Budget Pea Risotto with a Poached Egg
Even though this is a spring time dish, I made this for my dinner tonight as it's cheap and filling. Very easy to make, all you need to do is make sure you put some love into the rice and be patient with it, otherwise it won't be very nice.
Ingredients:
• 1 white onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Parmisan, grated
• Frozen Petite Pois or peas
• 1 egg
• 1 Litre of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 packet of arborio risotto rice
• Fresh parsely
Method:
1. Put some oil in a pan and let it gently heat up. Whilst this is happening, dice the onion and then pop it in the pan. Cook for around 8-10 minutes on a medium heat (you don't want to burn the onion ortherwise there will be a bitterness to the dish). Chop and crush the garlic into the pan to cook aloongside the onions, stirring occasionally.
2. Whilst your onions and garlic are frying, place a stock cube into a seperate pan and pour your 1 litre of water into it and bring to the boil. Open your packet of rice and put it into the pan with the onions, and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Once your stock has come to the boil, grab a ladle and gradually ladle the liqued into the pan with the rice. This is a crucial process when making risotto as you want the rice to absorb the stock and bring out all the starch. Once the rice has soaked up all the liqued repeat again. Mae sure you constantly stir, as you don't want the rice to stick to the bottom of the pan. This process will take around 20-25 minutes. You want the rice to be al dente, so not too hard but not too soft and sticky. Add your peas to the rice. I personally prefer petite pois as I find they are more sweater and greater in flavour. Stir for around 5 minutes.
4. Take the dish off the heat and season well. Make sure you taste it and if it needs more, then add more. As I've used no wine or lemon in this dish (purely because of the lack of wine in the house and I wanted to spend as little as possible) we need to make sure the dish is flavoursm, otherwise it can taste very bland. Grate your parmisan into the rice and stir so you start to create a cheesy, gooey coating over the rice. Get your parsely and roughly chop it up and sprinkle it into the risotto.
5. Whislt this is happening, put another clean pan on the hob and bring to the boil. Once boiled, add some vinegar to the water as this helps keep the poached egg together. Slowly crack your egg into the water and let it cook for around 2 minutes.
6. Now to serve! Place a spoonful of the risotto onto a place and then grate a little more parmisan on top. Get your poached egg and ever so gently place it on top of the rice. For the finishing touches, crack some pepper and salt over the egg and drizzle over some olive oil. And enjoy!