Green mealie risotto

Green mealie risotto is a traditional Italian rice dish enriched with kernels harvested from fresh corn.

Corn on the cob.

Ingredients

  • 4 fresh young green mealies
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 spring onion
  • Garlic, thyme, a slice of lemon or lime
  • 1/2 cup of grated cheese
  • 1/2 cup of sour cream
  • Salt and pepper

Go for it

  1. Slice the kernels from the green mealies, setting aside one fourth.
  2. Scrape off the remaining pulp and juice from the cobs using the back of a heavy knife.
  3. Puree the mixture in a blender, adding 1/2 cup of hot water, for several minutes until smooth.
  1. Melt 2 TBSP of butter in a heavy-bottomed pot, add the chopped green onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper, and stir for about a minute.
  2. Add the washed rice, stirring for a few minutes.
  3. Stir in 3 cups of hot water.
  4. Simmer for about half an hour, stirring frequently.
  5. Stir in the green mealie puree and simmer for another few minutes until it starts to thicken.
  6. Stir in the cheese and the remaining uncooked green mealie kernels; simmer for one minute, add a thick whole slice of peeled lemon, and then allow to stand off the heat for about ten minutes.
  7. Remove the thyme.
  8. Stir in the sour cream and serve immediately.

Green mealie risotto

A few thoughts about your green mealie risotto.

Firstly keep it simple. Our motto is slow food, made fast. For heaven's sake do not strain off the solids from the mealies; these are the prebiotics that are so important for a happy colon.

Do not be afraid of the cream if you are retaining all the fibrous part for your green mealie risotto. The fat aids in the absorption of the so-important beta carotenes, and lowers the glycemic index of the starch; it is less likely to trigger raised blood glucose.

Take a short walk after any starchy meal.

Never eat white rice if you value your well-being. It has an extremely high GI, even greater than that of sugar. If you are unconvinced, read the story of the discovery of the first vitamin called thiamine; a very observant doctor noticed the chickens of wealthy people suffered from a nasty disease, later named beriberi, but those of the poor were healthy[1]. Can you guess why?

There is masses of research confirming that whole grains like brown-rice and whole corn kernels are very healthy, but once refined they are extremely bad for us.

Copy and paste "generalised muscle weakness" into this search engine to get the answer; it's a fascinating story of medical history.

There is in my opinion a frequently expressed belief that all carbs are bad for us. It is based on one true fact; it is difficult to get whole-grains and most of us eat far too many delights made from refined flour, cornmeal and sugar.

The result is obesity, insulin resistance and ultimately type-2 diabetes.

This green mealie risotto has only whole grains. It will not raise your blood-glucose dramatically, nor will it make you fat.

Having said that, if you are already obese, then some of these ketogenic diets may make sense. The only way to lose weight is to cut back dramatically on all refined carbs, and for a period even the good ones may have to be restricted.

I do not believe in diets; they are not sustainable, mostly leave you famished and miserable all day, and research shows that after one-year 95pc of folk have not lost an ounce, and many have put on; a complete and utter waste of time and energy. They will make you depressed.

Instead merely cut out all the refined carbs in your diet, add some extra fat and protein to give your food satiety and those unwanted pounds will slowly but surely fall off.

The hardest part is that you will have to start baking your own artisan bread; accept that and you will be home and dry.

It literally takes only five-minutes if you have a bread machine to bake the best loaf in the world; I'm not kidding.

By best I mean most nutritious and the wonderful flavour of sourdough.

Bread-machine loaf.

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