Years ago I wrote a series for Disney’s website Babble: 3 Kids, a Mom & a Kitchen. Babble has since been closed down and the posts are no longer online, so I have decided to sharing my favorites here on my website! This is a recipe that one of my readers Kelly said had become a favorite in their family but she could not find it online anymore. This one’s for you, Kelly! And thanks for reminding me to start sharing these great kid-friendly recipes once again!

For this month’s cooking project, I decided to teach my kids how to make risotto. When I told them, they were pumped! And, as it turns out, they had never tried risotto before, so it was really cool teaching them something totally new in the kitchen.

Risotto seems like an intimidating meal to make to a lot of people, but it’s actually quite simple. It just takes a little time and care to prepare, and, as I just discovered, is actually a great dish to make with kids!

Choosing the Recipe

I love risotto but hardly ever make it at home. I hoped that if my kids learned how to do it, we’d be more likely to include it in our menu in the future. It’s also a pretty basic recipe that I would love my kids to have in their kitchen “toolbox” when they leave home one day. 

Rankings

This recipe was a big winner in the “cooking with kids” department! They had a lot of fun making it and thought the risotto was delicious. When I asked if the recipe was hard, Anna and Cate confidently declared that it was not at all.

Steps Where Kids Can Get Involved

This recipe takes about 40 minutes of hands-on cooking time. The three kids rotated in and out of the process, which worked really well. No one got bored and there was plenty for them to do whenever they wanted to participate.

• Grating the cheese: Owen, my 3-year-old, did some of the grating and when he got bored Anna, my 7-year-old, finished it up.
• Chopping add-ins: Cate is 10 years old, so she was able to help chop the prosciutto and cook the asparagus. It was good practice for her to work on her knife skills.
• Stirring Galore: There is so much stirring in this recipe, which is my kids’ favorite thing to do when cooking. Actually, there is so much stirring they got tired of it — something I never thought could happen! The girls also loved pouring the ladles of broth into the rice.
• The Tasting

Usually our recipe tastings don’t stress me out, but this one had me on my toes. After all, the final product was dinner — if the kids didn’t like it, I didn’t know what we were going to eat that night! Thankfully all three kids enjoyed the risotto and Anna even declared it her second favorite food ever, second only to boxed long grain and wild rice mixes.

The Recipe

I used The Kitchn’s tutorial for homemade risotto as a guide and made adjustments to the recipe where necessary. I talked to the kids about how risotto is a great blank canvas for all kinds of flavors and add-ins, especially depending on the season. For example, in the fall I sometimes make Butternut Squash Risotto. Since it’s spring, we all decided to go with asparagus, which is in abundance right now. Prosciutto and asparagus are pretty much made for each other, so we had to throw some prosciutto in, too!

Asparagus and Prosciutto Risotto

 

Print

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 6-8 cups chicken stock or broth
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ⅓ onion, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pushed through garlic press
• 2 cups arborio rice
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup cooked asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 5 thick slices prosciutto, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Prep all ingredients ahead of time so they are ready to go when you’re cooking.
2. Heat chicken stock in a large saucepan over medium heat, then keep warm over low heat while you continue with the rest of the recipe.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a deep 12-inch skillet. Add onions and cook over medium heat until they have softened and are translucent. Add garlic and 1 more tablespoon butter and stir.
4. Add rice and raise heat to medium-high. Constantly stirring, cook rice until toasted. You should start to smell the rice toasting and the grains should look clear on the edges, with some white still in the middle of the grain.
5. Deglaze the pan by adding the white wine and cooking until wine evaporates.
6. Add 1 ladle of the chicken stock to the rice. Reduce heat to medium. Keep stirring until most of the stock has been absorbed by the rice, then add another ladle of stock. Repeat this process, until the rice is cooked through (taste testing is necessary!). The rice cooking process will take 20-30 minutes. Towards the end of this process, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the risotto. Do a little at a time and taste it as you go — the saltiness of the chicken stock will depend on how much salt you will need.
7. Once the rice is the texture you like, add the last tablespoon of butter, 1 more ladle of chicken stock, and the Parmesan cheese. Stir and cook until the risotto is a nice creamy texture.
8. Stir in asparagus and prosciutto and serve immediately. (Feel free to experiment with other seasonal add-ins — risotto is a great canvas for all kinds of flavors!)

3.4.3177

Happy Friday! I have just two quick things to share today!

First, let’s talk email. Until now if you signed up to get emails from my blog, those emails have been automated messages from Feedburner that were sent when new posts were published. Well, all that has changed! I have taken control of my email list and the emails will be much more personal, much more useful and less frequent. All great things in my book! If you want to sign up, just click here and add your email address! (Be sure to to click the link in the follow-up verification email after you sign up.) If you were already getting the emails, then you don’t need to do anything. I know it doesn’t sound like particularly exciting news, but I’m PUMPED about the change!

Second thing, I published a post on Parade’s Community Table this week that is CHOCK FULL of awesome recipes: 15 Scrumptious Ways to Enjoy Asparagus This Spring.

That’s it! Be sure to share your own stuff – links to your blog, links to fun things you found, or just whatever you want to share!

One of the delicious dishes we were treated to at our latest book club was an asparagus and spring onion tart, as made my dear friend Barbara.

LOVED THIS TART. The “shortcrust” was delicious, the top had a pleasant chewiness thanks to a melted Parmesan cheese, and all the flavors blended really nicely together. Of course we all begged for the recipe. Barbara had found the recipe in the latest issue of Vegetarian Times, which she happily shared. She’s not one to keep secrets when it comes to good food!

You all may be wondering (as I am) what the difference between a quiche and a tart is. If anyone has a good answer, please feel free to share! Tarts may be savory or sweet, while quiche are savory, but beyond that their “official” definitions are almost identical. So, I say just call it whatever you want!

Asparagus and Spring Onion Tart

 

Print

Savory and delicious!

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish

Ingredients

• Shortcrust
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 6 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes (I just use salted butter)
• 2 large eggs, divided
• Filling
• ½ pound trimmed asparagus spears
• 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. olive oil
• 2 cups spring or green onions
• 4 large eggs
• 1½ cups whole milk or heavy cream
• 1 ounce (1/4 cup) grated fresh parmesan cheese (I might use a bit more myself)

Instructions

1. Shortcrust:
2. Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Rub in butter with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. (Jane note: I use my pastry blender.) Beat 1 egg and 2 Tbs water in a small bowl. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture just until dough comes together, adding 1 Tbs. more water if needed. Flatten dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour (up to 1 day).
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough to 12-inch circle on floured surface. Press dough into 9-inch springform pan or fluted tart pan with removable bottom. (Jane note: Barbara baked and served her tart in a pretty fluted dish without a removable bottom. It worked very well.) Trim edges, prick bottom all over with a fork. Line tart shell with parchment paper and fill with dried beans. Bake 25 minutes or until barely golden. Remove beans and paper. Beat remaining egg and brush on bottom of crust. Bake 5 minutes more.
4. Filling:
5. Cook asparagus in large pot of boiling salted water 3 minutes. Drain and cut into 1¼-inch lengths. Heat oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions, cook 8-10 minutes until softened. Remove from heat. Whisk together eggs and milk in bowl. Stir in onions and asparagus.
6. Pour filling into shortcrust and place pan on a baking sheet. (Jane note: line baking sheet with foil for easy clean-up.) Sprinkle tart with parmesan cheese. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes, or until tart is set in the middle and top is browned well. Cover edges of crust with foil if they start to brown too much before the tart is done. Pop out of pan and serve.

3.2.2310

For Easter we had asparagus as one of our side dishes. Lindsay sent me this link to a roasted asparagus recipe. I gave it a try and it was great, so time to share it with you! This method is easy and yummy and is less oily than when you cook asparagus on the stovetop. Thanks for the link, Lindsay!

Easy Roasted Asparagus

 

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Written instructions from this YouTube video

Ingredients

• asparagus
• olive oil
• salt & pepper or your favorite seasoned salt

Instructions

1. Spread your asparagus on a cookie sheet – a big enough tray that they aren’t crowded and touching too much.
2. Drizzle olive oil, salt & pepper (or your favorite seasoned salt)
3. Toss the asparagus with your hands to evenly coat.
4. Roast in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes (although, my asparagus were very skinny, so I only did 10 minutes”¦I don’t like overdone asparagus)

3.2.2310