Mushroom Risotto with special salads

One day recently Jane made us a Mushroom risotto, an old favourite of ours.

Nice as it was, on this occasion it was not actually The Main Event. The salads that we had with it stole the limelight.

First up, a really refreshing and "zingy" salad made of Chinese Leaves, Fennel, Oranges and Land Cress.

This was truly a special salad. Soft leaves, crunchy fennel, peppery cress and sweet and juicy oranges. A brilliant combination of tastes and textures.

Salad No.2 was a remoulade made of Celeriac, Carrots and Red Cabbage, bound together with a mayonnaise into which a good dollop of Dijon mustard had been stirred, along with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice. [For those of you who don't already know this, a remoulade is basically pretty similar to a slaw, as in "Coleslaw".]

This is another great combination. The vegetables are all raw and therefore still crunchy [Tip: using a food-processor to shred them saves a huge amount of time], and the soft, tangy creamy mayonnaise complements them extremely well. Celeriac is one of our favourite vegetables these days; I'd probably eat it every day, given the chance!

So do you see what I mean? Nice risotto, but fabulous salads!

Serving suggestion: serve with home-made crusty bread, and a bottle of decent Italian wine...


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Note on photography. In common with almost all the photos of food that I take, these were not staged. My photos are of food that we actually eat, which is why they are sometimes not artistically composed. In fact I often take pictures of a meal that I had never intended to photograph. It's just that when I see the dish I sometimes think "Wow, that deserves a photo. Quick, where's my camera?" and I snap off a few shots before tucking in. Jane has learned to live with this now (I think).