The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: side_show on February 28, 2007, 09:46:34 pm
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Look out party people!
It's time for me to try my hand at making risotto!
I finally picked up a lovely Arborio rice and have a vast store of other optional ingredients. I had a lovely butternut squash risotto a few weeks ago that inspired me to learn to make it myself. I do have some lovely squash too, but I'm interested in making the best risotto - what ever that may be. What is the best risotto recipe in your opinion? I'm thinking of serving it with Salmon and Asparagus, but will adjust the other ingredients according to the recipe I choose.
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As long as you use a really good stock, anything... I think my favourite so far is the squid risotto from one of the books my brother has. Given a couple of days I could get recipes for a couple of really good risottos.
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My favorite is a simple lemon risotto. I can't remember the exact recipe, but the lemon adds a clean, refreshing taste to everything. I actually like it better than more complex recipes because the flavor of the actual rice comes out more. The risotto is better as a side dish rather than a main dish, though.
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I agree--the lighter the better. Go for fewer flavors, but more intense ones. Just keep them all at the same level of concentration so they balance one another's intensity and the flavor will still seem "light."
If you do the butternut squash, add some fresh ginger and maybe a bit of cumin (go easy on it though). No matter what, I second the opinion that a good stock is a must. Light mushrooms might be a good flavor, as might a saffron-infused broth or even a bit of champagne with lemon and dill; particularly if you serve it with salmon.
Risotto is designed to be a flavor vehicle, nothing more, so "the best" depends on your mood and what you have on hand and what your tastes are. The trick is the consistency; you want it creamy but you still want the grains to maintain their firmness. The trick is to allow the liquid to draw the starch out evenly, essentially creating a "paste" to bind the grains together.
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Oh, and the best hint ever for risotto - fry the rice for a minute or so before adding any liquid. It gives a slight nuttiness to it, as well as drastically decreasing the time it takes standing over it stirring in stock to cook. In discovering this, suddenly knowing how restaurants can cook risotto in 20-30 minutes makes sense. it really is one of the best vehicles for simple flavour experiments though.
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Oh, I am so into seeing some of these recipes - I'll probably be making one on Friday, but I'd love to try the others in the future too. I think I sort of equate risotto with Spring since it's not too heavy. They all sound great - everything I've been looking up sounds great, but the variying methods are interesting - some call for olive oil, others butter, come call for wine, others just stock... This is why I'm interested in your recipes - what truly works is what I'm interested in.
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Prepare for a shock, but I've never eaten risotto before.
I know, I know...but we're Sicilian, not northern Italian, so I've never had it. bet we have some arborio rice at the store. Sometimes they have decent cheeses such as asiago at our grocery store. Does anyone have some simple tips for a risotto newbie to prepare some??
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Oh yeah, the saute-ing beforehand, for sure. Use butter. Not olive oil. Butter butter butter.
And honestly everything works in risotto. The rice absorbs the flavors of whatever you cook it in, so in terms of taste, anything you like will "truly" work. Otherwise, just be prepared for lots of stirring and "eyeballing" with the liquid to make sure it's the consistency you want.
As to how restaurants can cook risotto in a flash, I hate to break it to you, slink, but most of their risottos are esentially completely cooked ahead of time; they simply reheat in a bit of stock to "fluff" the rice and break up the fat a bit.
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oh my god, restaurants have fluffers?
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oh my god, restaurants have fluffers?
Sweetie, you have NO idea. Tony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential may provide some insight. ;)
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Sweetie, you have NO idea. Tony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential may provide some insight. ;)
It's hell of worth it, for sure, if just to know what to avoid and when. And it confirms, always butter.
It also confirmed that, despite the drugs, sex, and thirdly, food, I definitely don't need to work in a restaurant kitchen... Being a rockstar still appears less dangerous.
(Though I had the most fantastic terrine with foie gras followed by catgiraffe with lemon-butter sauce the other night. Goddamn, I could have died happy after that!)
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Slink, can for eating and enjoying terrine de foie gras... although I seriously considered de-canning you for not inviting me to said dinner.
;)
I kid.
Barely.
And side_show, a can to you as well, for being Geeked On Risotto. Let us know what you decide to do, and how it turns out!
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And honestly everything works in risotto. The rice absorbs the flavors of whatever you cook it in, so in terms of taste, anything you like will "truly" work.
The one thing that does not work in risotto: Cantonese-style medicinal chicken soup as a stock. Your risotto will end up tasting like some weird thick Chinese rice porridge with tons of parmesan cheese in it, which does not taste good because Chinese food and cheese does not mix well together.
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wow, I never thought someone would find a thing to say that would make me like chinese food a little less.
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As someone who has made about 100 risottos in the past year, I will offer some disjointed tips rather than actual recipes:
* Add only HOT liquid to your risotto - you'll want the broth to absorb evenly and not have it cool down the action every time you add it.
* Add the liquid only about a ladle at a time. Yes, it's a tedious and long process. Get used to it.
* Keep stirring. No, seriously. KEEP STIRRING, ASSHOLE.
* Use a wooden spoon with a long handle. The wooden spoon won't damage the rice, and you can just leave it sit in the pot if you have to go to the fridge for some cheese or something (you know, briefly, while you KEEP STIRRING).
* A little tiny bit (1/4 cup at most, but usually just a tablespoon or two) of white wine brightens that mother right up subtly. Any more than that and it tastes like it has wine in it. You want that "hmmm.... this has a certain... something...) not "Oh nice, shitty chardonnay!"
* The dish will taste mostly like the liquid. To that end, don't use fuck*ng bullion or canned stock. Make your own stock, patzer.
* If you're making it with meat in the dish, cook the meat in the pot first, remove it, and then lightly toast the risotto afterwards to get some of that meaty flavour in there.
* Otherwise, onions are always the second item in the pot (after the butter). Sautee them until they're glassy and classy, and don't caramelize them unless you're using a dark stock.
* Personally I really like Basque recipes. They use a lot of seafood and milk/cream. Sometimes corn.
* Add a couple of pats of butter again right at the end of the cooking process. It gives the dish a smoother texture.
* You'll need to pop out a bit from time to time as it gets nearly done to tell if it's done or not. It's done when it's still a little tough on the teeth but NOT crunchy at all. It should be really firm, because it'll continue cooking for quite a while after you turn off the heat (even on the plate) and if it's "just right" in the pot it'll be "mushy as fuck" when served.
* The finished risotto should be thick and not runny, but should still *flow* when you stir it lightly.
* When making dishes using seafood (shrimp, scallops, etc.) that have more delicate flavours, replace the onions with sliced leeks to keep the flavour profile at around the same level.
* Go easy on the spices, Marco Polo. Use a little pepper, a little bit of kosher or sea salt, and ONE other spice, MAYBE. This is a broth and rice dish. Maybe there's some meat.
* Mushrooms are almost never a bad idea.
* Don't be afraid to experiment. I added peas and carrots to a creamy chicken risotto and it tasted like a pot pie risotto. It was awesome, if not apocryphal.
* The Williams-Sonoma Risotto book is available from Amazon for less than $10 (USD) and it an excellent quick reference for ideas.
* Press leftover risotto into patties and fry them the next day (or better yet - roll them into balls and deep-fry those suckers!) for a delicious leftover treat.
* When making leftover risotto, add some extra liquid to a pan and heat it before adding the risotto to the pan. Stir it quickly - you're just trying to bring it all up to heat, not cook it further.
* Fellas, chicks dig risotto. It is easy enough to make so you won't kill yourself, but elaborate and exotic enough that you'll seem like Mr. European Knowledgeable Sex Machine to your ladyfriend. If you want to be Captain Playa, pair the dish with a wine that comes from the same region as the recipe.
* Standard wine pairing rules apply - white for seafood and poultry, red for beef and veal. Pork could go either way - but when in doubt white tends to pair better than read for some reason. Maybe it's the creaminess of the rice itself. Don't go too sweet.
* Risotto is not a chore, it's a labour of love. It usually takes me about an hour to make one, from "What the hell am I going to make this chick for dinner?" to "Bon appetite, and while I don't want you to get drunk, that's a very fine Pinot you're not drinking."
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Holy hell jough. Those are some mad tips. Here's a can - you can probably incorporate the tiny bit of soda in it into making a decent risotto.
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Jough, you get a can for the following:
"Keep stirring, asshole," the idea of an "apocryphal risotto" (so sounds like a band name), and "Mr. European Knowledgeable Sex Machine" (because, as you know, all of those things go together, of course). ;)
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Damn, jough! That list was a little intimidating. Maybe I'm not tenacious enough to make risotto.
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Hey jough, just so you know I had a little jough voice in my head calling me an asshole on Friday while I made some kick ass risotto. Thanks for the tips - they definitely helped. It's interesting because none of the recipes I found on-line that I liked mentioned keeping the broth hot, but it definitely made a huge difference - it was absorbed almost immediately when added
I made a beautiful purple onion Champagne risotto with a nice Beef stock. It was just perfect. I am interested in trying something a little more adventurous next time though.
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"Bon appetite, and while I don't want you to get drunk, that's a very fine Pinot you're not drinking."
I have heard many awesome things lately. This puts awesome into another, lesser, league.
fuck*ng A, Risotto King.