Risotto with mozzarella and asparagus... on butane!

I love asparagus and it is nice to be able to buy it all year round, but nothing beats fresh, British asparagus when it's in season.  That would be right now, and the supermarkets and greengrocers are bursting with the stuff.  They're growing it just up the road from us at Secretts so it would be rude not to.

The best asparagus recipes are really simple ones that allow it to be the star of the dish, so I went for Hugh's asparagus risotto from this week's Guardian Weekend magazine (second recipe down on the link, scroll down to it).

There is a bit of an issue with the gas supply to the flat at the moment, so I am cooking on a borrowed camping stove.  I've never used one before but I'm really impressed with it, and if the weather hadn't been so vile this week I'd have enjoyed cooking outside and pretending to be Rick Stein.

Anyway, I pretty much followed the instructions to the letter and it was delicious.  I'm not convinced that roasting the asparagus added anything to the flavour - I like them just as well steamed - but it was nice for a change.

I'm surprised at how good the camping stove is - easier to cook on than some built-in hobs I've used in certain rented flats.  I go to a couple of festivals in the summer and I've always just bought the food there, but I'm seriously thinking of buying one of these to take away with me.  I don't want to get silly about it and buy a camping fridge or anything like that, but I reckon you could live quite nicely for a weekend on items that don't need refrigerating - how about chickpea curry with rice, pasta and pesto, broccoli fritters?  Or if there's a corner shop where you're camping, cauliflower cheese or the odd bacon sarnie?