Prawn, Pea and Herb Risotto.

So this is the other half of my Mother’s Day post. Thought I’d spit it up and spread it over two posts because of how busy I am. This was what preceded the epic chocolate fondants which I blogged about earlier this week for the dinner my sister and I made for mum on mother's day.



For those who don’t know this is the period of the year considered by most third year students to be dissertation hell, or revision hell depending on the way your degree swings.

My degree swings in a way, which makes the next month editing hell. One of my two (yes two) dissertations is making a film. Me and two of my peers have chosen to make a documentary on Female Mixed Martial Artists. To anyone else that is girl cage fighters. Exciting huh?

The downfall of this is having now collected all our footage we now are spending day after day in a windowless editing booth (while it is beautifully sunny in Brighton I may add) trying to string a coherent film together. I love it yes, but after staring at a screen for 8 hours in one sitting trying to work out if a clip needs another millisecond shaved off it to make the scene run more smoothly I tend to feel like I have cotton wool for a brain and don’t fancy cooking anything too elaborate later in the evening.

Annnnyway back to the risotto…My sister fought with me bitterly about the addition of basil to this recipe but I definitely stand by it and would even go as far as saying this may be the best risotto on this blog to date. Bold. I know.

Serves 3

2 tblsp olive oil
large knob of butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
glass of dry white wine
half a pepper, sliced
enough risotto rice for 3
1 pint stock, (chicken or veg)
200g frozen peas, thawed
250g raw prawns, peeled and sliced length ways
large handful basil, chopped
large handful mint, chopped
good squeeze of lemon

To start with get your stock hot, and mash half the peas with a little bit of the butter.



Sweat the onion in the olive oil and the rest of the butter, when soft add the garlic.

When fragrant turn up the heat and add the rice , fry until slightly translucent and add the wine. When the alcohol has burnt off add the peppers and start adding the stock ladle by ladle adding the next when the last has been completely absorbed, stirring frequently to massage the starch out of the rice.

When the rice is nearly cooked, throw in the prawns, whole peas and when the peas are cooked and the prawns have turned pink stir in the mashed peas herbs and a squeeze of lemon.

Season to taste and serve drizzled with olive oil.