Risotto agli asparagi al mente e limone (risotto with asparagus, mint & lemon)

For ➑
risotto base:
1 l organic vegetable or chicken stock
2 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, peeled & finely chopped
4-5 sticks celery, trimmed & finely chopped
600 g risotto rice
25 cl vermouth or dry white wine
risotto:
2 bunches asparagus, woody ends removed & discarded*
70 cl organic vegetable or chicken stock
50 g butter
1 small handful Parmigiano cheese, freshly grated, plus a block for grating**
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves picked & finely chopped
zest & juice of 2 lemons
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Slice the asparagus stalks finely sliced to 2.5 cm below the tips. Finely chop your asparagus stalks into tiny discs, keeping the tips whole.
Then start making your basic risotto recipe.
Bring the stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Put the olive oil in a separate large pan, add the onion and celery and cook very gently for about 15 m, without colouring, until soft. Add the rice (it will sizzle) and turn up the heat. Don't let the rice or veg catch on the bottom of the pan, so keep it moving.
Quickly pour in the vermouth or wine. You will smell the alcohol immediately, so keep stirring all the time until it has evaporated, leaving the rice with a lovely perfume.
Add the stock to the rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next. Continue to add ladlefuls of stock until it has all be absorbed. This should take about 14 to 15 m and give you rice that is beginning to soften but is still a little al dente. Put aside.
Put a large saucepan on a medium to high heat and pour in half the stock, followed by all your risotto base and the finely sliced asparagus stalks and the tips. Stirring all the time, gently bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until almost all the stock has been absorbed. Add the rest of the stock a ladleful at a time until the rice and asparagus are cooked. You might not need all your stock. Be careful not to overcook the rice. It should hold its shape but be soft, creamy and oozy, and the overall texture should be slightly looser than you think you want it.
Turn off the heat, beat in your butter and cheese, mint, almost all the lemon zest and all the juice. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Put a lid on the pan and leave the risotto to rest for 1 m.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a scattering of lemon zest and a block of Parmigiano on the table.

*Or microwave the asparagus, then gril for a few m. Add some good pepper. Serve with the risotto.
**Make a non-vegetarian variation with sprinkling in a little picked crab or lobster meat or fresh, peeled shrimps or sliced scallops. Reduce your cheese by half.

Tip: cooking asparagus
Tip: a quick and fine risotto

Grilled mushroom risotto

For ➍
1.5 l organic chicken or vegetable stock, hot
1 handful dried porcini mushrooms*
olive oil
1 small onion, peeled & finely chopped
2 sticks celery**, trimmed & finely chopped
400 g risotto rice
7.5 cl vermouth or white wine***
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
4 large handfuls wild mushrooms (try shiitake, girolle, chestnut or oyster), cleaned & sliced
a few sprigs fresh chervil, tarragon or parsley, leaves picked & chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 ts butter
1 small handful Parmigiano cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for serving
extra virgin olive oil

Heat the stock in a saucepan and keep it on a low simmer. Place the porcini mushrooms in a bowl and pour in just enough hot stock to cover. Leave for a couple of m until they've softened. Fish them out of the stock and chop them, reserving the soaking liquid.
In a large pan, heat a lug of olive oil and add the onion and celery. Slowly fry without colouring them for at least 10 m, then turn the heat up and add the rice. Give it a stir.
Stir in the vermouth or wine. Keep stirring until the liquid has cooked into the rice. Now pour the porcini soaking liquid through a sieve into the pan and add the chopped porcini, a good pinch of salt and your first ladle of hot stock. Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and massaging the starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next.
Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. This will take about 30 m. Meanwhile, get a dry griddle pan hot and grill the wild mushrooms until soft. If your pan isn't big enough, do this in batches. Put them into a bowl and add the chopped herbs, a pinch of salt and the lemon juice. Using your hands, get stuck in and toss everything together.
Take the risotto off the heat and check the seasoning carefully. Stir in the butter and the Parmigiano. You want it to be creamy and oozy in texture, so add a bit more stock if you think it needs it. Put a lid on and leave the risotto to relax for about 3 m.
Take your risotto and add a little more seasoning or Parmigiano if you like. Serve a good dollop of risotto topped with some grilled dressed mushrooms, a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmigiano and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

*Omit if you want.
*Use leek instead for a suaver taste.
**Double for softer rice.

The dry grilling of mushrooms is inspired by a Japanese way of cooking.
Read the tip on making a quick risotto.

Waterzooi van hondshaai & saffraan (saffron waterzooi of dogfish)

For ➍
600 g dogfish, cut into 5 cm pieces [or firm white fish like cod]
1 l fumet*
2 stalks leek
4 stalks celery
1 fennel
3 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs olive oil
3 sprigs thyme
3 laurel leaves
4 capsules saffron powder (or threads)
a splash vermouth​
15 cl cream**
1 tbs soft butter***
1 tbs flour***
a few twigs chervil
sourdough bread
pepper & salt

Heat the fish fumet.
Clean the leek, celery and fennel and cut them into rough pieces.
Peel the onions and cut them roughly.
Peel the garlic, press into pulp.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Fry the onions. Add the leek, celery and fennel. Simmer for a while. Add the garlic pulp.
Put the pieces of fish on the vegetables.
Add the thyme, laurel and saffron. Mix carefully, add a splash of vermouth.
Pour the hot fumet over the fish. Add the cream.**
Add freshly ground pepper and salt.
Let the waterzooi boil on a gentle fire for about 5 m.
Knead the butter and the flour into an even mixture.***
Stir some of the mixture under the cooking liquid to bind the sauce.*** [ Add some more if necessary].***
Continue to simmer for another 10 to 15 m.
Check a piece of fish whether it is done.
Sprinkle with soms chervil. Serve with sourdough bread.

*Use less if you want a thicker sauce without butter or flour.*** Be sure the fish is covered with liquid.
**Use soy replacement product to avoid real cream.
***Omit if you want. Make the sauce thicker by reducing the amount of fumet. See (*).

Crab claws with fennel & tomatoes

For ➍
900 g cooked crab claws
1 fennel
400 g cherry tomatoes
2 spring onions
2 shallots
2 dl vermouth
2 dl white wine
3.8 dl of fish stock
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 sprig of fresh thyme
2 leaves of laurel

Slice the fennel and the spring onions. Press the clove of garlic. Shred the shallots and stew them in the olive oil. Add the fennel along with the crushed clove of garlic. Cook for 10 m until everything is soft. Add the thyme and bay leaves and extinguish with the vermouth, white wine and fish stock. Add the cherry tomatoes and allow to cook for 10 m. Add the crab claws and let it get hot for a while.
Finish with the spring onion and serve.

Negroni sbagliato

For ➊ drink
6 cl spumante (or prosecco / champagne/ white chardonnay)
3 cl sweet vermouth
3 cl Campari
1 slice orange for garnish

Stir well over ice in a balloon-size wine glass.
Garnish with a slice of orange.

Made by mistake (sbagliato) in a Milano bar: instead of gin , use spumante. Or prosecco. Or champagne. Or white wine.

Boulevardier

For ➊
3 cl Campari
3 cl sweet vermouth
4.5 cl bourbon / Bulleit Rye whiskey*

Pour ingredients into a mix glass. Add ice.
Stir until the cocktail is cooled.
Strain in a cooled Martini glass or tumblr. Finish with an orange twist or even an olive. It can be served over ice like a Negroni.

*Change bourbon to 6 cl. The original cocktail used a ⅓/⅓/⅓ part, as in the Negroni, but might be too sweet with the strong Campari.
Change 1 measure of bourbon to 2 measures of rye whiskey, and you get a '1794'. Change the sweet vermouth to a dry one, and you get an 'Old Pal'.

The Boulevardier' was served in the Paris Harry's bar. It appeared in the 1927 bar guide, 'Barflies and Cocktails'. It was the signature drink of Erskine Gwynne, expatriate writer, socialite and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt. Gwynne edited a monthly magazine, a sort of Parisian New Yorker, named 'The Boulevardier', obviously, a Negroni with bourbon in lieu of gin. The Negroni, however, would not see print for another 20 years, and Americans had never heard of Campari in 1927.

Risotto with beetroot & blue cheese

For ➋
1 l beetroot juice (pressed or out of a bottle)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
200 g risotto rice
1 glass of vermouth or white wine
40 g butter + 1 extra cube
50 g of blue cheese, like Gorgonzola
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Warm the beet juice until just below boiling point.
Sauté the onion and garlic over a low heat in a knob of butter. After 5 m add the celery and cook all the vegetables until they are soft. Turn up the heat and add the rice. Stir well until the rice is translucent and deglaze with white wine or vermouth. Let all the moisture to evaporate.
Reduce heat to soften again and add a ladle beet juice, and a pinch of salt. Stir well until the rice has absorbed the beet juice. Add each time a ladle juice until the rice is soft.
If the rice is not yet soft when the beet juice runs out, work on with salted water.
Add the soft butter. Let the risotto rest for 2 m.
Serve. Finish with black pepper and crumbled blue cheese.

Read tip on cooking rissoto.

Red negroni

For ➊
4 cl gin
4 cl Campari
4 cl sweet (red) vermouth

In a mixing glass, add ingredients and cracked ice. Stir for at least 15 s.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Twist an orange peel and garnish.

The negroni was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni. Count Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water.
The 'negroni sbagliato' ("wrong negroni" in Italian) uses sparkling wine (e.g., prosecco) instead of gin.
Negroski is a recipe with vodka again as substitute for gin.
Cardinaloski is a negroski with some angostura drops.
Punt e Mes negroni instead replaces standard red vermouth with a specific, distinctively more bitter-tasting brand called Punt e Mes.
The cin cyn uses Cynar an artichoke based liquor, instead of Campari.
Pinkish negroni is made with pink wine (instead of gin).
A raultini is a variation using Aperol instead of Campari, giving its distinctive orange color, lighter alcohol content, and a bit of sweetness.
The most basic variation is served straight up in a martini glass with a splash of carbonated water floating on top of the alcohol mixture and a twist of lemon zest replacing the orange peel, known as the American version.
Other Italian versions substitute spumante brut or vodka for gin. A sparkling negroni is made with champagne or prosecco.

A parcel of fish & fennel

For ➍
300 g white fish fillets
2 ts chili powder
1 small fennel (or ½ large one)
1 red onion
2 tbs parsley
1 tbs lemon or orange peel, grated
3 tbs vermouth*
salt & pepper
2 sheets of baking paper**

Preheat oven to 200°C. Rub the fish fillets with salt, pepper and chili powder. Cut fennel and onion into paper-thin slices.
Spread two large pieces of baking paper**. Put in half of the fennel and onion, with half of the grated peel and parsley. Put the fillets on top. Cover with the rest of the grated peel, fennel, onion, parsley. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with vermouth**.
Close the parcel. Leave a funnel. Put in oven for 20 m.
Serve with potato puree.*** Decorate with some washed and shredded fennel leaves.

*Replace vermouth with pastis for a more aniseed-like flavour.
**Slightly oiled aluminium foil will do.
***Add some fennel seeds and a drop of vermouth. Or melt 1 bs of butter with a few drops of vermouth* and dribble over the puree.

A Gemini Manhattan

For ➊ drink
2 cl dry vermouth
7 cl Tennessee Bourbon whiskey
dash Angostura bitters
1 maraschino cherry
1 twist orange peel

Mix and shake* liquids (& bitters) in a cocktail mixer. Serve over ice-cubes in a low-ball glass. Decorate with maraschino cherry and orange peel.

*Some will stir liquids over crushed ice in a pitcher. Then strain into a cocktail glass.

According to an evidently obscure test, this Gemini's signature cocktail is a Manhattan.
'Much too mature for child's play you tend to be more thoughtful and understated, and you never fail to bring a little depth to any social gathering. That's why, for you, it doesn't get any better than a perfectly mixed Manhattan. One part suave and two parts smarts, your combination of wit and intelligence manages to raise the bar on almost any conversation (even if certain words are a little, ahem, slurred).
This isn't kindergarten, and your drink of choice has certainly grown up. So even if you don't always reach for the bourbon, you're still the kind of person who craves a drink with sophistication. Remember: There's no such thing as a dumb question, just a dumb drink.'
As always, the origins of this sky scraping mind blower are shrouded in history. The earliest account suggests it was invented in the 1860's by a bartender on Broadway near Houston Street, Manhattan indeed. The first concoctions had the reverse quantities of whisky (rye at the time) and vermouth (sweet & French at the time). The cocktail has become popular in television series as Sex & the City and The Simpsons.