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Mushroom Risotto
Kay’s mushroom risotto
This recipe is for 2 people. Just double the quantities for four. Or, it is plenty for four people as a starter, as it would be in Italy.
 
Olive oil
One large red onion
160g arborio rice
150g mushrooms (open cup have more flavour)
1 chicken stock pot or cube
700ml boiling water
40g mature cheddar cheese
 
Peel the onion and dice it
Wipe the mushrooms and slice thinly
Grate the cheese
Bring the water to the boil and pour it into a measuring jar. Add the stock pot/cube and stir well. 
 
Put a tablespoon of olive oil into a sauté pan and heat it on a medium heat.
Add the onions and fry until they are soft and translucent
Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes whilst stirring.
Add the rice and stir everything together making sure the rice is well coated with oil.
 
Now pour in a ladle of the stock and stir. Keep stirring until the rice has all but absorbed the stock, then add another ladleful. Keep stirring until this has also been absorbed, then pour in another ladleful.
 
Keep doing this until all the stock has been absorbed. If the rice is not quite soft, add some more boiling water. On the other hand, if the rice seems cooked and you have not used up all the stock, do not add any more.
 
It is vital not to stop stirring. The risotto should have the consistency of a rice pudding. This process will take anything from 20 - 30 minutes.
 
Remove from the heat. Stir in the cheese. Put it into a serving dish. Some chopped chives or parsley looks pretty on the top. You might like to have a little more grated cheese on the table for people to help themselves.
 
Risotto can be made with almost anything as its main ingredient. If you are adding prawns, they should only be stirred in at the end of the cooking time. If adding bites of fish, just lay them over the top of the finished risotto, pop the lid on and continue cooking on a low heat for a couple of minutes, or until the fish looks opaque.
 
Lardons or chopped streaky bacon is good. Chicken, peppers, butternut squash, courgettes, are all good basics, but make sure you have cooked them before adding the rice.
 
 Nursery food
K's TADPOLE-IN-THE-HOLE 
This is my mother’s War time recipe. In order to make the meat ration go round, she had a fortnight’s menu of recipes. So, unless we’d forgotten what day of the week it was, we knew what it would be for dinner that day, except it was somehow always a surprise and always delicious. The sausage ration appeared as “sausages and mash” once a fortnight so my mother produced this version of toad-in-the-hole using our ration of mince, and called it tadpole-in-the-hole.
Our garden was turned over to growing vegetables but there were no freezers in those days, so we salted, bottled, strung, and stored everything to last us through the year. There was a bucket full of eggs preserved in isinglass, but they were like gold dust and rarely touched (we ate them up five years later at the end of the War! No use-by date in those days!)  Dried egg would have been used for this recipe. My mother knew where field mushrooms grew so we would cycle there and if we were lucky, mushrooms would be added to the ingredients too.
4 x servings
 
Small roasting pan or enamelled dish
Oven 210ºC
 
1lb (500g) minced beef
1 white onion
4 medium sized tomatoes or 8 cherry tomatoes
2 large mushrooms (or 6 small)
Beef dripping (nowadays I use1 tablespoon oil)
 
Batter:
4oz (120g) plain flour
1 large egg
½ pint milk and water mixture
Pinch salt and pepper
 
You may wish to use less water and make it all milk. Milk was rationed!
 
First make the batter.
 
Break the egg into the centre of the flour and stir gently using a wooden spoon to incorporate a little of the flour . Gradually add the milk into the egg mixture stirring all the while bringing in the flour slowly so that it doesn’t go lumpy. Stir in the pepper and salt. OR: Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until it is smooth. Leave to stand.
 
Put a knob of dripping into the roasting pan and melt in the oven (no need to do this if you are using oil) Make sure the sides are well greased/oiled
 
Dice the onions and spread around the pan
Sprinkle the mince over the onions
Cut the tomatoes into quarters, or cherry tomatoes in half, and sprinkle over the meat and onions.
Slice the mushrooms (if using) and if very large, halve the slices. Stir them into the meat mixture.
Make sure it’s evenly spread.
Place the roasting pan in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
 
Turn the oven temperature up to 220ºC
 
Take the pan out of the oven and pour the batter evenly over the mince mixture. 
Cook for 30-35 mins until well risen, golden brown and crisp on top.
 
Cut into portions and serve with baked beans, or, a dressed green salad for grownups.