Its strawberry season here in Italy.
And I love strawberries. I could eat them practically every day, be it with lemon juice and sugar or just with cream on top. Which is probably why I went a little overboard buying strawberries the last time I was at the market – 6 punnets of strawberries for 5 freaking euro. Who doesn’t want?!
Unfortunately, strawberries are highly perishable, and wont last for too long before they start to get mouldy. So Cart and I were wondering on what to do with them apart from strawberries and cream.
And then Cart suggested. Lets make Strawberry Risotto!
Strawberry? In risotto? Sounds like a wierd combination since strawberries are usually used in desserts. But I’m game to try it out.
First melt some butter in a pot. Add some chopped onions and then some chopped strawberries.
And then add some rice and stir it in the mixture to be infused with the strawberries. You know, same technique as to how biryani is made.
Arborio rice vs Long Grain rice
In this case, we used Arborio which is a type of Italian rice which is short and thick. I don’t know if you could use long grain rice like Basmati or Thai rice but for sure, the end texture would be very different because they are not as starchy as Italian rice.
Then Cart added some balsamic vinegar to enhance the taste. Typically, the recipe asks for wine like 1/4 glass of prosecco or champagne. But we don’t drink though.
Now add in some vegetable stock and put enough to cover the rice. And leave the risotto to cook.
As a sidenote, while editing the pictures, I was marvelling at how clean the stove looked. Till I saw the the picture below of some spilled stock. Haiyah, clean again … *shake head*
And when the risotto looks just about done, add a bit more chopped strawberries and a bit of butter to make the risotto smoother.
And then you are done!
Tada! Risotto alle fragole. And its actually not bad! But you have to remember, this is not a sweet dessert type of dish, but more vegetable-ly type of risotto. I think its a matter of perception to get over with.
Sidenote :
Zoori thinks that Suria should give me a spot on tv for a cooking show
I feel very honored! But if that were to happen, people would probably switch off the tv. Yeah? 
this sure sounds weird, but i’m game to try! 😀 (to eat, not to cook, haha)
and i agree u should get a hosting spot on a cooking show on Suria. or hell, even channel 5! 😀
I wonder if you could get similar strawberries in Singapore though, Daphne. The best ones that I had so far there was imported from Korea if I’m not wrong. It was a little more expensive but it was really lovely 🙂
Oklah, a spot on a cooking show. Maybe that could be an idea for the next video blog :p
Did you hear of strawberry ketchup???
No, I’ve never! I was searching in google and they served strawberry ketchup with pineapple fries. Interesting stuff :p
But speaking of that, have you ever heard of banana sauce? I have a bottle with me, bought from the asian stall :p
i have heard of banana sauce! i have had it too. what (i think) the restaurant did was to heat up some curry leaves, and add the banana sauce to it, in a sauce pan. it gives the banana sauce a very fragrant curry smell. it was served with fried calamari. lovely.
Wow that’s amazing – strawberry rice!
Wah so envious of you in Rome! 🙂
Daphne
Thats probably an Indian banana sauce, sounds yum!
The one that I was thinking of was the Philippines type though. During WW2, there was a shortage of tomatoes to make ketchup, so they used banana’s instead and tried to make it like ketchup. Its very popular there since.
It tastes wierd to me though.
Camemberu
Hehehe, its very interesting isnt it? 🙂
Apart from that, there is lemon pasta too. Probably unheard of in Singapore