Chermoula roast chicken on lemongrass and coconut risotto with coriander oil

This is our Pacific/Asian take on the Italian classic: risotto. The recipe was created for masterclasses that we were doing up in Niue for their biennial food and wine festival. It was an absolute hit and we have been using it at the cooking school ever since. The coconut cream and aromatics make for a creamy, fragrant risotto. The chermoula marinade also works very well with a firmtextured fish such as groper (hapuku).

Serves 6

Risotto

500ml chicken or vegetable stock 400ml coconut cream

2 stalks lemongrass, bruised

5 kaffir lime leaves, torn

3 Tbsp coconut oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3cm knob galangal, grated (optional) 3cm knob ginger, grated

300g carnaroli rice

100ml white wine zest and juice of 2 limes

2 spring onions, finely sliced

100g snow peas, julienned flaky sea salt and freshly ground

black pepper

Method

Heat the stock, coconut cream, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in a large pot until almost boiling, and then turn down the heat to low. Leave to simmer slowly while you start preparing your risotto.

In a large, heavybased pan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sweat until translucent and soft. Don’t rush this process, as the longer the onion cooks down, the sweeter it will be. When it is really soft, add the garlic, galangal and ginger. Cook until the garlic is soft, add the rice and stir to coat really well in the softened onion mixture for a minute or two.

Turn up the heat and add the wine. Let it sizzle away and when the wine is almost evaporated, turn the heat down to mediumlow, then add a ladle of stock. Stir well and when the stock is almost all absorbed, add another ladle of stock.

Continue this process until the rice is al dente — this takes about 25 minutes. When the rice is almost cooked, take the pan off the heat and add the lime zest and juice, spring onion and snow peas. Season well with salt and pepper and put a lid on the pan. Leave to rest for 5 minutes — this will enable the risotto to finish cooking.