Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Main courses

This post is part of the Spice is Right, this month hosted by Habeas Brulee and it’s all about mixing up spices from one region, with recipes from another.

My recipe is a chermoula risotto, which seems like a bizarre combination, but works very well. Chermoula is a Moroccan spice mix, made up of cumin and paprika, along with garlic, lemon juice and fresh coriander. I’ve been thinking about making something with chermoula for a while. Then my organic vegie delivery today included some Kent (aka Jap) pumpkin, which works well with spices and the idea of risotto popped into my head. There are recipes for both the Chermoula and also the risotto below.

The final dish has a gentle lemon and spicy-ness to the dish, that blends beautifully with the arborio rice and pumpkin.

You can buy chermoula pre-made, but it’s quite easy to mix together yourself. While there are a few ingredients, you don’t have to do anything to them.

Chermoula

• 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Mix together the chermoula ingredients.

Chermoula risotto

I had this for my lunch today, so the quantities are for one, but you could easily scale up for more people. As with my other risottos , I like to include plenty of vegetables, but you can vary them around. I also think asparagus and baby spinach would work well in this dish, instead of the beans and mushrooms. Serves 1.

• 240g pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1cm chunks
• Chermoula, made to the quantities above
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/4 onion, finely chopped
• Small handful of green beans, cut into 2cm lengths
• 5 mushrooms (about 50g), quartered
• 1/3 cup arborio rice
• 40g fetta, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Roast the pumpkin: Toss the pumpkin in the chermoula spices, until fully coated. Empty onto a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin is cooked and quite soft.

Make a chermoula stock: Meanwhile put the kettle on and once boiling, pour about 2 cups of water into the bowl you used to mix the chermoula ingredients – so you have a chermoula flavoured “stock”.

Make the risotto: Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pan. Add the onions and saute for 3 minutes. Add the green beans and mushrooms and continue cooking for another 2 minutes, then add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Continue cooking for another couple of minutes, or until the rice goes slightly translucent.

Start adding the stock, about a quarter of a cup at a time. Add the first amount and then stir while the liquid is absorbed. Once this is done, add another quarter cup of stock and stir until it’s absorbed. Continue doing this until the rice is cooked.

Finish the risotto: By this time the pumpkin should be ready, so add this directly to the rice, mashing it slightly as you do so. Add the fetta, coriander and lemon juice, stir through and serve immediately.

Technorati tags: spice is right, chermoula, risotto, vegetarian.

15 November, 2006