Fennel and Lemon Risotto

Organic vegetable boxes! What fun!

Ruth gave me some fennel from hers haul last Saturday and I spent a large part of this week debating with myself what to do with it. I don’t buy fennel often; I’m not entirely sure why, maybe its because its strong flavour demands forethought, maybe because in my head it is a vegetable for special occasions.

In the end I decided on this recipe from the Good Food website. I was attracted to the pairing of aniseed and citrus and the prawns! I’m a bit prawn-crazed at the moment. Plus I’m trying to expand my prawny horizons by steering clear of stir-fries and curry – it’s hard.

We ate the risotto with salad dressed with Flo’s ingenious rapeseed oil and balsamic glaze combination. Siobhan and Lauren said it was delicious and we all had seconds.

Ingredients:

300g risotto rice

Stock

Two lemons

400g prawns

2 bulbs of fennel

2 onions

4 cloves of garlic

30g Parmesan

Chop any green leafy fennel fronds and set aside. Cut off the stalk-like fennel top, remove the outer layers and finely chop both. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a frying pan and cook the onion, garlic and chopped fennel until soft but not coloured.

Add the rice and stir for 1 min. Pour over most of the wine and simmer until evaporated. Add 500ml of the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring between each addition until it is absorbed.

Meanwhile, slice remaining fennel and fry in knob of butter until browned. Add remaining stock and wine and cook until tender.

When the rice is cooked, stir in the zest, Parmesan and some seasoning. Take off the heat and set aside, covered, for 2 mins. Serve in bowls, topped with the fennel fronds and cooked fennel, stirring the prawns through.