Bookmarked!- Breakfast Risotto

Bookmarked! No, not risotto for breakfast. Even I'm far from that bonkers and I'm certainly not the sort of person who is up, ready and raring to fry, add wine and stir, stir, stir before work. This is a risotto inspired by breakfast. Or more accurately, inspired by this bacon, egg and leek risotto made by Smitten Kitchen.


Why I bookmarked: I make a lot of risotto, mostly when I'm feeling lazy but still want to maintain that I'm a good and providing girlfriend to the number one carb eater in my life. Ditto fried breakfast. And even if I didn't already love both rice and a full English, I'm all for putting an egg on basically anything.

What I changed: I lightened the original by cutting right down on the three tablespoonfuls of butter used to fry, saving instead a single spoonful to stir in at the end. Mmm, taste that buttery richness. 
And smoked bacon, not plain. Because.
I also swapped the leeks (definitely never a breakfast food in my world) for mushrooms; dried porcini for an amazing rich stock and chestnut. Then I ruined the very noble breakfast effort by in stirring chopped kale. But it is so damn pretty and it comes in such big bags I really had no choice.

Success? Very, very nearly. The porcini flavoured stock was so freaking good. The garlicky bacon, creamy rice and yolk sliding all over the place was also a winner. The only hiccup was the kale (trust me to change something then not like it!). I'd chopped the stems small, but they just didn't soften enough. The leaves were nice though and I never say no to a veggie. With my totally delicious mushroom additions, the only way this could be more breakfast-y would be if I poured baked beans all over it! Maybe next time...

'Breakfast' Mushroom Bacon and Egg Risotto (for two people)

750ml boiling water
Half a stock cube
About 3g dried porcini muchrooms ( a big finger + thumb pinch)
About 4 pumps of 1 calorie olive oil Frylight* or a whisper of olive oil if not
2 slices of smoked streaky bacon  
1 fat clove of garlic
150g arborio rice or similar
1/2 glass of white wine
3 stems of kale (stems removed, don't make my mistake!) and roughly torn into pieces
2 eggs

a tablespoon of butter 

  
1) In a jug, pour boiling water over the half stock cube and porcini pieces. Stir vigorously to get everything acquainted.
2) Add the Frylight* or olive oil to a big, high sided pan (to assist with all that stirring!) and fry bacon until crispy and amazing. Pop the bacon into a bowl, leaving the rendered bacon fat in the pan
3) Lightly fry the garlic and rice in the bacon fat (slowly, don't burn it!) 
4) Add the wine and turn the heat up until bubbling, baby. Leave it to bubble while you...
5) Fish the porcini pieces out of the stock with a fork and chop finely
6)  Slowly add the stock, splosh by splosh, waiting for the last lot to absorb for adding more. Just pour it right out of the jug in bit dollops. You don't need to stir all the time like a hob-bound nutter, just occasionally so it doesn't stick and burn. Chuck those little porcini bits in too
7) After about 15 minutes, the rice will still be closer to raw than al dente, but here's where you add the kale. 
8) Another 15 minutes later, it should be lovely. Take it off the heat, add the butter and stir in. Creeaamy. 
9) Do a speedy egg frying job in a separate pan and slide onto plated portions. Crack pepper all over it if like me, you're a black pepper maniac. 

*Frylight is a revelation. It's marvellous. Never before will I cover my hands, face and every surface in my kitchen with oil trying to coat wedges, chicken fingers or anything else for oven roasting. Never again will I have a sad puddle of oil to drain out of my pan. Light, crispy goodness is mine, ALL mine.