Asparagus Risotto

It has been a long day and meal times have largely been ignored.  My alarm was set for 5am, which for a Saturday is stupidly early.  I had volunteered to help set up Planet Leeds on Briggate and Kirkgate Market and the meeting time was 6am outside Debenhams.  A quick coffee and a brisk walk into town saw me on site, with minutes to spare.  We relocated to Millennium square and gained access to the council's secret storage depot to pick up the staging equipment that we needed.

Back at the outdoor market, the organisers of Planet Leeds were engaged in low level turf warfare with the regular stall holders about where they were meant to set up.  If ever a UN peace envoy was needed it was yesterday morning.  People were quibbling over inches of ground but we eventually got the stage erected.  I had to leave the rest of the volunteers at this point as I had a prior engagement of baby-sitting so that Z could go to a toddler anger management course*.

While she was out I made R his lunch of cheese, tomato and spring onion quesadilla, which he devoured in seconds flat.  I held out for Z's return before eating, but with nothing in the house we finally decided to go out for lunch.  We ended up in The Adelphi where Z had fish and chips and I had a full English breakfast, at 3pm.  It was like travelling back in time to my Uni days when I would often go to the Swan and Rushes in Leicester for a slap-up breakfast and a couple of pints of Guinness after lectures.  There is no chance of doing anything after a few beers and a full English, all you can do is sit back and try not to nod off.

After such a late and large intake of protein, I wasn't sure that I would want an evening meal.  We checked the stores and decided to cook a light asparagus risotto.  I made a plain risotto base of softened onions, rice, white wine and stock, then cooked it until it was almost ready to serve, before adding the asparagus.  I didn't want to overcook the star ingredient and I was happy that the flavour would be strong enough to get through the rice, even when it was being added so late on.  I then stirred in some of the remaining cheese from our cheese tasting night and let the whole thing rest for five minutes.

The risotto was perfect**.  Creamy and soft with the flavour of the asparagus and the sharpness of the Caerphilly cheese.  If we had been hungrier, all I would have added would have been some bread and possibly a side salad but I wouldn't have changed anything to the dish itself.  After such a long day today, I am very glad for a leisurely day tomorrow.  I think I might enjoy not doing much at all.

*Neither Z or the boy suffer form uncontrollable rage but Z thought it was a good idea to see what the experts have to say on the matter before we have to deal with any future situations.
**Even if I do say so myself, which I do.

Asparagus Omelette

On Sunday, with the re-discovered joy that fridge ownership had brought, we had a family outing to our nearest supermarket.  Never have a small group of people been so happy at the thought of buying fresh orange juice, milk and cheese!  We could also raid the vegetable graveyard, looking for perfectly fine and edible produce that failed the supermarket's ridiculous shelf-life policy.

There was plenty to choose from, but we limited our haul to a bag of mange tout the size of your head and two bunches of asparagus.  Now I know that neither of these foods are in season and therefore, have probably been airfreighted in from Peru or Kenya, but a bargain is a bargain and I hate to see food go to waste.

Tonight I cooked a rather large omelette for our evening meal, which we ate with a salad that Z prepared.  I wont bore you to death with how to make an omelette, James Martin does enough of that every week on Saturday Kitchen.  I will say that lighter evening meals will become more of a prominent feature here, unless we snap back to wintry conditions again.