Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' March Challenge Balsamic Roasted Beetroot Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This was a hard Challenge. Not the cooking of the Risotto, not the time and the mood. The Children are sick again. I myself have a horrible case of bronchitis and since I have Lung problems  and not a full functioning Lung this sucks.

All this I tell you because if I become this sick I usually are unable to taste anything. It`s like chocking down cardboard.

This means I had to wait until the last minutes in the hopes that I would feel better and make a good risotto.

We eat Risotto a lot. Especially in the Summer months my husband and I love to eat a hot Risotto with a sharp fresh Salad from the Garden.

I adore herbs and so it`s no wonder the Risotto we cook most is only favoured with Rosemary. Closely followed by Basil and Parsley.

If we want something different that looks amazing we love a Radicchio Risotto with a fresh Tomato salad.

You see why we usually cook Risotto in the Summer. We use what we find in our Garden.

It`s Winter and I wanted to do something different.

I still have Beetroot in the basement and I adore them Roasted with Balsamic vinegar so this is what I used.

But first I made a chicken stock. This too is nothing new in my kitchen. Since a lot of people in our families have allergies and some are lactose-intolerant I only use homemade stock.

As you can see on the picture I use a real boiling hen, this is the way to go if you want a real tasty stock.

 

For the Risotto I roasted peeled and cut beets sprinkled with Balsamic vinegar for a hour in the oven (200°C).  Half of the Beets I cut into small  cubes, the same size of the diced red onion. The rest of the Beets I pureed into the chicken stock. 

This Risotto is on the sweet side so I used a dollop of Crème fraiche, a lot of Black Pepper and some fresh chives to cut through.

Give it a try and tell me what you think. Now go over to the Daring Bakers Side and look at the amazing thing they did and also get the lovely DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE RECIPES HERE!.