As promised from January 1st's posting, Kelley's recipe for his delicious risotto:
“Everything but the Kitchen Sink (and Sometimes Even That)” Risotto
There are many different risotto recipes with different ingredients, but they are all based on rice of an appropriate variety cooked in a standard procedure. Risotto can be made using many kinds of vegetable, meat, fish, seafood and legumes, and different types of wine (and cheese) may be used.
So, first for the basic building blocks:
· 100 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 400 grams) of Arborio rice
· 100+ grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 400+ grams) of a primary ingredient
meat (chicken, ham, salami, etc)or vegetarian (mushrooms, pumpkin, eggplant, etc)
· 50 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 200 grams) of 2-3 staple vegetables
onion, capsicum, celery, carrot, etc
· 25 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 100 grams) of a strongly flavoured vegetable
sundried tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, etc
· 250+ millilitres per person (e.g. 4 people = 1+ litre) of stock
· 100 millilitres of wine (red or white ... optional)
Now, if you imagine that we’re making a specific risotto, such as ... chicken with carrots, capsicum, onion & sundried tomato ...
Begin by sautéing the chicken in a little olive oil. After about 5 minutes, add the hardest of your staple vegetables (in this case, carrots) and continue to stir. 2-3 minutes later, add your 2nd hardest staple vegetable (capsicum) stirring regularly. And again, if you’ve decided to have a 3rd staple vegetable, (onion for this example) add that in 2-3 minutes later and stir, stir, stir.
Now, hopefully you’ll still have a little bit of residual oil left in your mixture, because here is where the “method” comes into play ... turn down the heat and add the rice to coat each grain in the oil, this is called “tostatura” (or ‘sealing the rice’ in plain ol’ English). After all the rice grains are coated, wine can be added (if you like) and has to be absorbed by the grains. Once the wine has evaporated (if you’ve used it), the stock is gradually added in small amounts while stirring gently and almost constantly. Stirring loosens the starch molecules from the outside of the rice grains into the surrounding liquid, creating a smooth creamy-textured liquid. This is the point when you can add things like herbs and spices if you’re that way inclined. I usually add some garlic, maybe a little ginger and also a herb or two (particular favourites are oregano, basil and sage).
Tasting helps to indicate when the risotto is ready; but as a guide, a total time of somewhere between 20 – 30 minutes from when the wine evaporated (if ya used it ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink). At the point when you think it’s about 10 minutes away from being ready to serve ... that’s the time you stir in your strongly-flavoured vegetable ... more to warm it up to the temperature of the rest of the ingredients than to actually cook it.
Properly cooked risotto is rich and creamy but still with some resistance or bite: “al dente”, and with separate grains. Put out some parmesan cheese for your guests and enjoy!
“Everything but the Kitchen Sink (and Sometimes Even That)” Risotto
There are many different risotto recipes with different ingredients, but they are all based on rice of an appropriate variety cooked in a standard procedure. Risotto can be made using many kinds of vegetable, meat, fish, seafood and legumes, and different types of wine (and cheese) may be used.
So, first for the basic building blocks:
· 100 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 400 grams) of Arborio rice
· 100+ grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 400+ grams) of a primary ingredient
meat (chicken, ham, salami, etc)or vegetarian (mushrooms, pumpkin, eggplant, etc)
· 50 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 200 grams) of 2-3 staple vegetables
onion, capsicum, celery, carrot, etc
· 25 grams per person (e.g. 4 people = 100 grams) of a strongly flavoured vegetable
sundried tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, etc
· 250+ millilitres per person (e.g. 4 people = 1+ litre) of stock
· 100 millilitres of wine (red or white ... optional)
Now, if you imagine that we’re making a specific risotto, such as ... chicken with carrots, capsicum, onion & sundried tomato ...
Begin by sautéing the chicken in a little olive oil. After about 5 minutes, add the hardest of your staple vegetables (in this case, carrots) and continue to stir. 2-3 minutes later, add your 2nd hardest staple vegetable (capsicum) stirring regularly. And again, if you’ve decided to have a 3rd staple vegetable, (onion for this example) add that in 2-3 minutes later and stir, stir, stir.
Now, hopefully you’ll still have a little bit of residual oil left in your mixture, because here is where the “method” comes into play ... turn down the heat and add the rice to coat each grain in the oil, this is called “tostatura” (or ‘sealing the rice’ in plain ol’ English). After all the rice grains are coated, wine can be added (if you like) and has to be absorbed by the grains. Once the wine has evaporated (if you’ve used it), the stock is gradually added in small amounts while stirring gently and almost constantly. Stirring loosens the starch molecules from the outside of the rice grains into the surrounding liquid, creating a smooth creamy-textured liquid. This is the point when you can add things like herbs and spices if you’re that way inclined. I usually add some garlic, maybe a little ginger and also a herb or two (particular favourites are oregano, basil and sage).
Tasting helps to indicate when the risotto is ready; but as a guide, a total time of somewhere between 20 – 30 minutes from when the wine evaporated (if ya used it ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink). At the point when you think it’s about 10 minutes away from being ready to serve ... that’s the time you stir in your strongly-flavoured vegetable ... more to warm it up to the temperature of the rest of the ingredients than to actually cook it.
Properly cooked risotto is rich and creamy but still with some resistance or bite: “al dente”, and with separate grains. Put out some parmesan cheese for your guests and enjoy!
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