Susie’s Cooks Waitrose’s Leek Risotto with Tarragon and Toasted Hazelnuts

This is a lovely dish, and to be honest after devouring this we both agreed it didn’t need anything else. The below recipe is modified from the origina.

Serves 2-3
Prepare 10 minutes Cook 50 minutes
2 tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp
40g unsalted butter
400g trimmed leeks, sliced lengthways and cut into 1cm slices
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
200g arborio risotto rice
150ml dry white wine
About 800ml hot fresh vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 x 20g pack tarragon, leaves picked, 1/4 leaves finely chopped
1 unwaxed lemon, zest and 2 tbsp juice
100g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
50g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated

Put 2 tbsp oil and 30g butter in a large saucepan pan and put on a medium heat. Add the leeks, salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the leeks are soft but have not taken on too much colour (you might need to reduce the heat a little).

Stir in the rice, return the heat to medium (if it’s been reduced), pour over the wine and let it bubble away for a couple of minutes until the liquid has mostly evaporated. Add the stock, a ladleful at a time, and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring frequently and adding more stock whenever the liquid has been absorbed.

In a small bowl, mix together the chopped tarragon, lemon zest, 1/3 of the toasted hazelnuts, 1 tsp oil and a pinch of salt; set aside.

When the risotto is cooked but still retains a bite, add the remaining nuts to the pan, along with the cheese and whole tarragon leaves. Stir very gently to just e combine. Pour over the lemon juice.
Serve in warm bowls sprinkled with the herby nut mixture and freshly ground black pepper.

My husband’s new song can be found on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music etc. and it can even be found here on YouTube. https://youtu.be/93tpHjld_qI?si=7SV70sqjNgZw0aXG

Hello everybody welcome back I know I haven’t been putting up quite as much as I would like to but I’ve had a lot of other things going on uh one thing we’re doing a little bit more with our uh Travel Channel this year oh and while I

Think about it uh also this has been going on my husband’s just released another new song which I absolutely love so shout out to him uh I believe it’s been played over in America it was probably last night uh just on the smaller radio station but that’s great

You know so um we’re loving it so if any of you interested I’ll try and shove a link in the description of this uh recipe because I know there’s a few of you do um actually check it out and send him nice wishes uh anyway back to

Cooking this is a recipe out of the we tros magazine as soon as I saw it I thought I’ve got to do it for you guys and one of the reasons um I’m still I still get a lot of contact with the van lifers and the caravanas um and they

Often tell me things Alik um one guy particularly loves rotos so I thought oh this is lovely Leak risoto with roasted hazelnuts and taragan and lemon I actually said to Jon I’ve messed up a bit because if I’d thought about it I could have even adapted this and cooked

A chicken breast into this or sat it on top of the rotto that’s maybe something for another time but it would have worked but anyway tonight we’re just doing the risoto so that’s we and I’ll give you all those ingredients and it’s quite simple quite straightforward I

Think a lot of you will love this one I think the hardest job was prepping the hazelnuts they are Ro they’re already roasted I cheated them in fact I think I bought them from Aldi um they’re actually lovely so that’s the and but we did have to chop them down John actually

Gave me a hand it’s very kind this is um freshly chopped taragan ready to go in that’s the aario risoto rice which I love which is what I’m using this is freshly grated um parmesan Regino yeah that’s a rice and we’ve got a lemon and you all will have thought

That’s so wine yeah I know actually it well what’s in the bottle later will be it’s an Italian dry white um maybe I should get the wine out cuz it’s actually a lovely one I’ll just show you the label of it one second okay guys this is um an Italian

Sanderi and it’s absolutely delicious don’t you just love that label I do fall for a good label but actually it’s a beautiful wine it’s really clean it’s very Crisp And it occasionally comes on offer about $8.99 but most of the time it’s either $9.99 or

$10.99 okay so if you see that in wos and you want something a little bit different this is it okay so I’ll put that back in the fridge to keep cold till that pour glass someone asked me also do I still use my ninja oh my God

Yes I so do uh Rosy you name it everything it’s just at the moment um I’m and I did lasagna in it the other day actually but when I look on YouTube and all the other Facebook channels and all the Instagrams and everything everyone is doing their air fryers so

It’s quite kind of a bit pointless for me to try and uh do something different when it’s all out there for you guys it really is when I do come across something different of course I will show you it you know but um yes I use it

In everyday cooking I absolutely I love both of them this one I do use a lot more as my pressure cooker I know a few people said do I I don’t use that so much as an air fryer more of a pressure cooker right let me show you the main

Ingredients in this risotto Walk This Way it’s the leaks okay because this as I said is going to be leak and hairs all not and it’s got all those other yummy things in now what’s happening there it’s got about another 10 minutes to go because they have to be they’re in

Butter and olive oil um two big leaks and they have to just sit there and really just soften up and become full of packed full of flavor and the then when that’s done I’ll bring you back and I’ll see the I’ll show you the next stages of

Where I add the rice and the stock and the wine by that time I’ll have a glass of wine as well so I’ll see you very shortly and already the leaks oh God smells amazing okay see you very soon okay welcome back that’s my leaks they are lovely and reduced down just like

Want the smell just amazing okay right next step is we are going to um put in the rice so this is um this is 200 g of the rice so just Chu that in give this a stir around so you coau in all the rice up we’re going to

Turn the heat up a little bit on this now as well because when I pour the wine in I want that to reduce I want the alcohol cooking off you don’t want any harshness especially when this is going to be so creamy and delicious there’s no

Cream going in this by the way and though I’m saying creamy it’s the creaminess will be from the Leakes and the rice itself okay so that’s all covered just as it should be let me just see that need to be a little bit hotter I’ll bring that heat up a bit further

Before I go in with the wine that is 150 ml okay guys right I want this to virtually reduce away over here I’ve got 800 M of chicken stock it’s just no stock cubes you could use vegetable stock if you want to keep this all vegetarian

Um but that’s 800 M and as I say you don’t I mean it’s nice if you’ve got your homemade stocks I don’t at the moment I’ve used them all up but um this will be going in there they say a little at a time and it takes about 20 minutes

To 25 minutes for your rice to cook through well because it’s in a jug I’m not going to ladle it I find a jug much easier than slopping about with ladle so I just put a little bit as it’s absorbing it then I just put a little

Bit more and like I said this is a one pound job for all those guys who just got one ring in the van and things like that this is serving for this two to three I think probably two for me and John we we both live Roto especially good

Roto so if you’re on your own you could cut this recipe in half but it’ll also freeze very well and I’m thank God for the freezer because I tend to do a lot of things and um whatever’s left from it goes in the freezer and it makes a meal

That Jun and take in the office or just comes in very useful right that’s lovely bubbling away lovely I’m just going to turn that down a bit now you just needed to get that rice that uh wine reducing then you take your heat gently because the whole idea of a rotto is you’re

Being gentle with it you’re letting the rice do its own thing you don’t just sit it on there and boil it this is a dish that once you start putting your stock in I will say you do have to stay with it so I’ll be pouring myself a glass of

Wine stirring it and just enjoying the whole therapeutic process right that’s the first of the stock that’s gone in there right and it’s now my time to get myself a glass of wine so I’m going to be doing that right up until the point I

Use all this stock okay at which point I will bring you back back to see to show you the final stages where we add the hazelnuts and the taragan leaves and the parmesan and we get ready to serve it and I get ready to eat it so we’ll see

You in um this is going to take about 20 minutes so I’m not going to bore the life out here watching me just stand drink and stir okay see you in 20 minutes right that’s okay okay okay this is virtually ready for the other things to go in now you know I

Was saying that there wasn’t going to be a lot have you seen how it’s grown now um what this is is that it’s to the bite now what they mean is I’m just going to fish a couple of little tiny grains out you try the grain this

Type of rice stays very hard and very solid till the point it’s cooked at which point when you buy on it it gives it kind of break breaks open and it’s soft so let me try it perfect that’s absolute I’ve done so many rotos I can look at it and kind of

See that is to the bite the grins they do swell they don’t swell quite as much as some other um Rices but they kind of soften around the edge as well okay so we’re going to let’s get the hazelnuts chook in this is 100 G of here so not

Going in here kept you keep a little bit back for a a nice little dressing type topping thing so we’re just going to stir that in just make sure it Heats nice and look cuz this is the point when risoto is using up all that excess liquid and it

Will it will stick on if you’re not very careful oh my God that looks amazing I hope you’re getting this guys it um you can see those here’s I absolutely adore hazelnuts and you know this is kind of like in Italy the hazelnuts are like prominent and leaks

This time of the year is in season so that’s kind of nice okay and two um spoonfuls of lemon juice so I’ve just used half a lemon because it um I tasted it and it’s actually very lemony I think the wine that I used does have a

Lemon over over to um like a taste to it lemony and I think that’s cutting through here right okay so that’s my lemon juice in let me just get that I just need that to my tan leaves let’s blend all that in together gosh you smell fresh taragan and it’s

Just such a wonderful well I love all fresh herbs I don’t think there’s any I don’t like oh that is looking yummy now okay okay we’re in our final stages now you can see that stock has just depleted now and the creaminess you can see is developing that’s what we’re

Looking for okay I’m doing turn the heat lows the parmesan I can’t wait to go back I think we do back in Italy in September um and oh boy am I going to buy some good cheeses and bring them back with me I’m going tusky this time guys so

That should be interesting for you all right that looks amazing right let’s get the black pepper in there don’t forget there’s no meat in here so you do need your seasonings oh my God that is just the texture of the nuts and flavor is amazing I’ll show you the

Little dressing we’re going to put on the top lemon zest a little bit of um fresh Tagan hazelnuts and olive oil is this what we’re going to sprinkle on the top just to give it that fresh texture okay I will do this one again and I will actually

Um do a chicken breast and and sort of lay it on the top in slices I think it would G Marvelous there’s actually quite a lot of food these are Big bowls anyway the idea is you just put a lovely little bit of this fresh lemon zesty here’s a noty dressing on the top and you could at this point if you wish do another um sprinkle of Parmesan

But I’m actually going to leave it at that because I I’ve tasted it and it tastes absolutely amazing so um what I would say guys is um let me just get that’s my spoon this one’s mine give this one a try this is I would

Say if I was scaring this and I was eating it in a restaurant I’d be extremely happy to pay for that and I would probably give it in the Realms of like when 8 out of 10 the only reason I say8 out of 10 is cuz I am a fan of

Protein and if i’ thought about it there would have been some on there tonight but this is a fabulous dish so give that a shot um let me know what you think okay thank you for watching I will see you soon I am trying out some new

Recipes and I will be back but I am actually I’m off to um tenor for a few days Sunshine uh John’s treating me it was going to be um the Caribbean but sadly I can’t fly that far at the moment and my hips SS down maybe later in the

Year um and also heading north to my home country to see friends and family so it’s a busy old time but it’s a good time okay take care everyone see you very soon