using up: cabbage, the very last of last week’s roast chicken.

Now, I really didn’t expect this to work at all, but it was really nice, and will be added to my repertoire of cabbage recipes; we get a lot of cabbages in the veg box, so a new dish is quite exciting!  I think it would work with pancetta instead of chicken, and any other cabbage, although denser ones would need to be steamed first.

My base for risotto for two is 5 oz of arborio rice, and 1 pint of liquid – this can be stock, lemon juice, wine, vermouth, whatever, or any permutation thereof.  I once tried coconut milk, and it worked really well.  People say you should keep the stock bubbling, but I’m afraid I don’t bother.

Quartered an onion, then cut it into rings.  Sauteéd it in some olive oil and butter until soft.  Prepared a pint of vegetable stock using Marigold bouillon powder and boiling wter.  Put 5 oz of risotto rice into the pan and stirred it about to coat it in the buttery oily mix.

Started adding the stock a bit at a time, and kept stirring until the rice absorbs the liquid, then added some more. Kept on doing this.  When about half the stock was gone, added about a quarter of a savoy cabbage, sliced very finely into ribbons, and stirred that in.  Added some sea salt and freshly ground cabbage.  Kept adding stock.  When about a quarter of it left, added some shredded cooked chicken.  Kept adding stock.

I suppose it takes about 20 minutes, although I’ve never timed it.  At the end of the process the rice should be al dente.  We finished it off with some parmesan shavings – sounds grand, but I just take them off with the potato peeler 🙂