Ten month risotto rice trial. Finally, the results are in!

Three rices, one cook, which produced the best risotto in my 10 month test?

OK. It’s time to come clean. I have a competitive streak in me. So does My friend Liam. We are also both committed cooks (CC). The average Joe does not understand the pleasure that one gets from cooking a truly fine meal and serving it to friends and family. The CC loves to plan, to shop for the ingredients, to go the extra mile to get exactly the right wine to match the food, to really, really deliver a top quality meal. The CC also loves to hear what others are doing and when it comes down to it we just love to out-do each other. That is where it gets competitive.

Buying wine? Always go for real long term value…

The evidence of many years enjoying wine is here. It also hangs in our home. I have made two notice boards from corks we have pulled and I have enough corks to make many more.

Living here in Ireland, I know plenty of chaps who get value in their drink by taking an estate car or a ‘white van’ across to France on the ferry to buy wine and beer in bulk at a discount. They travel the minimum distance from the port, load the van and having spent the minimum amount of time away, make their way back home. They succeed in getting cheap drink.

A 40 minute miracle – domestic bliss restored

After over 20 years of marriage to the same lady, I have grown to learn that some promises are easier to make than to keep. Before leaving the office for the gym, I gave my word that  when I got home I would cook the fish. I also undertook to do it quickly. Things went wrong. The spinach I had planned to use had gone off. This forced a change in menu. We had only a few mange tout, some chili, garlic and two fillets of beautiful Atlantic cod.

DDDDDAAAAAAADDDDDD!!!!! What are you cooking me for dinner???

Not the shout of a spoilt 4-year-old. It came from a hard-working final year International Commerce student, my eldest daughter. Her sister is out and the wife is away with her parents. So I am cooking for two.

I had bought two good striploin steaks from my favourite butcher, John’s Meat Co. in Dublin’s Monkstown Farm. A quick check in the fridge revealed two sweet peppers and some lettuce. Fearing a tantrum from the tired student, I got busy.