Wild garlic pesto & mushroom risotto with lemon-flavoured breadcrumbs – And the sudden rescue

There are things that match together so nicely, but they do not grow in the same season: like mushrooms and wild garlic. (All right, nowadays everything is grown in every season – very much true for the cultivated champignon – but it just sounded good put in this way.)

This recipe was created because I suddenly needed a handful of cherries urgently (for the summer issue of a food magazine) and in early spring I couldn’t find any. But then a nice friend of mine rescued me. I prepared this dish for her.

Wild garlic pesto & mushroom risotto with lemon-flavoured breadcrumbs

For the risotto:

- 2 tbsp. olive oil

- 1 tbsp. butter

- 1 onion (finely chopped)

- 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

- 400 g risotto rice

- 200 ml dry white wine

- 140 ml vegetable stock

- 70 g butter

- 45 gr grated parmesan

- salt, pepper

Wild garlic pesto:

- 150 g walnut (roasted)

- 75 g wild garlic

- cc. 100 ml olive oil (an amount that makes the pesto creamy)

- 50 g parmesan

- salt, pepper

For the mushroom part:

- 1 tbsp. butter

- 1 tbsp. olive oil

- 1 onion

- 500 g mushrooms

- fress thyme

- nutmeg (freshly grated)

- 25 ml dry white wine

- salt, pepper

Lemon-flavoured breadcrumbs

- 250 g dry white bread (without crust)

- 6 tbsp. olive oil

- 1 lemon’s zest (grated)

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion and the garlic on the olive oil and the butter. Add the risotto rice and fry it for a minute stirring continuously. Add the white wine and stir until the rice absorbs the wine. Add gradually the hot vegetable stock to the rice: add only a ladleful at a time and then wait until the rice absorbs it, then add the next, and so on. Finally add the last ladle of vegetable stock, then mix the butter and the parmesan immediately in the risotto.
2. Blend together the ingredients of the wild garlic pesto with an immersion blender. (It doesn’t need to be completely homogeneous; you can leave small pieces in the pesto.)
3. Fry the onion on the mixture of olive oil and butter (salt it). Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper and season them, then fry them. (First they will let off some liquid, then you can fry them.) Add the wine and wait until it completely evaporates while stirring continuously for a minute.
4. Crush the bread and fry it on the oil. Flavour the breadcrumbs with the lemon’s zest.

Beer beef stew with corn noodles – 3 countries in 1 dish

The idea comes from the Italian pici con ragú (this recipe is based on Jamie Oliver’s version). But I make it a little bit English by adding some beer, a little Hungarian by making it with noodles, and a little American by adding salted peanuts. I think we must sprinkle it with parmesan on the top, but make your own version!

Beer beef stew with corn noodles

For the corn noodles:

-          500 g corn flour

-          400 ml water (as much as necessary)

-          2 egg yolks

-          1,5 tsp salt

For the tomato beef stew:

-          olive oil

-          1 onion (chopped)

-          2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

-          500 g minced beef

-          1 bunch of fresh rosemary

-          4 bay-leaves

-          1600 g peeled, chopped tomato (tinned)

-          150 ml brown beer

-          salt, pepper

-          100 g salted, roasted peanuts (ground)

For the top:

-          parmesan (grated)

1. Fry the onion on the oil (salt it), then add the minced meat (salt and pepper it) and the spices. Fry the meet, and then pour the tomatoes and the beer to it. Salt and pepper it, and cook it for 2 hours under cover at low fire. At the end add the peanuts too.
2. Knead all the ingredients for the noodles, then put the dough on a cutting board, and cut noodles with a knife. Drop them in hot, salted water and cook them.
3. Mix the noodles with the stew, and sprinkle the dish with cheese.

Lemon crème brulée tartlets – My three favourites in one dessert

In this recipe I have combined my three favourites: the shortbread, the crème brulée and the lemon curd.

Lemon crème brulée tartlets

For the Tartlets:

-          500 g flour

-          300 g butter (cold; cut in cubes)

-          1 tsp. salt

-          200 g sugar

-          1 egg white (to glaze the tartlets)

For the lemon crème:

-          5 eggs

-          275 g sugar

-          170 g lemon juice

-          juice of 1/2 lime

For the top:

-          Brown sugar/sugar

1. Mix the flour with the salt, then crumble it with the butter cubes. Mix with the sugar, and then knead the dough (add some water if it is needed to assemble the dough). Wrap it and put it in the fridge for half an hour. Butter the tartlet pans, then roll out the dough, and line the pans with it. Put the pans with the dough in the fridge again for half an hour. Cover the top of the dough in each of the pans with baking parchment and spread dry beans on it. Bake it on 160°C, while its sides turn golden. Remove the beans, glaze it with the egg white, and put it back to the oven for two more minutes.
2. For the crème: Beat the eggs with the sugar with an electric mixer. Pour the lemon juice gradually, while stirring it continuously. Cook the mixture above steam until it thickens. Fill the crème into the tartlets. Put them in the fridge for an hour, then sprinkle them with sugar and caramelize it with a blowtorch.