1 post tagged “food”

I love cooking risotto - it's a very intense 30 minutes of cooking. You have to be so focused, nothing can get on your way...

Get some celery and onions finely cut in a hot pan with some butter and oil, and let it go over high heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the rice (if you have trouble finding the rice, pick the box that says "risotto rice"! - dah!). Then add some vermouth (not too much though - half a glass will do....). Mix well, and make sure the vermouth get into the rice. Once this is done, the fun part starts. At this point, no distraction. If the door bell rings, ignore it. If your phone rings, ignore it. If your football team scores a touchdown, don't rush in front of the tv, you have to ignore it. Stay focus.

You should have roughly a liter of hot chicken stock next to you. The whole idea now is to get the rice to cook in the stock and absorb it until it's done. You can not just throw all the stock in there. It has to be done by small quantities. With a ladle, get some of the stock with the rice (1 or 2 ladle max!). Still under high heat, look at the stock being sucked by the rice! When the stock is almost gone, add another ladle. And do so until your rice is cooked (should take around 20/30 minutes).  During this process, you can also add some garlic if you like it (i'm french, so loooooot of garlic for me!).

Your risotto is now ready. Risotto is so much fun because you can get very fancy. You can add any combination of cool ingredients together to make it a unique experience. Bacon, rosemary, brown beans - Prawns, lemon, thyme etc... mint, lamb, rosemary etc... The key is to add those ingredients at the right time. Bacon should be added at the same time you add the stock, herbs as well. Meat and cooked vegetables, towards the end of the process etc... Go by the feeling, you'll only discover new things.

That's why i love risotto - you can go crazy, and very few times you'll go wrong. Remember to make sure it's creamy when you serve it! Enjoy!