So my wife has found a sudden love for risotto. I've never fixed risotto but do enjoy eating it. I know you guys have all the secrets to a successful dish, so dish.
Thanks, as always,
Mike
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So my wife has found a sudden love for risotto. I've never fixed risotto but do enjoy eating it. I know you guys have all the secrets to a successful dish, so dish.
Thanks, as always,
Mike
Use homemade stock. Take your time.
We use Jamie Oliver's recipe as a base. Fry the onions in oil, then the rice until slightly translucent. Add vermouth and cook off the alcohol, then start adding stock, slowly one ladle at a time. Take your time! Only put in more liquid when the prior ladle is mostly absorbed.
Add in your "toppings" depending on how long they take to cook. At the end, put a slug of butter and/or parm on top, remove from heat, and cover for a few mins.
Peas and shrimp and mint is nice. Anything is nice, really. Risotto is a great dish to know how to make.
I feel like every time I recommend a recipe it comes from Serious Eats, but for real they're so good that it's hard not to. With that in mind, their approach to risotto is a little different than the 'traditional' methods, but the results speak for themselves.
The Food Lab: The Road To Better Risotto | Serious Eats
Use a pan with high sides...almost wok like. A little asiago cheese sprinkled in and stirred at the finish is good on hearty veggie types of additives. Seafood like shrimp, scallops, lobster and use a fish or chicken stock are great (don't cheese that). I think it was implied before but just to be sure...keep your stock on heat on another burner below boiling and ladle it in from there. No more than 4 Ozs of stock ladled in at a time.
Oh, and stir but not constantly. Slow. As said before just a little stir when stock absorbed. Take your time. That way you get that nice starchy sort of paste (I know that is the wrong word) to it.
Make it in the Thermomix!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr_etbfZtQ
Yum - hot wet rice! Actually, I made risotto last night with sausage/chard/broccoli/leek ramps and finished it with butter/parm/goat cheese - quite tasty.Quote:
Originally Posted by alexstar
Just make it, don't get too hung up on technique as it's pretty hard to wreck. Stir often, not too much liquid at once.
Takes longer than you expect and uses more water than you think it should, but don't add too much water too quickly and if you are adding parmigiano or similar, don't add salt until you have a chance to taste it completed. Think more like slow cooked pasta than steaming rice. We like our large iron Le Creuset skillet, because we can move things in and out of the heat and see the water level better. Also it doesn't move around on the stove because it is heavy. Use a wooden spoon.
Right now we are just entering into the season for fresh asparagus and mushroom risotto. Also risotto doesn't have to be heavy. Here is a fine (and easy) recipe for pea & mint risotto.
pea risotto - Elizabeth Minchilli in Rome
OMG, Jorn I forgot about this one....such a great combination!Quote:
Originally Posted by j44ke
Yep, this non-traditional approach is the tops. Using the starchy water from rinsing the rice is genius. Sometimes (rarely, but sometimes and often with "The Food Lab") new techniques can actually improve a recipe over the old standards - this is one of those rare cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdp211
My favorite variation includes fiddleheads and pancetta. yum!
Fiddleheads stir-fried in olive oil and lemon makes a good side for the risotto w/peas & mint.
My SO has been foraging wine cap stropharia which would go great in the risotto too...
Since this is VS, I recommend going over the top on ingredients, at least once in a while. Use a mix of Gliaironi and Acquerello aged carnaroli rice, sauteing the onions and rice in I Fumei olive oil. It's kind of a waste to heat top-notch oil, but what the heck. Finish it with (a little) Delitia Italian Bufala milk butter and a room-temp egg stirred in quickly to add richness and mouthfeel -- finishing with all butter can end up being greasy.
I Fumei, Delitia and Gliaironi can be found at Mario Batali's Eataly.
Acquerello can be found at mikuniwildharvest.com
Eggs can be found under a hen.
Fiddleheads and Shrimp with saffron. Arborio rice, home grown onion, a nice california olive oil. A bit of Reggiano Parm. to finish. Low class but tasty...
Nothing low class about that. It sounds great! Fancy ingredients are nice, but I've blown a lot of fancy ingredients learning that skill is way more important.Quote:
Originally Posted by guido
Tried that quick method for my first try at risotto this weekend. Two bunches of ramp leeks - white parts chopped up and cooked in the butter and oil, rice toasted to death in that mix, top parts of the ramps blanched and beaten to a pulp in my blender and stirred in at the end. A little parmesan at the end but no more greases. It was pretty tasty. It probably wouldn't qualify as risotto but it was good.
does Baum make a Risotto model?:blink1:
Attachment 92887
My first attempt at risotto. Also my first attempt at chicken piccata. A few lessons learned. I started with a recipe that I should have cut in half in a pan too small. The risotto was a little more than al dente. Used a saffron recipe and flavor was good just not the right texture when complete. The piccata was tender but my thought process was if a little lemon was good more would be better. Turns out not true.
I will definitely try again.
Mike
Piccata is tricky, as it depends upon the individual lemon's taste. You should taste the raw lemon juice to determine the taste pungency, bitterness, sweetness etc. I also like to use some rind, as the rind gives a different flavor dimension. My favorite is Mahi-Mahi Piccata.Quote:
Originally Posted by mnoble485
i love risotti. I use things like Farro as well as arboriro for variety. the key is in the stock and patience. roasted veggies, mushrooms, seafood, so many ideas to try.
keep at it, and have fun
#1 Rule of risotto...
NEVER STOP STIRRING. Lol. Really. Constant agitation of the grain creates a creamy starch luxurious velouté that can't be achieved any other way.
If I have to step away for more than seconds I assign the wife or the daughter to the watch; severe penalties if they leave their battle station. Lmao.
#2 Rule of Risotto...
Always use a good broth, even if it's a simple & light Court Bouillon. Water..meh, unless it's a good spring water.
Use butter.
Don't brown the onions....but, lightly toast the rice!!! It's contradictory, the point is sweat the onions first then turn it up a bit when you add the rice.
When you've toasted the rice, the first liquid you hit it with is a wine, usually white. Unless you're doing that rare risotto thang involving beef or some such.
The risotto should be cooked at a low simmer, a slow happy burble. A flameproof piece of clayware, like a tagine bottom, is a good cooking vessel.
Keep your broth/stock covered at a simmer.
When you add the broth add just enough at a time to loosen the rice so that it stirs easily.
Don't drown the risotto.
Only add more when, as you're stirring, it's obviously absorbed most of the liquid, and you see the bottom of the cooking vessel as the spoon pulls the rice aside.
It's finished when the rice is al dente.
Cheese is added after the flame is turned off...stir and incorporate. For the blasphemous here...a dollop of creme fraiche is pretty fucking awesome in risotto.
I add broth (before adding the cheese) if I want it looser... this is why you use a good broth that can stand on its own, it won't dilute flavor and goes to help control texture.
A risotto should flow from the spoon to the plate without needing assistance. It shouldn't mound that much, if at all.
...and use a plate versus a bowl, for a classic presentation.
I love risotto. One of my favorite things to make...
...and I totally disagree with that Serious Eats/Food Lab article...The pictures are worth 1000 words, his results are terrible. The stirring is akin to properly kneading a dough, not for "even cooking," even cooking comes from adding the appropriate amount of appropriate temperature liquid.
(Sorry...)
+1 on the creme fraiche. Mascarpone is also really great -- Raymond Blanc does this with without losing a Michelin star, so it is blessed in at least one nation willing to riot over food. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by UnfilteredDregs
BTW, I amend my earlier recommendations on ingredients. After trying 6 brands of Italian rice, I've settled on the Acquerello or Melotti carnaroli. The Gliaironi is very tasty, but the Melotti and especially Acquerello have the plumpest, most regular and defect-free grains, and are available on Amazon. The various vialone nanos and arborios are also good tasting and plenty starchy, but if you are doing something for someone special, like whoever glues your tubulars... ;)
Also, I'd go with the mascarpone rather than egg to finish, as the egg gets gritty unless the risotto is warm rather than hot -- the mascarpone is much more heat tolerant.
As for wine, I like a bit of tawny port. I know it's wrong, but the nuttiness is pretty fantastic.
Our Christmas risotto treat starts with boiling then shelling lobsters. Shells go back into the water the lobster was cooked in, which you simmer down to 1/2 volume. Chunk up the lobster meat after it cools and set aside. Take 3 cups of lobster stock and add a bottle of prosecco to get your 6 cups of hot liquid. Make the soffrito, then add the rice as per usual. Add lobster back in when risotto is 5 minutes from ready. Yummmm;-)
I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but do it in a pressure cooker.
I've never done it that way myself but I've had it and the one thing I always notice is that it splits the rice...maybe that's a technique issue? idk...Quote:
Originally Posted by maunahaole
I have too many pots as it is, and I don't mind taking the time so that's really why I don't have a pressure cooker.
Can't tell you about technique on that. Mine came out pretty nice. I'm using a countertop electric and not a stovetop model. The electric ones use lower psi than the stove models, fwiw.
Can't say that I blame you for not wanting another pot. The thing takes up a bunch of space, but I find that I'm using it a couple times a week.
Anyone try making pasta risotto-style (as in, in a pan and adding broth slowly)?
Here's one. Macaroni and Cheese RISOTTO STYLE with or without Lobster - YouTubeQuote:
Originally Posted by LarryA
I tried a variant of this using gouda and a lot less technique (ahem). Fortunately it's quite resilient as a method, and doesn't seem to take terribly long -- you have to stir constantly, but the higher cooking temp (not just boiling at ~212F) softens the pasta well as long as it never goes dry. You have to keep nearly 100% of the pasta in contact with the pan bottom or else you're just boiling it, if in something other than water. Despite the higher heat, it doesn't go from fine to mush in a minute. Using less water and more (milk in this case) results in a denser, more intense flavor. Not washing away the starch is double-edged to me. There is no water-logging of the pasta, but it can be a bit chalky, depending on the pasta. My first attempt was pretty good, but I ran out of milk -- a bit more right before baking would have fixed every issue, I believe. Anyone with skill should have no problem. Oh, and use a spatula to stir, as it leaves the pasta in much better condition.Quote:
Originally Posted by ericpmoss
Ok - Risotto-mac is on the "to cook" list;-)