Wed, 21 May 2008

How To Not Cook Risotto


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risotto makin' Here's how to not make risotto.

(I'll have a 2nd part to this on Saturday)

Step 2: Get all of your ingredients together, your mise en placccccccccccce if you will:

What I used this time: arborio rice, chicken stock, some sausage, about a pound of mushrooms (I did a rough chop/slice), a cup of peas, butter, parmesan (shred it up!), nice olive oil, about 1/2 an onion (diced, or fine chop), some leftover prosciutto, white wine, red wine . . .

Step 3: Start to sweat the onions over medium heat with just a bit of olive oil (or a bit of olive oil and butter), after a few minutes add some chopped up prosciutto for flavor. As they are about halfway through sweating, add the sausauge (mine was already cooked, so I was just browning it). Keep cooking those over medium heat while you do steps 4 & 5

Step 4: Put your chicken stock in a 2nd pan to heat up (get it to just under a boil and then lower it to a simmer)


risotto makin'

Step 5: In a separate pan, saute your shrooms in a bit of butter, or oil, or a butter/oil mix. Add some salt and pepper. Cook those bishes down. Add a splash of white wine to them. Turn off the heat, move 'em to the side

Step 6: Once your onions are like a marina girl after a pilates class (sweated and wilted, but still oh so sweet) add about a cup, or a cup and half of your nice rice to the pan. I didn't need to add more oil because of the sausage, but you may want to add a bit. Stir up the rice and the onion (and in my case the chopped up prosciutto) to saute the rice a bit (at least a few mins).

Step 7: Add a splash of the white wine (half a cup? maybe more) and stir the mix about. The alcohol will cook off and the wine will start to cook down. risotto makin'

Step 8: Once the wine's cooked down for a bit and you're impatient and ready to start the rice making, dump in the mushrooms from your other part.

Step 8: Ok, here's the pain in the butt part like you see on tv. Add a few big ass ladles of stock and stir it around. Unlike on tv, you don't need to sit there and stir it constantly. Fold in the stock if your worried, make sure your pan temp is not too high and cooking too fast and take it easy.

Step 9: Every few minutes add another big ass ladle of stock and stir it in to the rice. Once it's absorbed, add another one. Check my flickr pics, you can see the difference between when you just add a ladle and when it's absorbed.

Repeat step 9 for a while. You're going to need 20-40 minutes for that part. You may not use up all your stock, you may start to run out. (If you start to run out, add water and some of your leftover wine and some seasoning to your stock pot to "refill" it.) risotto makin'

Step 10: periodically taste your rice. It should be like pasta- a bit al dente, but not crunchy.

Step 11: Once you think the rice is "almost" done, add your frozen (or fresh if you have them) peas to the pot and stir them in. Cook them for a bit and re-taste the dish to see if you need to add salt and/or ground pepper.

Step 12: Turn off the heat, be like Brando and add a bit o' butter, stir that up and add your grated cheese and stir it up.

Step 13: Plate it up, and enjoy

Oh wait, I forgot the critical part of this post-- Step 1:

Step 1: risotto makin'
1. Have a really long week at work, just barely avoiding a cold too. Take too long getting home on a Friday night and get really really hungry on the bus. Open a *really nice* bottle of Stefania Wine (or other wine) and have a glass. Sit on your couch and think about dinner. Have another glass of wine. Get off your butt and go to step 2.

Yeah, doing step 1- not so smart when you're tired and hungry.

Granted, my dish was rockin' but I was tired and almost tipsy when I was ready to eat . . . after 10pm.

I'm getting old . . .

21 May 21:40 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


 
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