Abercrombie & Feast

We’re on Day Two, folks, and we’re on to more orange-coloured food.  I’ve noticed that a great deal of my food has taken on an orange-tinge lately.  Must be the abundance of sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash and carrots in the shops and in my weekly veg delivery box.  But, I’m really ok with that.  To paraphrase a favourite saying of Syracuse University alumni everywhere, “Real Women Eat Orange.”

I am going to go ahead and apologise to Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, author of The River Cottage Year, right up front today.  This is really not a very good interpretation of his recipe. 

See, the thing is.  I had sweet potatoes in my weekly veg delivery this week.  And, as I was scanning through The River Cottage Year, I spied Hugh’s recipe for Parsnip Risotto.  I immediately skipped over it, thinking, “But, I don’t have any parsnips!”  And that is true.  I didn’t have any parsnips.  I did have sweet potatoes, another starchy, slightly sweet tuber.  So, I basically talked myself into completely changing the recipe to suit my sweet potatoes.  It went like this:

Swaying Towards the Sweet Potatoes- A Play in One Act

Lights up on a yellow kitchen in a small town in southern England.  Two identical women (both wearing oversized Syracuse University sweatshirts) face off in front of an old, out of date oven. 

 Sweet Potato Skate- “But, sweet potatoes and parsnips are very much alike.”

Trying to Stick to a Recipe for ONCE Skate- “Sure.  But,  sweet potatoes are not parsnips.  This recipe calls for parsnips.  I want to follow the recipe.”

Sweet Potato Skate- “If you go buy parsnips, these sweet potatoes might go to waste.  You know how you hate to waste food.”

Trying to Stick to a Recipe for ONCE Skate- “That is true.  I hate to waste.  But maybe I would find another use for those sweet potatoes?”

Sweet Potato Skate- “You won’t.  You’ve planned your meals for the whole week and the sweet potatoes don’t fit anywhere.  And you have a whole new box of veggies being delivered on Thursday.  The sweet potatoes will have to be thrown away.”

Trying to Stick to a Recipe for ONCE Skate- “But, would sweet potatoes even taste good in this recipe??”

Sweet Potato Skate- (sensing victory) “Of COURSE sweet potatoes would be good in this recipe.  They’re sweet, just like parsnips.  They’re starchy, just like parsnips.  And, best of all, they are here and want to be used.  What would HUGH do?  Would HUGH let these sweet potatoes go to waste, just to follow a recipe??”

Trying to Stick to a Recipe for ONCE Skate- (feeling defeated at the mention of food waste and knowing that Hugh would hate to waste perfectly good sweet potatoes) “That is true… Ok, ok.  Fine.” (huffs off to have a Diet Coke.)

Curtain

So, after that debate, and a restorative fizzy drink, I made Sweet Potato Risotto, not Parsnip Risotto.  I’m sorry, Hugh.

The recipe called for the parsnips (or, in my case, sweet potatoes) to be cooked in the pot with the onions at the beginning of the process.  This is where I think I went a bit wrong.  I don’t think I put enough fat in with the onions, which is often a problem for me.  I get nervous about using lots of butter and oil.  Basically, the onions started to burn before the sweet potato pieces were cooked through.  This made the whole risotto a slightly brownish colour that was a bit off-putting. 

I think that in the future, I’ll probably roast the parsnips (or sweet potatoes) in the oven first, and then stir them into the risotto half way through.  That way they will already be soft and caramelised and the risotto will cook more quickly.  Or, in the future, I might just stick to the damn recipe.  We’ll see. 

 Bonus points to anyone who can tell me how many times I typed “sweet potato” today.  It feels like a million.

Parsnip Risotto
I’m going to give this recipe to you guys as Hugh intended.  You can make up your own mind about whether you follow it. 

Serves 2

2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1cm dice (cut out the woody core)
1 onion, chopped
2 tbs butter
900ml chicken or vegetable stock
175 g Arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Place the butter in a heavy-based pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until it is becoming translucent.  Then, add the parsnips and raise the heat a little.  Cook the parsnips until almost totally tender, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. 

As you are cooking the parsnips, bring the stock to a simmering point in another pan. 

When the parsnips are soft, add the rice to the pan and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes.  Add the wine and continue to stir.  When most of the wine has been absorbed by the rince, begin to ladle the hot stock into the risotto.  Wait for each batch of stock to be absorbed, then add more stock. 

Keep stirring and adding stock until the rice becomes tender and soft, but with a little “bite” in the centre. 

Taste the risotto and add seasoning as needed.  Add a large handful of grated parmesan to the risotto and stir it in to combine. 

Serve the risotto with more parmesan for sprinkling and extra black pepper.