Strawberry Risotto

I signed Caitie up to The Chef Project which gives you a recipe a week from an international chef. I've found that many of them use seafood (which I don't like although Caitie and her brother are happy to eat it), very expensive ingredients or seasonal ingredients that aren't in season here in the Southern Hemisphere. Here are some examples of recipes we've received...
Light Ham Soup with a hint of bread
Spicy Fish Stew with garlic rice
Stuffed squid with pork and vegetables
Fish and Potatoe Stew in Green Sauce
Chicken Sausage and Olive Stuffed Pastries
Infused Veal with Parsley
Fish Al’Lune
Spiced Prawns with Mango Chutney and Vietnamese salad.
Marinated Pork Belly and a Creamy Potato and Foie Gras Puree
Spiced Fish with Vietnamese salad
Chocolate Creame Caramel with Armagnac Chantilly
Apple Pork with Juniper Berries
Broiled Fish with Wasabi Mango Rice.
Clams in their shells with Truffle Mayonnaise.
Lemon Veal with Greens
Scallop Divine

Don't get me wrong, building a portfolio of excellent recipes is well worth the money we paid. But we aren't doing a recipe a week as we were supposed to. This recipe for Strawberry Risotto from Chef Galicia Salucci caught my fancy though, so we made this. Thankfully the recipe was very clear that it was a main and not a dessert. Strawberries sound like a dessert to us! This would certainly be an interesting experiment!

Caitie heated 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat until the butter was melted. Then she added 1 finely chopped brown onion and a pinch of salt and cooked the onion until it was soft. Then she added 2 cups of rice and increased the heat slightly. About 5 minutes later, it was time to add 250g of diced strawberries and 2 teaspoons of sugar.









When the strawberries had softened slightly, Caitie added half a cup of red wine. When the wine had absorbed, she added 3 and a half cups of hot chicken stock, slowly, half a cup at a time until it was all absorbed. It was similar to the way we made Simon Gault's rice risotto. The final quarter of a cup of stock was added as the pan was removed from the heat. Then Caitie added 1 and a half cups of grated parmesan cheese, stirred it and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Finally it was time to eat it!!





Don't worry, that glass of wine wasn't for Caitie! We decided it was a very strange flavour, but not bad. Different, but actually pretty tasty. Definitely something you have to try once! :)