A little risotto break

Guys, I apologize, I'm really bad at updating.  I'm still working my way through Jamie's Recipe Yearbook and I promise to post about that soon, but right now, we're taking a risotto break (it's a real thing).

I love risotto. I could pretend that I consider it a "sometimes food" like cookies are for the Cookie Monster now, but it isn't;  I make risotto on a pretty regular basis.  I know a lot of people don't make risotto because they feel it's time-consuming (and bad for you), but that's crazy.  Delicious risotto is well worth the 30 minutes it takes to make it (and the extra 30 minutes you need to spend at the gym to work it off). 

I don't really follow any particular recipe when I make risotto.  I tend to look in my fridge and throw in whatever I have on hand.  Today, I decided to use some leftover roasted chicken thighs and some dried wild mushrooms.  (If I was being really honest, I'd tell you that I decided to make risotto because I wanted to open the bottle of prosecco in my fridge and figured I could use it in the risotto.) 

Risotto, while a bit time-consuming, is actually very easy to make.  Here are a few tips for making risotto:

1.  Any broth/liquid you use should be hot.  Heat it up, but don't boil it - or even let it simmer. It should just sit on the stove, nice and hot.  Never use cold liquid.  Every time you put cold liquid into the risotto, it cools it down and prevents the rice from cooking properly. 

Also, it's a good idea to drink a glass of whatever wine you are using in the risotto while you are making it. Wine makes everything better.


2.  Don't constantly add liquid to the risotto; make sure most of the liquid is absorbed by the rice before adding another ladleful.  It should look like this:

*A note about rice:  use a short grained risotto rice like arborio, baldo or carnaroli.  It really does make a difference. 


3. If you are adding vegetables that cook quickly, like mushrooms or green beans, add them after about 15 minutes of cooking.  If you add them earlier, they'll be mushy and no one wants to eat mushy vegetables.

4. Mantecatura is just the fancy Italian way of saying "making it creamy."  While rather pretentious sounding in a recipe, it's an important step.  Make sure you take the risotto off the heat before you add in the cold butter and parmesan.

Happy risotto making, my lovelies!


Wild Mushroom and Chicken Risotto

Ingredients

1 shallot, diced
1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil (or 2 tbsp of butter)
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup of white wine (today I used prosecco and it worked out very well)
approximately 2 - 2 1/4 cups of cold water
1/2 oz (approximately 1 cup) of dried wild mushrooms
2 roasted chicken thighs, chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 heaping tablespoon of mascarpone cheese (or 2 tbsp of butter)
4 small sage leaves, chopped (optional)

Instructions
 
1.   Put the dried mushrooms and the cold water in a small saucepan.  Let the
      mushrooms sit in the water for 20-30 minutes. Most people pour boiling water
      over dried mushrooms to revive them.  I find that this makes the mushrooms
      rubbery so I prefer to let them sit in cold water for a while. 
2.   Heat the mushroom water but do not let it boil or simmer.
3.   Heat a pan at low-medium heat and add the butter and olive oil.  Add the shallot and
      cook until tender.
4.   Add the rice and toast it for a minute or two.
5.   Add the wine and begin your stirring.  Stir the rice constantly until the wine is
      absorbed.
6.   Once the rice has absorbed the wine, add a ladleful of the hot mushroom water (it
      has so much flavour!)  Stir constantly until the water is absorbed and continue to
      add the liquid, one ladleful a time.
7.   After about 15 minutes of adding liquid and stirring, add the mushrooms and chicken 
8.   Continue to add hot liquid for another 5 minutes or so. At this point, start tasting the
      risotto every 30 seconds.  Risotto should be al dente.  Once it reaches that point,
      take the risotto off the heat and cover it for 1 minute.
9.   Add the sage and the parmesan and mascarpone cheeses and stir them into the
      risotto until they are fully incorporated.  Cover the risotto again and let it sit for 5
      minutes. 
10. Serve the risotto with some black pepper or shaved parmesan cheese.  Personally,
      I like a bit of black pepper and a bunch of arugula on top.  Enjoy!

Little posting, lots of cooking

January was an interesting month.  I found myself sick often and quite tired, but somehow, it was a rather nice little month.  I spent a lot of time with lovely people, a lot of time drinking hot cocoa and a lot of time in my kitchen. 

I'm still working my way through Jamie's Recipe Yearbook, and have now reached the point where I'm probably going to name my first-born Jamie.  Guys, this book is full of delicious.  Even the really simply recipes have you making those weird satisfied noises that food (and a few other things) can involuntarily elicit.  Jamie Oliver is an adorable, simple food genius. 

The second recipe I cooked from the book was a nice wintery curry - the Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach Curry.  The curry I ended up making bore little resemblance to the curry in the book, mainly because I didn't know what rogan josh paste was (I later googled it and it's some sort of Patak's sauce).   While I changed the vast majority of the recipe, the combination of chickpeas, sweet potato and spinach he suggests is really wonderful. 

 

Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach Curry
loosely based on a recipe from Jamie Magazine's Recipe Yearbook 2012/13

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot
2 tsp - 1 tbsp curry powder, to taste
2 tsp - 1 tbsp garam masala, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
chili flakes, to taste
2 cm chunk of ginger, grated
bunch of cilantro, leaves picked and stalks finely chopped
2 small sweet potatoes, cut into small chunks
10oz (half a can) of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
14 oz can of tomatoes (I prefer whole tomatoes and pulse them in the food processor so they're still quite chunky)
1/2 cup water
200ml coconut milk
200gr spinach, washed
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1.   Heat olive oil in a pot over medium heat.  Add the shallot and cook until soft.
2.   Add curry powder, garam masala, cumin and cook for a minute, until spices are
      fragrant.
3.   Add chili flakes, ginger, cilantro stalks, sweet potato and chickpeas and cook for 5
      minutes.
4.   Add the tomatoes and water and bring curry to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover and
      simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5.   Remove the lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
6.   When the sweet potato has softened and the sauce has thickened, add the coconut
      milk and cook for a few minutes.
7.   Add the spinach and cook for a few more minutes.
8.   Season with salt and pepper and add the cilantro leaves. 
9.   Eat this delicious curry with some rice or dosas.

And so we begin...

A long time ago, my lovely friend Carolyn suggested I start a food blog.  I love to eat (naming this blog was ridiculously easy) and  I, like everyone over 15 and under 55, have an instagram page full of food photos, so it seemed like a good idea.  However, I'm also easily distracted and promptly forgot about her suggestion.  Well, it's a new year and I'm making a concerted effort to cook my way through my cookbooks and thought I could track my efforts here.  This isn't a Julie and Julia type project; I'm not aiming to cook every recipe in my cookbooks, just cook more than the handful of tried and true recipes I'm already in love with.  

 

First up is a stocking stuffer from this Christmas, Jamie Magazine's Recipe Yearbook 2012/13.  The book is full of colour photos and is separated by season.  I have long been a fan of Jamie Oliver's cooking style.  I own Jamie at Home and have several issues of the magazine.  He cooks simple, rustic food that always appeals to me. 

Recipe #1, Chilled Avocado Soup, comes from the summer section of the book.  It may be January but it's disturbingly warm out for this winter girl so I went with a cold soup (I also have a few ripe avocados in the fridge and I'm sick of guacamole). 

 

This soup was delicious.  I've made a few different avocado soups and this is the lightest and brightest tasting one I've ever made.  It's also really easy to make - you just need a food processor or a blender. 

 

 

 

Chilled Avocado Soup

adapted from Jamie Magazine's Recipe Yearbook 2012/13

 

Ingredients *

 

250ml chilled vegetable stock

200ml plain yogurt

1 large ripe avocado, chopped

1 cucumber, deseeded  and chopped (they suggest peeling it. I'm lazy ,so I didn't)

approx 10 chives roughly chopped

3 tbsp roughly chopped cilantro

juice of 1 lime

Sriracha (or any hot sauce of your choice), to taste

Salt. to taste

Chili flakes (optional)

 

Instructions

 

1.  Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend to desired consistency.

2.  Chill soup.

3.  Eat soup.  (Didn't I say it was really easy to make?  I meant it.)

 

 

* The original recipe contains garlic chives and spring onions but as I don't eat raw garlic and onions, I omitted them.  I expect they'd be delicious in this recipe so you should probably use them.  No pressure though.