Its the end of the festive holidays and I wanted something comforting for dinner, but also something that felt a bit indulgent.
A few weeks back I had friends over mid-week for dinner and I made sweetcorn risotto and it was really excellent.  This was inspired by a fabulous bistro in Edinburgh called Spoon where I had first tried this dish and I wanted to make it for myself.

Sweetcorn Risotto with Ginger Soy Chicken

for the risotto (serves 6)

• 2 x 340g tins of sweetcorn drained and rinsed (use fresh if you can get it about 2 1/2 cups or 4 ears of corn)
• 2 onions chopped finely (I used red onions)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 2 ltrs chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 cups arborio or carnaroli rice (ie risotto rice)
• 3/4 cup dry white wine (I substituted this with white port)
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan

for the chicken

• 12 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (ie 2/person)
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
• 3 tbsp honey (or agave nectar)
• 1 inch ginger grated or finely chopped

Directions:

1. Trim any excess fat from the chicken and place it in a sealable bag with the ginger, soy, olive oil and honey.  After ensuring that all the chicken is well coated, place in the fridge for a couple of hours, or overnight.
2. Blitz about half the sweetcorn in a food processor or blender until they are roughly chopped and milky.  Scrape out and remix with the remaining whole kernels.
3. In a large soup pot (and make sure its a large pot), saute the onion in the olive oil and butter until its softened and translucent.
4. At the same time in another saucepan have your stock warmed through to just below simmering.
5. Once the onions are soft, add in the rice and stir gently with a wooden spoon for two minutes.  Next add in the wine (or port or vermouth) and stir until this has been absorbed.
6. Now add in a ladle full of the heated stock and all the sweetcorn and stir.  Keep this at a gentle simmer until almost all the stock has been absorbed into the rice, then add in another ladle of stock.
7. Keep repeating the process of adding in a ladle of stock until its absorbed and add another, stirring frequently.  This will take about 25 minutes (setting a timer might be a good idea), or until the rice is al dente.  You may not need to use all the stock and the rice should be firm and no longer crunchy, with a creamy sauce formed around it.
8. At this point add the Parmesan and if you want a little chopped parsley.
9. When there is about 10 minutes to go take the chicken from the bag and either griddle, fry or cook under a grill until ready.
10. Plate up, sprinkle with chopped herbs (coriander is nicer than parsley in my book) and few shavings of Parmesan, serve and eat!

This really is delicious, and in fact don’t bother with the chicken and have a bowl of this on its own for a really nice supper.  In the photos I’d halved the amount of the risotto ingredients and it still made enough for 3 people, which means I have leftovers for tomorrow.

I also didn’t have any white wine in the house so used some white port instead and it worked really well.  For a nice vegetarian dish use vegetable stock and roast some butternut squash with a little oil and thyme in the oven and serve on top of the risotto.

Risotto is a lot of stirring at the hob, but the results are worth it and you won’t believe how good this tastes.