Risotto and my kids!

With a pot of simmering risotto on the cooker I'm reminded that neither of my children actually like risotto. It's really such a shame, risotto is so expensive, so good when it is fresh and takes so long to make. Plus my husband and I really like mushroom risotto.

I once made asparagus risotto with the hope that it might be the mushrooms that they detest and not the risotto itself but alas I was wrong. I was in one of those cooking moods and I proudly told everyone they would be getting a fancy dinner. Dinner was eaten on the balcony on an evening of rare sunshine and warmth.

At least the kids liked the setting and enjoyed the desert, which was a chocolate mousse made per a recipe I got from my German friend Sylvia in San Francisco. I don't often make the mousse because it requires raw eggs and I'm never too sure about eating raw eggs. German's don't seem to have a problem with it but Asian's do. My husband who is of Chinese origin and I, of mainly Sri Lankan origin, worry about salmonella poisoning when we use raw eggs. Currently we have a solution to this problem. An old colleague of mine keeps hens and when the sun is out and they are laying (sometimes more than one egg a day) I get a message in my in box to come and pick up a box of fresh eggs laid on that very day. These are the only eggs that my oldest will eat without a fight and we all notice the difference to the store bought ones. I guess they are kind of like what we call "gam biththara" in Sri Lanka.

And the time pressure is on ... the risotto is simmering and I have to leave in 15 minutes to go to the store and then pick up my little one from her viola lesson. Can you half cook risotto and then start it over again once it has cooled, or will that kill the consistency of the rice? If mine doesn't hurry up and cook I'm going to find out the answer to this question at dinner time tonight!