wouldn't want her at my dinner party, although she did make me laugh. The risotto looks very tasty and it's especially lovely to have come from the garden. A couple of pigs next and then it will only be the rice.

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  2. Janice was a nightmare; although not quite as bad as Barrymore on the previous Celeb Come Dine.

    I'm not allowed Chickens, so I don't think I'd get away with suggesting pigs (I'd be too soft to turn them in to bacon too).

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  3. I was pleasantly surprised when Jeff made this, though I prefer the sound of yours with pancetta in! I do have some courgettes in the fridge but lacking the risotto rice and pancetta..is now added to next weeks shopping list :)

    Janice was a scary lady! I do love cdwm, seems to unite freaks and food and makes good entertainment!

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