What to do when your flight home to Canada is cancelled due to the volcanic ash and you can't get another one for 5 days?! Cook! I have to say, we are particularly grateful that we were still at our friend's abode when the news came through so we have had the luxury of continuing uninterrupted basically whereas thousands of people were mid travel and stranded in airports or forced back to hotels and eating out. We also didn't particularly have anything to be home for on that specific day either, which always helps (there is a bonus to being unemployed?!). Anyway, life aside and back to the food.
We had recently indulged in a full on home made Indian meal (one of the meal perks of being delayed), I had made a curry the day before and left it to mature and then it was a group effort to make everything else though Chef Stu really came through with the rice and raita! I had picked up some mint paste for lack of the real thing so we could have raita, and I announced that we should have lamb now that there was some mint to go with it! And so we did. On the way home from watching a movie in Freo, amidst a huge storm, we dragged our soggy selves into the store to pick up some lamb chops and a couple other bits for dinner the next day. I had bought some rice to make risotto months ago and never got round to it so I decided that the extra days were a gift for risotto making too.
Hubby and I did a joint effort on this meal and it was highly satisfactory if I say so myself. We tossed the lamb chops in olive oil and salt and pepper and let them sit for a while to warm to room temperature while I made risotto. I cut up an onion finely and cooked it in olive oil with about 3 grated garlic cloves, then added some arborio rice. I didn't measure the amount, I guess a cup or cup and a half is good for 4 people. The reason I didn't measure it is a) there wasn't a cup close enough and b)you need to add liquid till the rice is cooked so there is no point relying entirely on measurements as it may not be reliable. The back of the rice bag gives a guideline! I fried the rice with the onions and garlic for a few minutes then added a finely chopped zucchini and let that cook a little too. I found some white wine in the fridge and finished that off in it, about a cup, let it cook down, then started adding hot stock ladle by ladle and letting it cook. I am pretty sure there is a detailed entry on risotto somewhere in the blog. Keep adding stock bit by bit and tasting it until the rice is soft and how you want to eat it.
In the meantime hubby was cutting up 2 green onions, half a cucumber and 2 vine ripened tomatoes then crumbling about 3/4 cup of soft feta into it. We dressed it with the juice of a small lemon and some olive oil and pepper, done!
I had a spare zucchini which we just quartered and marinated in olive oil, balsamic and salt and pepper and bbq-ed with the chops.
The chops didn't take long, I think hubby did them for a couple minutes a side on a very hot bbq and then let them rest for 10minutes. The zucchini got the same treatment. The lamb was medium rare which was perfect!
I rustled up a mint sauce with the mint paste some vinegar and sugar.
The risotto was seasoned with mint and coriander (both in paste form as that was what I had, couple tsps of each), a few dashes of Worcester sauce, salt, pepper and of course the usual grated parmesan dumped in at the end with a little butter!
Very yummy! Very happy to have had the opportunity to eat some fresh lamb again before we leave.
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