Comfort Food

Yesterday all in all was a good day, since moving out of my house things have been a little up and down but mainly on the downside. The worst part has been the weather being nice and thinking "Great, Let's go out and do something", the I remember "Oh Yeah.... you're on your own!". Ah well Yesterday in Manchester it was nice for most of the day, but really quite sticky and humid, I'd decided to cheer myself up by cooking a Risotto and driving into town to pick some things up for the Risotto I was driving past the rows of houses with neat sandstone walls and well trimmed hedge rows, I saw a man in about his 60's talking to a girl sitting on the wall rocking back giggling and swinging her legs, my car approached nearer on it's journey and then I noticed that she too was in her 60's but even close to her looking at her she still seemed to me to be like a 14 year old, out enjoying the sunshine, kicking her feet on a wall and not a care in the world.

I got the rice and the stock and some Asparagus and started to drive home, as I did the clouds opened and we had a huge downpour that lasted a good couple of hours, it was quite nice and cooled things down just enough. I relaxed later with the risotto and fealt a lot better for it.... cooking relaxes me, anyway this is the recipe, I recomend using a couple of ladels of wine as well as Pecorino instead of Parmesan as it will compliment the sweetness of the wine better.

Asparagus risotto

Ingredients
500g/1lb 2oz British asparagus
1 finely onion, chopped
85g/3oz butter
300g/10½oz arborio rice
750ml/1½lb hot chicken or vegetable stock
55g/2oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper

Method
1. Gently fry the onion in the butter until it becomes translucent.
2. Add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes on a medium heat, stirring so that it gets a good coating of butter.
3. Add a ladle of hot stock at a time and continue stirring until all the stock has been absorbed.
4. Meanwhile, steam the asparagus for 3-6 minutes or until tender to the point of a knife. Chop roughly once it is cooked.
5. Add a knob of butter, the asparagus, half the parmesan and a good grinding of black pepper to the risotto and give it a stir.
6. Serve your risotto in warm bowls with a sprinkling of parmesan on top of each serving.

Now a bit of music to relax to and aid the digestion:-

Elton John-Tiny Dancer - The funniest bloopers are right here