Richard Fox: "This is a great dinner party dish for a number of reasons (not least because of the taste). Risotto lends itself very well to the par-cooking process, giving you minimum cooking time prior to serving up to your guests. In addition, the sloppy nature of risotto means there's no fancy presentation to worry about - simply spoon it into bowls, garnish with chunks of roast squash, and you're into dinner party heaven. A light, zesty wheat beer not only adds a little fragrant luxury to the whole affair, but is also an ideal accompaniment."
1. Peel the squash, and then cut in half, lengthways. Scrape out the seeds from the bulbous end and slice this part into thin slices. Cut the remainder of the squash into approximately 1cm dice.
2. To make the purée, melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and add the sliced squash, gently cook for a few minutes and then add 150ml of the beer. Cook gently until the squash is very soft - this should take 20-25 minutes. If the pan is going dry, just add a little water.
3. When the squash is cooked, blend to a purée, add salt and pepper to taste, and set aside to cool.
4. While the purée is cooking, roast the cubes of squash in a 200°C pre-heated oven. Simply spread the squash on a baking tray in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast until tender, but not mushy (about 15-20 minutes).
Make the purée and roast squash up to a day before. Cook the risotto according to the method above until the point of being al dente. Immediately remove from the heat and spread out over a flat surface in order to cool quickly and evenly. Refrigerate all the cooked ingredients until required. To serve, simply add a ladle of stock or water, to a pan, add the risotto and heat through. When it's hot, add the purée, re-heat the cubes in the oven, add the grated Parmesan and serve.
5. To make the risotto, bring the stock to a low simmer. In another, heavy-based saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and gently cook the onion, garlic and thyme until soft.
6. Add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the remainder of the wheat beer and stir until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed. Add a couple of ladles of stock and stir until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Repeat this process until the rice is al dente (with a soft bite).
7. This should take about 15 minutes. About 2-3 minutes before the rice is completely cooked, stir in the squash purée and crumble in the goat's cheese. Meanwhile, reheat the squash cubes and add the Parmesan to the risotto. To serve, garnish the risotto with the cubes of squash and some shaved fresh Parmesan. Serve with glasses of chilled wheat beer. Delicious.
© Richard Fox
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