Many moons ago, B & J (best friends and Best Man) used to be skint, like I was. This was 'cos our mortgages were crippling us (thanks, Reagan and Thatcher) . We'd usually be stuck at home on our few weeekends off. I'd ring him or he'd ring me and we'd discuss the content of our fridges. Then it would be over to each others house, carrying whatever we had, plus some home brew or a loose can of Skol or Carling (!) and we'd have a "Rice and Bitz" night. Chuck everything in a pan, bang on a VHS tape (usually Arnie) and drink 'till you fall over.....
WELL, we're all a bit more sophisticated these days, B&J live in France and are non-meat eaters, and I like cooking for them when they return to the "Old Country" ;-) .
How to reconcile the two? Easy! Rice and Bitz! In fact, a seafood risotto in the style of a Paella (but without Chorizo or Chicken, you see?). I had a MASSIVE piece of CostCo monkfish (note to self, get fishmonger to fillet it in future) and some prawns, cod and mussels. Chopped onions and celery into a paella pan with olive oil and a little garlic. Soften, add risotto rice for a few minutes until coated in oil, then pour in stock (I added a little saffron as well; expensive, but it adds something, I find) . I used Knorr stock pot vegetable stock and a fish stock, along with 250ml of a cheeky little white wine lurking around the kitchen (unusual, wine doesn't live very long in the DP kitchen!).
Once all the liquid was absorbed, in went the fish, some peas, some bell peppers, hot piquante peppers and pickled roasted red peppers (from a jar) (nomnomnom). Whilst all that was cooking, I put the rest of the wine in a saucepan, threw in the cleaned and trimmed mussels, banged on a lid and steamed them until they opened. Mussels drained and placed on top of the rice/fish combo, (VERY "rustic"), to the table still in the paella pan, three big spoons and off we went. Another DP success, and we only realised we'd "just" had "rice and bitz" about halfway through! Sometimes, its the simple stuff that makes it all worthwhile.....
