Cooking to Impress - Basic Risotto

I have been a bad blogger. I have been having a simultaneously very lazy and very busy summer and one of the things I've been lazy about is keeping up here. I also haven't been doing anything very exciting in the kitchen, so that could be a contributing factor, but mostly I've been lazy about posting.

This post is actually regarding a meal I made back in early May, but, unless you live in one of the places in America where you shut down your kitchen for three months due to heat exposure, it applies year round.

See, to me, Risotto is another one of those foods that are my favorite kind of food to make. It is both comforting and luxurious, homey and foreign, and impressive yet exceptionally simple to prepare. Risotto is also a very sexy food, the first time I ever made risotto was to impress a date. When the mood strikes I still make a mean risotto, and even if I'm only impressing myself, I'm worth it.

The most important thing to remember about risotto is to keep stirring so it won't stick. Risotto is infinitely adaptable. In the past I have made pink risotto with red wine and leftover lamb, and while writing this up I thought of trying a fall risotto with chicken, apples, and a sweeter white wine. As long as you keep in mind allium (onion/leek), acid (wine/lemon juice - I may have used tomato juice and some vinegar in the past), stock (to be really traditional add saffron to the warming stock), and grain (this technique can actually be applied to almost any whole grain) everything else is up to the imagination.

Basic Risotto
Joy of Cooking's recipe for Simplest Risotto (Risotto In Bianco) with notes for adaptation and additions.

1-2 Tbs butter or olive oil (or combination), plus 1/2 Tbs butter to finish
1/2 medium onion, diced or 2 small leeks, cut into thin 1/8" half moons
4 cups stock, chicken or veggie
1 cup Italian rice or standard, medium grain white rice
1/4 dry white wine or lemon juice
1/3-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 1-2 cups chopped, in season vegetables, cooked meat or seafood (great use for leftovers), additional cheese (great use for odds and ends left in the fridge), herbs, or chopped nuts


1) Heat the butter or oil in a large heavy pan and soften the onions or leeks. Sauce or saute pans both work, I like to use a deep 10" frying pan with curved sides (like a pseudo wok).

2) Heat the stock to a simmer and set aside.

3) To the butter/onion combination, add the rice and cook over medium. Stir continuously until the rice becomes translucent and you can see a white spot in the center or the rice.

4) When the rice is ready, add the wine and continue stirring. If using lemon juice, reserve until after adding stock.

5) Continuing to stir, begin adding stock approximately one cup at a time. Wait until all of the liquid is absorbed before adding the next cup. After the first three cups add the last of the stock 1/4 cup at a time. Rice is ready when it still has a little tooth to it. (This will take approximately 20 minutes)

6) If adding lemon juice, stir in now and let it absorb briefly. Fold in butter and Parmesan cheese. Add in other additions now as well and season to taste.


Notes on seasonal vegetables*:
Spring: parboiled/shelled favas, asparagus, spinach, peas;
Summer: basil, corn, tomatoes, squash, green beans;
Fall: hard squash, mushrooms, sweet potatoes;
Winter: kale, leeks, brussels sprouts

*depending on the vegetable, items may need to be pre-cooked before being added to the risotto. Prepared peas or favas can be added without further prep, asparagus/ may need to be steamed or sauteed depending on sized of pieces and thickness of stems, hard squashes will need to be cooked until soft. Some or all of heartier vegetables can be cooked with the risotto instead of being added at the end.

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Sad Veggie Soup

I don't hold back on here so I am going to show you something most bloggers wouldn't, and its not going to be pretty. These veggies came out of my fridge on Friday. Before that they came from my CSA - three weeks ago.



Admit it, you've seen vegetables like this in your fridge. You bought them at the grocery, or the farmer's market, or were gifted with over abundance from a friend's yard and had the best of intentions that they would soon be a part of a delicious meal. But then work happens, and life happens, and take-out happens, and newer, fresher vegetables happen and suddenly you open up the vegetable drawer and find those sad, limp, brown around the edges shells of their former selves.




Not to worry though, these veggies may be sad now, but they will perk right up with a little tender loving care and a quick trim from a sharp knife. If you really needed to sharpen them up a quick shock in ice water can also help out, but for our purposes today I don't think that's necessary.



This recipe isn't much of a recipe. It is, as many of the things I cook are, extremely flexible and much more of a rough guide. I used leek, potato, and romanesco because its what I had.



If you have broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, corn, asparagus, or celery I am pretty sure it would work just as well. Just try to keep like veggies together, and go with your gut as to what would taste good. Corn and pepper would work well together for example.



Milk doesn't necessarily go with every combination, so you may exclude it if you like. If you don't use a starchy vegetable, like potato, you can thicken your soup with a mix of equal parts flour and butter (try one tablespoon of each to start) mashed together and mixed in to the hot soup after it has been pureed in the blender.




Sad Veggie Soup
2 Leeks, greens and any wilted layers removed
1 Small Head of Romanesco, trimmed
1 Medium Potato
3/4 cup Milk
1-2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Chile Powder
Jerk Seasoning*

*My Jerk mix is predominantly thyme with sugar, salt, allspice and chile. The combo added oomph to my soup that I wasn't getting, and worked with my veggies. Feel free to add whatever flavors float your boat and will go with your veggies. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and any of the other green herbs are good places to start.

1) Clean and prep the vegetables. Wash, trim off any wilted or brown areas, and cut into smaller pieces to speed cooking.
2) Cook your veggies. Drizzle the leeks and romanesco with olive oil, salt and pepper liberally, and roast at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cook the potato in a sauce pan with the milk and enough water to cover the potatoes. Simmer over medium heat until fork tender, approximately 10-15 minutes.
3) Blend the soup. Put the potatoes, leeks, and romanesco in a blender with a few splashes of the potato cooking liquid, enough to lubricate the mix. Go slowly, pulse on a lower setting before adding more liquid and speeding it up. Be careful as hot liquids expand in the blender and may explode or cause injury. Add liquid and blend until soup reaches the desired consistency.
4) Season and Serve. Add the blended soup back into the potato pot and season to taste with mustard, chile powder, jerk seasoning, and additional salt and pepper. Enjoy.

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