Mike van de Elzen: Asparagus risotto with spring onions and rocket

Asparagus risotto with spring onions and rocket 

Cook time: 30-40 minutes 

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Serves: 6

650-750ml vegetable stock, heated  

1 onion, finely chopped  

4 cloves garlic, crushed  

2 Tbsp sunflower oil  

1 cup Arborio rice  

2 cups white wine  

100 gm butter  

1 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan  

1 bunch asparagus  

1 cup chopped spring onions  

1/2 cup chopped fresh rocket  

Shaved Parmesan to serve

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and get a large bowl of ice with a bit of water ready.  

Drop the asparagus into the boiling water for 30 seconds, remove quickly and plunge into the iced water to stop cooking quickly. Once cool, drain and slice into 3cm rounds.  

Heat a large pot with the oil and sauté the onions and garlic.  

Add in the rice and cook on high for a minutes while stirring. This is a very important part of hardening the rice. Add the wine to remove the heat from the pot but will steam a lot.

Once the wine has reduced to very little, gradually start to add the hot stock, you can go 2 cups, then 1 cup then 1/2 a cup until the rice is al dente. Or firm to the tooth. Turn of the heat and stir in the butter and the grated parmesan. Add the blanched asparagus, spring onions and the rocket and stir to combine.  

Serve with some shaved parmesan. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB Mike vand alson Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Now, before we talk about food, I'd just like to
say very big happy birthday to your daughter Ivy thirteen today.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
That's crazy, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I know, just feels like ye day there were two
little young girls running around a farm.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Now you got teenagers on your hand, I know, and
that also marks me being on news Talk zb Sunday
segment for thirteen years.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well there we go, yeah crazy, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
So yes, we had a big party yesterday. It was amazing.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
The weather was incredible middle I was just there wasn't
a breath of when the sun was beating down. It
was a great day.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
There were lots of teenagers running around.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
I put a big slip and slide down At the
bottom of the flipp of slide, which I didn't tell
them about. There was some reasonably large horse no cow pennies.
Wish they ended up sliding into it.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I knew I'd hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, there's nothing like a slip and slide. I just
think it's it's the best entertainment. My partner used to
hate it when I'd put that we live up, We've
got a hell out the back of our property and
it was perfect. But my part used to hate it
because it would ruin the lawn, so we'd have to
do it during the day and now tell the kids,
don't tell Dad trying to fluff up the lawn so
he didn't come home and see his flat nihilated lawn.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Well, at least it watered it partly.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
You got your hands on some white asparagus this week.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
It was pretty It was pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Be headed down to Hamilton during the week to pick
up some seed potatoes and her Auntie Cris, is very
well connected in Hamilton, and they ended up going to
pick some asparagus. But more importantly, they got their hands
on some white sparagus, which is pretty special. I think
I've spoken about white asparagus before, but it's white because
it's grown in complete darkness, no sunlight, no photosynthesis, no color.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
A lot I believe it's a lot sweeter.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
It's got a slightly nutty sort of flavor to it,
and it's just that little bit more tender because it's white,
and it just breaks off so well.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
So being so expensive, you kind of you use it
a little bit more sparingly or a little bit more careful,
or more so. For this dish this week, which is
the asparagus risotto. You kin'd you want to taste the asparagus.
You don't want it. You don't want it to disappear
into something. So you wouldn't want to make a white
sparagus soup for instance.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Okay, whip us through this asparagus rosotto with springing rocket.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Oh it's great, So spagadians around it at the moment.
So there's rocket, so large pot of salted water. So
we're going to blant asparagus. So I've got one bunch
of white asparagus. If you can't get your hands on
white sparagus, of course, you can.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Always just use normal green asparagus.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Drop your sparagus and I count to probably thirty thirty
seconds half a minute, then pull it out into ice
water to stop it from cooking, and then set them aside.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
You could cut them up into large chunks if you want.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
One onion into a pot, fair amount of oil, two
to three tablespoons of oil along foreclosed garlic that's been crushed.
Saute off the onions and the garlic together. Add in
one cup of a boreo rice, which is the risotto rice.
Saute that off. That's very important. It's called hardening of
the rice. So saute the rice before you throw in
two cups of white wine. Reduce that down ever so

(03:34):
slightly before you start to add the stock, and so
pour one cup of a boreo rice on, adding in
six fifty to seven to fifty mils of vegetin stock.
Just keep adding it slightly slowly as it's absorbing that rice.
It's just continuing to add and absorb that stock. And
then what you want to end up with is a

(03:55):
small amount of stock and the rice what we call
our denta. So just firm to the tooth, just a
slight amount of bite at the end.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Turn it off.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Add an I've got a cup of grated parmesan, so
you want a decent parmesan and about one hundred grads
of chopped up butter and then seasoned, and then backing
goes asparagus, back and goes a cup of chopped up
spring onions and maybe half a cup.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Of fresh as sparagus that's been chopped up.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Add that and give it a good mixed serve it
instantly delicious.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
It does sound delicious. Thank you so much, Mike.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks B from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio