I love to introduce strange ingredients into my dishes, especially herbs (or so-called weeds) growing abundantly in the garden. The positive of this endeavour is ample ingredients that grow on your doorstep; you cannot get it fresher and there are various nutritional arguments one can make for eating herbs. But another, often overlooked aspect, is that we can actually control so-called weeds by eating the seed pods before they dry out and spread. These seed pods, like the edible common mallow seed pods, are extremely tasty and nutritious. They add a fresh and zesty snap to any dish if you turn them into a caper (or pickle).
Recently, a common mallow plant sprung up in my garden and the number of seed pods it is making is really shocking. There are so many on the one plant, and each pod contains many seeds. Somewhere in the past, I read one can make capers from these little “cheese wheels” (the seed pods look like cheese wheels). Or a quick pickle! Perfect, in my opinion, for a creamy and rich risotto dish.
I decided to make a charred vegetable risotto for lunch, which I topped with these caper mallow seed pods. It added an extremely fresh snap that breaks through the creamy dish. It also adds a unique flavour to the dish and increases the overall nutritional value.
So please follow along with me as I make this really simple but nutritionally dense dish!
Ingredients/Recipe
For this dish, I used the following ingredients to make two medium-sized servings or one large serving:
- 100 grams of arborio rice,
- 1 onion,
- 3 cloves of garlic,
- 3 small pieces of broccoli,
- 1 lemon’s worth of juice,
- 1 lemon’s worth of zest,
- 2 zucchinis,
- 1 bunch of green beans,
- 1/2 a red pepper, and
- 1 handful of green mallow seed pods,
- 1 handful of mallow leaves.
You will also need to add a certain amount of stock, depending on how long it takes to cook the rice. I added about three cups of water with a generic stock cube.
Method/Process
The process or method of cooking risotto is like most Italian dishes gate kept by many people. There are so many different ways to cook this simple dish but each family or each person has his/her own way of cooking it. And a lot of people will tell you that there is one way of cooking it authentically. To some extent, this is true, but like most things in life, the most authentic way to do anything is to just do it. Follow your own process of cooking risotto, but here I will share my way of cooking risotto.
Before I start with the risotto, though, I add lemon juice, some salt, and a pinch of sugar to the bowl in which I have the green mallow seed pods. This quick pickle will substitute for the capers, or it is a type of caper we make from green mallow seed pods.
I then start the risotto process by browning some onion and pepper. Adding some colour to these ingredients helps with adding tons of flavour otherwise lost if you skip this step.
When I achieve the desired colour, I add the rice, garlic, and lemon zest. I brown these elements only slightly, as it will give a nice nutty flavour. But keep an eye on it as it will burn really quickly, imparting a bitter and burnt flavour. Keep your stock or water ready.
Ideally, I would have added a mushroom stock, as this would have been the ideal stock in this dish. But I merely added some water and a generic stock cube. The rice and the mallow leaves both help with creating a silky smooth texture to the dish; the rice imparts starches, and the mallow leaves, being a family of okra, add some binding texture.
Whilst the risotto is cooking, I add some oil to a separate pan. When the oil is hot, I add the vegetables, in this case, sliced the beans, zucchini, and broccoli.
The idea is to char the vegetables but not burn them. The line between the two is paper-thin, so keep an eye on the pot. Again, burning the vegetables will impart a bitter flavour you want to avoid. But when you get this right, you will have a perfectly charred vegetable that is sweet and umami-rich and still crunchy!
I did not add these charred vegetables until the very end of the dish. When the risotto is perfectly cooked, I add the mallow leaves and the charred vegetables.
I stir it in; if there is still too much moisture in the pot quickly cook it till it's gone; if it is too dry, add some stock. Stir it in and put the lid on it for five minutes.
And there you have it! Perfectly cooked risotto in a couple of easy steps and in less than an hour of active cooking! It is obviously not for everyone but if you have the time and the patience, you must try it. I top it off with some of the pickled or capered green mallow seed pods.
The charred vegetables add an intense umami-rich sweetness to the dish, and the caper green mallow seed pods add just the right amount of acidity to the dish to break through the smooth texture of the sauce/starch.
I asked my girlfriend to rate the dish and she again said it was a ten out of ten! Maybe the scoring system is broken; we need to break it down into individual elements so that we can see where I can improve or not. But overall, it was a really delicious lunch you must try if you like risotto.
For now, happy cooking and keep well.
All of the photographs used in this post are my own, taken with my Nikon D300. The musings and writings are also my own. The recipe is my own creation, albeit inspired by the mallow plant that grew in the middle of the lawn which I kept. I planned this recipe for a whole week in advance!