Cauliflower & Zucchini Risotto with Prosciutto

(serves 4)

So recently i had a peek at someone's copy of "The Fat Duck" by Heston Blumenthal, it's insane. Like inspiringly insane... everything needs crazy machinery and excessive amounts of ingredients, rather overwhelming but fun to just skim through the beautiful presentation! It did inspire me to give cauliflower risotto another go, and try out this cool way of presenting cauliflower ~ he used a mendolin slicer and dehydrated it for 24hrs... i chose to just cut it and pan-fry in butter and garlic salt...  looks cool! (or brain-stemmy as someone put it, though i prefer 'tree of life'-like)

Prep time: 30 min

Cooking time: 45 min

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower

3 zucchini

1 onion

1 1/2 L chicken or vegetable stock

2 C Arborio rice

25g butter

2 cloves garlic

100mL cream

100mL milk

100g prosciutto

1 tsp dried thyme

20-30g pecorino

truffle oil, optional (but delicious!)

Method:

1.     Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

2.    Cut the cauliflower into florets, saving any scraps or small pieces to put into the stock.

3.    Dress the cauliflower with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme and roast for 20-25min until just crisp.

4.    Cut the zucchini into thin semi-circles.

5.    Heat the stock with the 1/3 of the zucchini, and the scraps of the cauliflower until boiling, then keep on medium heat.

6.    Finely dice the onion and garlic.

7.    Heat the butter in a large pot on medium heat and put in the onion and garlic until the onions are soft. Add in the rice and cook for 2-3min until the rice becomes slightly transparent.

8.    Add in the stock one ladle at a time until it’s absorbed, then add in the next ladle until you finish. Continue stirring so it doesn’t stick!

9.    Meanwhile, heat a pan with ½ T olive oil and pan-fry the zucchini on medium heat for 5-10min until soft.

10. When the stock is finished, add in the cream and milk and stir through. Toss in the zucchini and cauliflower and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

NB. You may want to leave a handful of each to garnish.

11.  Just prior to serving, mix through 20g of shaved pecorino.

12.  Serve with a couple of slices of prosciutto on top and a drizzle of truffle oil, and a glass of red!