Asparagus season is in: cooking risotto with it.

I found a book The Country Store that wrote about discovering the pleasure of the changing seasons amidst our busy and hectic modern life, from baking, pickling, preserving to natural remedies, seasonal decorations and food:

The sowing of seeds, even if it is just a pot of parsley on the windowsill, is the beginning of a relationship with the plants that germinate, the picking of apples from the garden follows the beauty of spring blossom and the slow growth of the tiny green fruit to their full-flushed maturity when we can enjoy the satisfaction of our own harvest".

- Stephanie Donaldson

Coming from tropical Singapore, seasonal changes are guided by window displays in shops, screaming SUMMER SALE, NEW WINTER COLOURS, GSS SALE NOW ON; or when my father declares that the durian season is in with the fragrant smell of the fruit filling up the house; or when the rainy season sets in and I can't leave home without my brolly.

Our taste buds nowadays are hardly guided by seasons, as we import fresh produce from both the Southern and Northern hemisphere and we are able to indulge in every culinary whim whole year round.

Kiwiland being so far from everywhere, the sense of changing seasons is more marked now that 1. we shop for our grocery weekly; 2. we see more and more new produce appearing in markets with the arrival of Spring; 3. we feel the price difference between seasonal produce and imported food.

And it brings me great pleasure to welcome the Asparagus season!!! Soon, I'm sure I'll be able to smell strawberries in the air soon.

As asparagus do not keep long in fridge, I've been scouring my recipe books on how to utilise my new bunch to the fullest.

This Asparagus Risotto recipe comes from Jamie again. I'm very convinced by his guide to making me a better cook (and Christele Le Ru rocks in the dessert department), as it contains many useful and easy to cook dishes.

A word on making risotto. It's expensive to buy the real rice, so we've tried making it with Thai rice several times. Though it can't be compared with the real thing, it is more economical when it comes to practice. For this dish, we used medium grain rice. And we used a wok to cook the risotto. Worked well.

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto
serves two

Basic risotto:
1 cup risotto rice
about 250 ml vegetable or chicken stock
olive oil
1 tsp butter
1 medium onion
80 ml white wine

6-8 stocks of asparagus (stems sliced finely, but tips kept intact)
6 prawns (more if you're less stingy than me)
125ml chicken stock
grated Parmesan cheese
zest and juice of half a lemon (yes, our lemony quest continues)
sea salt and ground black pepper
olive oil

Bring stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Put olive oil and butter in separate large pan, add onion and celery (we didn't use celery) and cook gently for 15 minutes until soft. Add rice and turn up heat, stirring continuously.

Quickly pour in wine, stir until wine has evaporated.

Add stock into rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next ladle. Cooking with low fire/heat, continue to add ladlefuls of stock until all have been absorbed, and the rice is beginning to soften but still a little bit firm.

Now, according to Jamie, if you're not cooking your risotto immediately, you have to put the part-cooked rice into a waiting oiled tray, spread them out evenly to cool down. And you can keep this risotto base in the fridge for a couple of days in a tupperware container.

But since we're hungry for our dinner, we went straight to the next steps, which involves pouring in the second batch of chicken stock into the risotto base with the asparagus stalks and tips and the prawns. And stirring all the time, bring gently to boil, and turn heat down and simmer until almost all stock has been absorbed.

Add the rest of the stock a ladleful at a time until rice, asparagus and prawns are cooked. You do not need to finish using all the stock.

Turn off heat, beat in Parmasan, and almost all the lemon zest and juice. Add salt and pepper if needed. Original recipe uses mint as well, so add some fresh mint leaves if you like a minty taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and more cheese if you like it more cheesy.