Roman grain risotto "Ammersee Lech" with emmer, radish and Emmental cheese

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 1 ½ cup(s) emmer or wheat, milled
• 1 clove(s) garlic
• 1 onion(s)
• some butter
• ¼ radish(s), finely grated
• ¼ radish(s), coarsely grated
• ⅛ radish(s), sliced ​​and quartered
• ⅛ radish(s) with leaves, for decoration
• Beer (Märzenbier or Oktoberfestbier), amount to taste
• Vegetable broth, strong, as needed
• 50 g Emmental cheese, grated
• Butter flakes to taste
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

Dice the onion and garlic and sauté in a little butter. Then add emmer rice (polished emmer) or unpolished emmer that has been soaked overnight and toast everything slightly. Finally, deglaze with Märzen beer, the kind drunk at Oktoberfest, among other places. Then add the coarsely grated radish (beer radish, white radish) and the finely grated radish. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the liquid has reduced. Then add a little vegetable stock and stir again until the liquid has reduced. Keep adding a little soup and let it reduce. The grain risotto tastes even better the more often the grains are stirred over the hot pan with little or no liquid without burning, and the more roasted ingredients are created. Because it requires a lot of stirring, it is also said that the more you stir, the better the risotto becomes. Continue until the emmer grains reach the desired consistency. A tip: Italian gourmets also eat risotto al dente, meaning they have something between their teeth. Now remove the emmer risotto from the heat, stir in the quartered radish slices, grated Emmental cheese, and butter flakes, season to taste, and let the whole thing rest, covered, for 10 minutes. This will make the grain risotto creamier. Finally, serve. Garnish with a few whole radish slices and a piece of radish with the greens, which can also be shared, thus making enough for several plates. This is a dish that might have been eaten 2,000 years ago in the area around Landsberg and Lake Ammersee, the “Ammersee-Lech” region, in the middle of the Bavarian section of the Via Claudia Augusta, the first road across the Alps connecting Europe.