Food At Faithlegg

One Saturday a month, head chef at Faithlegg House Hotel Jenny Flynn will join Maria McCann on The Saturday Café for Food At Faithlegg. This month Jenny is sharing her Pumpkin Risotto with Burnt Leek and Port Syrup recipe. Jenny will share a seasonal recipe and talk about the upcoming trends in the food world, focusing on local suppliers. She will also give tips and tricks for entertaining at home.

Pumpkin Risotto with Burnt Leek and Port Syrup

I love risotto, when you make risotto a few times you will know the look when to add the stock and when not to. Risotto is a dish you can’t rush you need to give the rice time to absorb the stock. This recipe is a favourite of mine it goes great with chicken or fish.

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin or butternut squash- after peeling and scraping out the seeds, you need about 400g/14oz
50ml rapeseed oil
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
25g butter
200g arborio rice
2 tsp ground cumin
900ml hot vegetable stock, plus an extra splash if needed
50g grated parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)

Method

Dice the pumpkin into even size cubes, drizzle with rapeseed oil and roast for about 25-30mins.

While the pumpkin is roasting make the risotto, crush the garlic, and finely dice the onion.

Heat the oil with the butter and cook the garlic and onion until tender add in the rice and the cumin stir the rice in the butter mixture for about 1 min.

Add the hot stock a cup at a time to the rice mixture until it has all disappeared into the rice.

Carry on adding and stirring in a large splash of stock until all the stock is gone this will take about 20mins.

Check the rice is cooked if it isn’t add a splash more until it is cooked.

Gently stir in the cheese.

Finally, add the roast pumpkin to the rice and stir.

I like using pumpkin seeds that have been sprinkled with oil and fried in a hot pan or simply roasted in the oven. I sprinkle over the risotto for texture.

Port Syrup

To make the port syrup 1 use 200ml port 50g brown sugar 1-star anise and tsp redcurrant jelly.

Bring to a boil and dissolve the sugar and jelly when this is done the syrup should be ready this will take about 5mins.

Drizzle over the risotto. The sweetness of this syrup with the rich cheese and pumpkin flavour is a great treat for cold dark evenings.

Burnt Leek

I use a torch to burn the dark green leek, these will go black and put into a bowl they will break to a dust.

In a bowl put a spoon of the risotto in the middle of the plate sprinkle with the burnt leek and drizzle with the port syrup.

Happy Halloween. Enjoy!

Jenny Flynn, Executive Chef Faithlegg Hotel

About Faithlegg

Faithlegg is an award-winning 4-star hotel set in beautiful grounds with its own 18 – hole golf course right on the doorstep. Opened officially by FBD Hotels & Resorts in 1998, Faithlegg is a luxury property designed to meet the needs of the most discerning guest whether staying for business or leisure.

Dining is always a pleasure at Faithlegg, where talented Head Chef Jenny Flynn takes pride in creating delicious dishes showcasing the very best of local ingredients.

Faithlegg takes pride in its dedicated team and boasts many long-serving experienced staff whose wealth of knowledge and genuine duty of customer care has managed to reach and maintain a high standard of service over the years.

Follow Jenny Flynn on Twitter and check out Faithlegg on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or see faithlegg.com.

You can also check out other Food At Faithlegg recipes here.