Cheese and Pears

Risotto Recipes: Spinach Risotto with Walnuts

Posted on Jul 1, 2009 06:21:17 AM

The magic of risotto recipes has happened again: taking two flavors that you know they’ll match (and walnuts, as it turns out, match with pretty much everything) and making a risotto out of them, even if you’ve never done it before.

It’s quarter end, and we’re all pretty crazy down at The Company, so this time I won’t go over the risotto routine again (sauté, toast rice, add wine etcetera), you can find it at the the post that started it all, the mushroom risotto recipe.

Risotto recipe for people:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ½ onion, chopped
• between 250 and 320g (9-11oz) risotto rice
• ½ glass white wine
• ½ litre (1 pint )of stock
• 200g (7oz) frozen spinach
• 100g (3 ½oz) walnuts, half roughly chopped, half finely chopped
• 30g (1oz) butter
• a handful of grated Parmesan

Thaw the spinach in boiling water, drain, squeeze and set aside.

Heat the stock.

Following the routine, add the finely chopped walnuts at stage 1 with the sauté, and the spinach at stage 3½.

When you’re finished, just before serving, stir in the rest of the walnuts.

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Risotto Recipes: Saffron Risotto (risotto alla milanese)

Posted on May 29, 2009 06:30:58 AM

Almost four months so far and just one risotto recipe (it was the first one: mushroom risotto. I added some tips there, so it’s worth checking out ). This can’t be good, so here I make amends with an Italian classic: risotto alla milanese, with saffron, which is kind of expensive but worth it.

Now, this is a simplified version, the original risotto recipe would also use veal bone marrow in the sauté, but here in Dublin veal is virtually impossible to find in the form of simple piece of meat, so I won’t bother looking for a bone marrow. At least use beef stock if you can.

This risotto recipe is for two people.

• 30g (1 oz) butter
• ½ onion, chopped
• 130g (4 ½ oz) risotto rice (or normal rice if you just can’t or don’t want to)
• ½ glass white wine
• A few strands of saffron
• ½ liter (1 pint) beef stock
• 30g (1 oz) parmesan

Heat the stock in a separate pan.

Melt half the butter in a pan and add the onion. Let it sweat at low heat for 7-10 minutes then add the rice.

Turn up the heat and keep on stirring for 2-3 minutes until the rice is lucid.

Now pour the wine, turn down the heat, and keep on stirring.

When the wine has gone, pour the first ladle of stock and add the saffron, which is usually grounded and melted separately, but I prefer to add it straight to the rice.

From now on there are three simple rules: keep the heat at medium level, wait for the stock to be almost completely absorbed before adding the next ladle, and never stop stirring.

After about 15-20 minutes the rice should be al dente. Timing is essential here: make sure you don’t add the last ladle of stock right before taking it off the stove as the rice should be neither too dry nor semi-liquid.

Now it’s my favourite moment: take the rice off the heat, add the rest of the butter and the parmesan, give a quick stir and cover with a lid for 2-3 minutes. Uncover, give a good final stir and serve straightaway.

This risotto recipe is from Milan, if you have the chance to be in that area, try it. I’m not that crazy about Milan, to be  honest, but you have two wonderful lakes, Lake Garda and Lake Como in the area. Italian lakes holidays in the North seem to have gained more and more popularity over the past years.

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Mushroom risotto (risotto ai funghi)

Posted on Feb 4, 2009 10:24:13 PM

If risotto is the most Italian recipes, mushroom risotto is probably the most popular. All risotto recipes are a routine, practice these steps and there’s not much that can go wrong.

Before I go ahead, one thing which is often forgotten of risotto, is that it is naturally gluten free, so it’s totally celiac friendly.

This mushroom risotto recipe is for 4 people:

• A medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 + 3 tablespoons olive oil
• between 250 and 300g  rice (about ½ pound) depending on how hungry you are
• 400g (14 oz) mushrooms
• 1 liter (2 pints) vegetable stock
• ½ glass of white wine (or maybe a little bit more…)
• 50g (3 ½ tbsp) grated Parmesan cheese
• 30g (1/3 cup) butter

Prepare the mushrooms. First step of a risotto recipe routine. Put the olive oil in a frying pan with the garlic at medium heat. When it’s hot, add the mushrooms and cook for 10-15 minutes. Check the seasoning. Remove them from the heat when they’re still a bit raw.

Heat the stock. Use home made stock or a cube. I find it handy to keep it in the pan simmering beside the rice.

Stage 1: let’s sauté. Chop the onion finely and add it to the sauce pan with the olive oil. Let it cook for about 10 minutes at low heat until tender.

Stage 2: enter rice. Turn up  the heat and pour the rice. Stir until it’s lucid and has absorbed the oil. Don’t let it burn!

Interlude: white wine. Pour the wine, it will evaporate quickly.

Stage 3: stock, please! When the wine has evaporated, turn down the heat and pour some stock. One or two ladles should be enough: the rice should be moistened but not covered. Keep stirring. When most of the stock is absorbed repeat the operation.

Stage 3 ½: the main ingredient. After 10 minutes add the mushrooms. They will bring some of their cooking liquid with them, so wait for it to be absorbed before adding more stock.

Stage 4: finish cooking. After about 10 more minutes start tasting the rice, it should be almost cooked.

Stage 5: the secret chamber. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter and Parmesan then stir briefly and put a lid on the pan. Let it rest for 3-4 minutes.

Remove the lid, stir furiously for 30 seconds and serve the mushroom risotto immediately.

A couple of notes on:

• The word. Risotto is the name of the dish, the Italian word for rice is riso
• The kind of rice. The best kinds of risotto rice you can buy are Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone nano. As they’re usually fairly expensive outside of Italy, parboiled rice will do.
• Starchy or not. As stirring releases the starch in the rice, there usually are two opposite views: hardly stir until you add the butter in the end, or don’t stop doing it. I prefer stirring: not only because I make sure that the rice won’t stick to the pan, but also because I can know better when it’s time for the next ladle of stock.
• Wine. Buy cheap white wine and keep it in the fridge just for cooking. If you really want to be fussy about it, pour the wine in a glass half an hour before starting to cook: it will be at room temperature when you add it and won’t slow down the cooking.
• How creamy do you want it? Between a dry risotto with almost no stock left, and one so liquid you need a spoon to eat it, there are different degrees. It should be neither this nor that. Once you’re more familiar witht the recipe you’ll know when’t it’s time to take the pan off the stove.
• And if it’s creamy enough… Eat it in a bowl, not in a dish. All the juice will gather at the bottom and you can dip the rice in it.

If you liked this mushroom risotto, there are more risotto recipes