Asparagus Risotto

This is another recipe from the Fabiolous Cooking Day cookbook. I already went into a lot of detail about my cooking lesson in Rome in the porcini mushroom risotto blog post, so there’s no need to repeat all that.  The asparagus risotto has its own story anyway.

Asparagus risotto was the first risotto I ever made, and it was also the first meal I cooked upon moving into my permanent housing with the university. Before moving into my new home,  I spent a year and a half in a serviced hotel apartment waiting for the university to sort out the permanent living arrangements.  The place had its good and bad points.  There were no utility bills, the apartment was cleaned regularly, and internet was free. I would have liked a better kitchen space as I found cooking meals to be a challenge with kitchen laid out as it was.

In March of last year, the call finally came.  The housing department secured a new building in Lusail and expected us to all be moved out by the end of April.  I had a look at the place and decided to decline the accommodation.  It was a decent enough two-bedroom apartment. But Lusail is still under massive development, and the first thing that came to my mind when I looked at the space was the amount of construction that would be going on in the area. With my asthma, I wasn’t too confident about what life would be like in the area over the next few years. Noise pollution and lack of internet hookup were also factors I considered, so with all that in mind, I went back to Housing and turned down the apartment.

This led a lot of stress for me.  As much as I enjoyed my work at the university, I decided to prepare myself for the possibility of leaving Doha at the end of my contract.  I sold off a number of items in preparation to make a move from Doha at the end of the next year just to be safe.  I wanted to stay in Qatar, but I was not willing to live in the space they provided.

I started by moving to a friend’s place for a few weeks and then I got to experience the real estate market in Doha first-hand.  Most of the places I saw were over the amount the university provides as an accommodation allowance. So I quickly came to terms with the reality that I would have to dip into my salary to get something I liked.  I found a nice place while RS and I were out eating at a Korean restaurant.  It just so happened to be located on the ground floor of a hotel that provided serviced apartments.  So I spent the next two months living out of here.

While all of this was happening, I was in regular contact with the Housing Department at the university working them over for the place I really wanted, a little apartment in the Pearl in a neighbourhood with bright, pastel-coloured buildings, cafés, and canals. It’s meant to be a Qatari take on Venice.

First, Housing told me they didn’t have any available. Then I started discreetly asking around and found out that some departing teachers would be leaving the University and their apartments were opening up. So, armed with this information, I went back to housing.  They asked for names, and I provided them with twenty.  Housing initially said no to my request again, these apartments were to be reserved for the new staff arriving in early August and could be held for teachers who would be out of country while the newbies arrived.  I informed them I was working for the university during the summer and was available to move in immediately.

I didn’t really buy this excuse, and I told the housing rep that I was working for the university over the summer and I’d be able to take a vacated apartment as soon as the teacher left the country.  Housing finally relented and gave me a list of five places to choose from in the Pearl.  Each place was nice, but one of them stood out from all the others.  It was on the corner of a canal intersection, away from the roads and had a great view of the water and the neighbourhood.  I took it.

I extended my stay at the serviced hotel apartment while I went about getting ready for the move. I cleaned up the place; taking down the curtains and dry cleaning them; tossing out the old leftover furniture; sweeping, mopping and scrubbing everything till it was spotless.  I got a used sofa and bed frame for the place, moved my boxes in and paid some guys to come in and put a fresh coat of paint on everything.  Once all that was done, I picked up some new stuff at IKEA to completely furnish the apartment and commenced with unpacking.

After I finished the first round of unpacking, I settled in to cook my first meal in my new home.  It was asparagus risotto with tiramisu for dessert.  Given the Italian theme of my neighbourhood, I thought it was the choice of food was fitting.  This recipe isn’t the same as the risotto I cooked that night. As I mentioned earlier, this is another recipe from the Fabiolous Cooking Day.  Both recipes are good, but I like this one better.

Asparagus Risotto
Ingredients 1 kg asparagus 500 ml chicken stock 500 ml vegetable stock 4 Tbsp olive oil 1 small onion – finely chopped 350 g (1 2/3 cups) risotto rice – rinsed well 75 g grated parmesan cheese 3 Tbsp heavy cream 1000 ml water

Wash the asparagus and cut about an inch from the bottom of the spears and discard the bottom pieces. Cut the tips off and boil them in a saucepan for one minute. Then drain the water and place the tips in iced water to stop the cooking process for about a minute and set them aside.

Cut the stems into thirds and cook them in boiling water until they become tender, this should take about 8 minutes. Add the stems along with the stocks to a food processor and blend for a minute or two. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce heat and maintain the mixture at a low simmer.

Heat the olive oil on the stove-tops medium setting in a large and heavy-bottomed pan, around 30 cm diameter should do. Cook the onion until it becomes translucent. Add the rice and reduce the heat to low. Season the rice and stir well so that it’s coated for about a minute.  Turn the heat back up to medium and stir in a ladleful of the mixture and continue stirring. Once the mixture gets absorbed, stir in another.  Continue like this for about 20 minutes until the rice becomes al dente. Start tasting as you get close to 20 minutes to avoid over-cooking the risotto. You may need to use the entire mixture plus a little extra stock, or you may have some mixture left over.  Risottos will vary a little each time.

Once the rice is al dente, remove from heat and add the parmesan with cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste and gently stir in the asparagus tips. Serve right away while hot.