Fennel risotto

What is it with people and fennel? I think it is one of those vegetables that you either love or hate. It has a very distinct flavour ofcourse so if you do not like anis you will probably not like fennel, but I happen to love it. In moderation that is, as I do think it’s definitely a vegetable that does not go together with everything!

For dinner tonight I made this lovely fennel risotto with prawns and smoked salmon on top. It was light and very delicious. And filling too (which is important if you’re on a diet or you’ll be forever hungry…:) )

That striped thing in the background of the photo above is our gardenchair as it has been hot today and we have been eating outside. Unfortunately we have a garden that is facing North-East so in the evening there is no sunshine in the garden. Having said that I am mostly happy with the way our garden is positioned. A south facing garden is fantastic in spring and in the evening, but during the day it’s impossibly hot. We do have sunshine the entire day but there is always a spot where you can find some shade during the day. It’s just the evening part that is a bit annoying at times, especially when you want to throw a barbecue. Evenings can be chilly and not having sunshine after 6 pm means it will be cooler sooner. Anyway, we can’t have it all!

Garden

Our garden is very green and usually filled with birds, but because it is so green it also looks like a complete jungle every once in a while, so last week it was major “chopping up the garden-day”. After removing loads of bushes this was the end result. Still not finished, but it’s looking a little less like a jungle. As you can see it’s a very small garden…!

The overhanging bit on the left we could not remove as there are birds nesting there right now and I did not want to disturb the young and happy family. I was a little worried that due to the hacking during the day they would be too stressed but all is well with the family. I can see the nest if I look under the greenery and mother and father are constantly supplying fresh worms to the ever hungry youngsters… They will probably be flying out soon, so better keep the cats in check! (not that they are interested….. Simply too old to run after little bird!)

Here is the recipe for the fennel risotto!

250 gr risotto (arborio) rice

6-7 ml vegetable stock

2 fennel bulbs

fresh dille

200 gr shrimps

100 gr smoked salmon

1 shallot

olive oil

Cut the shallot into small pieces, remove the fingers from the fennel, remove the stalky bit at the bottom and cut into fine pieces.

In a large frying pan, add oliveoil and fry the onions untill just tender. Add the rice and stir untill the grains are covered in oil.

Add some of the stock and the fennel. While stirring occasionally keep adding stock as soon as the pan starts getting dry. The total process will be around 20 minutes but check regularly to see if the risotto is ok. It should be moist!

Add the dille and half of the shrimps once the rice is done and warm through a little bit. Add the remaining shrimps and the smoked salmon as garnish on top once done.

Delicious and simple meal!

Smoked chicken and feta quiche

After having baked clafoutis today I figured the oven could use a little more exercise. I haven’t had a lot of time to do any cooking lately so I was quite pleased to have a weekend of joy in the kitchen. The weather was gorgeous today too, so in between baking and checking how things were going in the oven I have enjoyed the sunshine in the garden. All in all it was a lovely quiet day!

Now don’t get me wrong; I love Tom very much and if he is gone for more then a week I start to feel a little lonely, but every once in a while I love being on my own for a few days. A lot of people don’t understand that we sometimes take short vacations away from eachother, but I do not see what is wrong with that. Let’s face it; I think fishing is just about the least interesting hobby in the world, while Tom has – I am sure – his doubts about certain hobbies of mine. And that is all perfectly fine. We’re two rather independent people, so we like to do stuff together but we also like to do stuff with our friends. And that can be together or separate. There is nothing more satisfying then spending time with your friends and talk about “girlstuff” without the guys being there to pull funny faces…. And I know for a fact that Tom would not be happy if I suddenly decided to go along with his fishing trips. (which I would totally hate!!)

Caught a fish...

Just to give you an idea of what kind of fishes we are talking about… On the right you see an example of a carp he caught.. Not sure why those photos are on my harddrive, but I found them while cleaning up… There is always a point during each vacation we have together that there needs to be a fishing trip. I go along as obviously non of his fishing buddies are there and ok, you sometimes have to do something you don’t like for your guy (or girl), right? Anyway, once a year is all I can possibly survive. I am just glad he is having fun in Norway and is hopefully catching some fish this time. They have safely arrived (just got a text message) and they are now out fishing already.

How did I get from cooking to Tom’s fishing trips?? Lol…

Back to my day today.. lovely sunshine, baking clafoutis, little bit of work in between and in a few minutes I would say I am installing myself on the couch with a few episodes of Private practice and a nice glass of chilled wine… Ahhh… total bliss… and then I have my new bed (arrived two days ago) all by myself! Now… does that sound good or not?

In addition to that I had a lovely dinner tonight with a homemade quicke with smoked chicken, feta and dill. Now I didn’t have any proper quiche forms. I have made quiches before but always the larger variety and never a smaller one, but making a big quiche for one person seemed like a waste, so I decided I was gonna make small ones. I can freeze two and because the forms where small I figured I could eat two.

I don’t  think these forms are supposed to be for quiches, but quite frankly I do not know which ones would be, so I have to figure that out as the form was a little bit too small or maybe I just put too much stuff in it. I used two of these and two ramekins, but those are just too big. So the quiche rose to enormous soufle proportions in the ramekins. Won’t be using those for the next time!

The quiche itself was absolutely delicious. It is so easy to make and such a delight to eat that you should definitely try it. I had it with a simple salad (a little bit more dressed then on the photo) and it was fabulous.

Recipe (from Donna Hay, spring edition)

2 sheets of store bought shortcrust pastry

160 gr smoked chicken, shredded

160 gr feta, crumbled,

3 eggs

two tablespoons of chopped dille leaves

185 ml of single cream

sea salt and cracked black pepper

mixed salad leaves, to serve

Preheat oven to 180 C. Cut each sheet of pastry into 4 squares. Line 8 x 1/3 cup-capacity (80 ml) lightly greased pie tins with the pastry squares and trim excess pastry. Prick bases of the cases with a fork. Divide the chicken and feta between the cases. Place the eggs, cream, dill, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk well to combine. Pour into the cases and bake for 25 minutes or untill puffed and set. Serve with a mixed green salad. Makes 8.

in the ramekin