Butternut squash risotto revisited....

I had the left over rabbit bones from last night.  Stock sorted (roasted off in the oven and then reduced with water).

I roasted butternut squash pieces, skin on in olive oil and salt.

I cooked onion, added arborio rice, added white wine, reduced. Then added the stock and pureed butternut squash (the bits with no skin). All sorted on the risotto side (with parmesan to finish and make it all creamy).  Risotto base sorted.

I crisped sage leaves from the garden brushed with a little oil, low heat in the oven.

Now.... we have the cheese.  I made a tuille of Cantal entre deux which is a gorgeous tangy unpasteurised cheese from the Haute Auvergne region.  It's traditional to make parmesan tuilles but any variety of semi hard cheese is perfect.  Then I caramelised lumps of bleu de gex Haut-Jura AOP which is a mild blue unpasteurised cheese from the Jura alps and it is amazing when caramelised.

I added crispy sage leaves and made a tiny beurre noisette and poured it over before adding all those crunchy cheese elements.

Ummmm..... this is risotto on steroids.   The only thing is, if I had some butternut squash seeds left to roast and sit on top, or maybe even roasted pine nuts for toastiness. That would have been delicious but gotta say, this was seriously OK.

 

A quick look back in time

 

Rabbit. Celeriac. Springtime deliciousness outside.

A real treat to eat.  Simply rabbit shoulder cooked with onion, garlic, celeriac, chicken stock, mustard, white wine and tarragon.  With a gorgeous celeriac puree and a few basil leaves.  A celeriac remoulade on the side with crispy lettuce cups.  A gorgeous welcome to spring. Even though it's technically a wintery dish it sung of spring because we ate it outside and it was light as anything.  Hello spring!!

 

A serious cauliflower risotto and a serious Sahara wind....

The sky was orange for 3 days as it turned out.  The cars started to look like they'd been in Dubai.  We've had the Sahara sand here before and the locals sure as shit know about it.  A common event particularly during winter.  It's so strange.  We are in the middle of nowhere land.

Anyway, we cooked up a cauliflower risotto and took it to the cave.  It was utterly delicious.  We put St Agur on the base of the plate so it melts through (one of the best French blue cheeses), butter roasted cauliflower, cauliflower puree in the actual risotto with parmesan and a parmesan tuille with crispy sage.  There's so many ways to make risotto (thankfully nobody that is Italian reads this because they would get quite odd about the whole thing).  Their Nona certainly didn't cook risotto the way we do that's for sure!  

 

 

Butternut risotto, St Agur and seeds....

With crispy sage, butternut squash roasted seeds, roasted butternut squash pieces, 

a crispy parmesan tuille.  Little pieces of fresh butternut squash in the risotto to add a wee textural difference.  And there was a huge lump of St Agur (a really lovely sweet blue cheese) sitting underneath it all which melted with the heat of the heated plate and with the risotto.  Yum. 

 

 

Turkey Pie

OOMG, turkey pie from heaven.  I took the photos of the pie in the kitchen before taking it down to the cave.  Utterly and absolutely ridiculous.  We served it with a remoulade for freshness and baby gems.  Yum.  Like proper yum.  

 

Chicken Pie

 No photos because I didn't really expect it to be so amazing.  I cut bits from our chicken legs the other day because they were huge, thinking I'd use them in our lunchtime sammies but I ended out with more than I imagined.  It was enough for a pie.

I sautéed onion then garlic and finely chopped celeriac in the chicken fat from the chicken which I kept from the other night.  Then added white wine, seeded mustard and tarragon with a pottle of greek yoghurt.

The pastry was amazing.  The filling tasted unreal.  It was an incredible pie using just plain old left overs.  This is my favourite type of cooking.  Making a meal out of pretty much nothing.