Base case dinners: Mid-week Popeye risotto

I think I’m going to write a “base case” recipe book. You start with one ingredient, and add to it what you can find in the cupboards. In this case, the base was spinach harvested from my own vegetable teepee. A teepee is what you get when you place a goal (a place to keep my veggies safe from the critters) in front of your able bodied farm worker, and leave execution up to him.

Anyway, back to the recipe. What can one do with spinach, other than a flash dry with olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper, and a dash of lemon juice? Which is a perfectly good recipe by the way.

Well, you can make a spinach risotto. In the middle of the week!

Blanch spinach and parsley.

Zirts it with olive oil and butter. Ps – rather don’t use the parsley stalks. Let’s just say it’s strings don’t go well with the blade, and leave it at that.

Fry raw rice (yes, even speko long grain rice will do), with freshly harvested leeks (yes DBP leeks) and garlic, until translucent.

Add a good glug of dry white alcohol (martini, dry white wine, or in this case, some Chinese liquor left over from a New Year’s Eve party several years ago. Thanks Brian, thanks Claire.)

Then comes the trickiest part. Add a ladle of stock (or water if that is what you have). Continually stir (if using martini. Because that it what James Bond did. And if you are using something else, still stir, because that is what is required). Until liquid is absorbed. Then repeat, and again, and again, until the rice is done.

Add your blitzed spinach purée, season and add a blob of butter.

Bob’s your uncle.

Top with anything of your choice. Parmesan is nice, but not a common fridge ingredient. You can add stir fried chicken, crispy bacon, or game meat balls as per illustration.

And that is what was for dinner last night, ala #popuprestaurantdreams. Now I’m off to collect that cheque that was in the post as mentioned in same captioned blog https://thegreatreset-thorn.com/the-cheque-is-in-the-post/ of few weeks ago. Wish me luck!