Beetroot Risotto with Chèvre Mousse

First of all, thanks so much everyone for your comments on my posts! Today I prepared my second favorite noodles (after pad thai) for dinner, and found a comment in the recipe. This kind of advising and giving ideas and hints is so important when learning more about food and cooking (or about anything, generally). So please give more feedback and also share your recipes with me!

Yesterday at work I got involved with the topic of healthy eating. I am not so much of a healthy eater myself (I probably shouldn’t tell this but today I had an ice cream AND two teaspoons of Nutella, which is my weakness) but it was interesting to read about this new Swedish research that confirms the old facts already learned at school: the Scandinavian “plate model” is the healthiest way to eat. It’s similar to many international plate models I found, and close to the Harvard food pyramid, but stresses the importance of veggies on each meal (half of the plate should be those). The Scandi plate rarely includes fruit, but substitutes them with berries that have less sugar and that, of course, also grow here up North.

The plate model says 50 percent of the meal should consist of vegetables, 25 percent of protein, 20 percent of carbs (the more fiber the better) and 5 percent of unsaturated fats. You should also have a glass of low-fat milk and a slice of rye bread on your meal. The dessert is berries. In the era of diets, and especially low-carb diets this model seems somehow old, but seems to be the one that is scientifically proved to be the best. It’s funny, by the way to compare it to this old Finnish eating recommendation model, that contains way too much of carbs and starch. I’m curious to know how in your country people are advised to eat, what are the proportions, etc?

A curious detail, that I heard from a nutrition researcher yesterday was that Finns get 20-25 percent of their daily calorie intake from “empty eats”, like candies, baked goods and alcohol. There we still have a lot to learn - me included.

Anyway, the recipe I’m sharing today I tried last night. Beetroot is a veggie I like, but which I rarely cook. Maybe because during the winter time the roots are so hard that they take too long time to cook, eh. Now anyway I decided to do something out of beets, so here comes a beetroot risotto. 

It was very delicious, but also very sweet. I highly recommend you also prepare the chèvre mousse to serve with risotto, as it nicely balances the sweetness.

Beetroot Risotto with Goat Cheese Mousse

2 large beetroots

2 tablespoons dark balsamic vinegar

2+2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 dl risotto rice (I used Arborio)

650ml chicken broth

50g parmesan cheese, grated

1 teaspoon salt, or less to taste

freshly ground black pepper

150ml heavy whipping cream

200g soft goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 200°. 

Wash, peel, halve and slice the beetroots. Place them on a baking sheet over a parchment paper and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, toss and roast for 30 minutes more. Let cool and puree with a stick blender or food-processor. Set aside.

Whip the heavy cream into a thick foam and let it wait in fridge.

Heat 2 remaining tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and sautee for 2 minutes. Add the rice and sautee for more 3 minutes, until the rice starts becoming transparent.

Start adding the chicken broth 100ml at the time. Whisk constantly with a wire whisk or a wooden spoon, to create the crema. Then the liquid is absorbed, add the next 100ml.

When you have used all the broth (this should take about 15 minutes) the rice should be soft but not overcooked.

Stir into the risotto the pureed beetroots, grated parmesan and 3 tablespoons whipped cream. Spice up with salt and black pepper. Remember to taste the amount of salt, as the beets can give the food a very sweet flavor.

Keep the risotto over a very low fire while you prepare the mousse.

Using an electric mixer toss soft goat cheese to whipped cream. Mix well and serve immediately with the risotto.

Garnish the dish with some parmesan and black pepper.

If you want something green with your risotto, I have heard dill goes surprisingly well with beets. I should try that too!

South African Yellow Rice

I’m sorry that the following post will be shorter than normally. I love to share things about food with you, but I just came home from work (it’s 1AM) and I’m exhausted… But since I haven’t updated anything yesterday I felt the need to take a little time to write. Oh, I miss those times already, when I had all the time in the world to do whatever I want!

But now, to food! The first time I am posting here something that I didn’t cook myself. All the credit for this delicious side dish goes to my better half S. He prepared the dish and I only came to the ready table to photograph, and to eat. This South African rice was totally worth a try, something different. Brazilians are huge rice lovers and they eat it a lot, with everything (even with mashed potatoes - carbs on carbs, eh). I’m happy S came up with a rice dish that was also new to him. I love cinnamon and I have used it in cooking when preparing some North African dishes. It worked here as well. 

Unfortunately I cannot refer to the original recipe, as we are not sure where it was found. But with quick googling I could see all the recipes for this dish are quite similar.

South African Yellow Rice

3dl long-grain rice

600ml water

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

big handful of seedless raisins

1 small cinnamon stick

2cm piece of lemon peel, yellow part only

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add in water all ingredients except the rice, raisins and butter. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. 

Melt butter in another, large saucepan. Add rice and cook stirring, until all the grains are shiny and covered in butter. 

Pour the water with spices over the rice, season with salt and pepper and cook rice until tender.

When the rice is cooked, remove from heat and let stand covered for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick, fluff the rice with a fork.

Add the raisins, mix well, pour into a serving dish and garnish with a beautiful cinnamon stick. Serve hot.

Creole Style Jambalaya

First time cooking in a new kitchen is always an experience, but my first time today went well. I’ve been so busy with all the work we haven’t eaten anything proper in a few days, so today after my day shift I finally could take time and relax in the kitchen. Indeed, cooking is often relaxing for me, especially when I can try something new. I find cooking foods I know by heart more boring, therefore I’m always eager to try new things, ingredients, cuisines and simply, recipes. Talking about recipes, I got the best possible reward a blogger can have, when a fellow blogger, Miss Minifer wrote how she tried out my Brazilian style rösti, and it came out delicious. Thank you for the feedback, it feels simply great to hear something from people who create so delicious stuff themselves.

So today I cooked the first dinner for me and S in our summer apartment’s kitchen (yes, if I forgot to mention, we’re only going to spend a summer in this place, and then start looking for a new apartment). The owner of the flat has left some things in the apartment, so I was only not cooking in a new kitchen, but also with new tools. Everything went out well however, and the Creole Jambalaya I prepared came out nice and hot. The reaction of S was “where’s this food from?”. I read from Wikipedia that the jambalaya has actually two origins, Cajun and Creole. The biggest difference between these is that the Cajun version doesn’t use tomatoes. Otherwise the preparation methods are quite similar, as well as the usage of meat and seafood. As it sounds, jambalaya is some sort of a cousin for Spanish paella (which I never have done, but should try one day).

I didn’t use any particular recipe to prepare my jambalaya, but used one from Ellie Krieger and one from Examiner as references for the ingredients needed. 

Jambalaya in Creole Style

300g sausage of your choice, like andouille or chorizo (I used turkey sausages, but they are not the best choice)

200g shrimps, deveined & peeled

+ 2-3 tablespoons Creole spice mix (recipe below)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 big onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

2 bay leaves

2dl crushed tomatoes (I used canned whole tomatoes that I chopped + their juice)

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon hot sauce (I used Tabasco with garlic)

550ml chicken stock

2,5dl basmati rice (you can also use some other long-grain rice if you like)

salt and black pepper to taste

flat-leaf parsley to garnish

Creole spice mix:

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika powder

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Mix the spices together. Slice the sausages and place them in a bowl with shrimps and Creole spice mix. Work to season throughly and set aside.

In a large wok, skillet or a dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat with onion and peppers. Sautée for 3 minutes. 

Add garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves and hot sauce. Stir in rice and chicken broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes.

When rice is cooked, add shrimp and sausage mixture. Cook until everything is cooked, a few minutes more. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole spice mix. 

Garnish with flat-leaf parsley.