Long post apologising for my absence will follow in due course, but in the meantime, I have just had the. Best. Vegetarian (almost). Risotto. Ever.
Proceed thus and so.
Dismember a cauliflower. If you find any healthful caterpillars residing in it, flush them down the loo. They are God’s creatures, and it would be wrong to eat them.
Wash the cauliflower, and your hands.
Boil the cauliflower until tender in salted water – about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your florets.
Drain off the cooking water into a bowl, and blitz the cf to a paste with a hand blender. Set aside.
Saute a sofrito of onion, garlic and celery (purists, it’s good to use the inner heart bits rather than the outer green stalks for uniformity of colour) in olive oil and butter.
When transparent and turning golden, add your rice. Cook. Add a glass of wine.
Proceed as per normal risotto – adding a ladle of cauliflower cooking liquid, cooking and stirring until all absorbed and repeating – until your rice is tender.
Add the cauliflower purree, a knob of butter, a goodly amount of grated parmesan and a slug of truffle oil. Stir, put a lid on the pan (it will look too soupy and liquid at this stage; fear not, it is right and proper) and leave it for 10 minutes. Add loads of black pepper and some salt. Serve. Gasp in admiration.
This is lovely, it really is. The cauliflower gives it a creamy, fluffy texture and I don’t care what the snobs say about truffle oil, it really works in a simple dish like this. Go on, try it. No photo, sorry – I scoffed the lot.
The Greenwich Gourmand 