A cooking mistake to avoid repeating.

[elfs]

Last night for dinner I made risotto. The recipe for risotto is simplicity itself: take your standard savory vegetables (one medium onion or large shallot, a stalk of celery, a carrot) and saute' them for five minutes. Add 1½ cup of Aborio rice (or any short-grain) and ½ cup white wine. Let the wine evaporate, keeping the heat medium to medium-high, then start adding heated (to near boiling) broth, about ½ cup at a time, stirring every minute or so. Let the liquid boil off slowly, so that the mixture is neither a soup nor allowed to dry out. Aborio is nice because it releases a lot of starch, which gives it a nice texture. After 20-25 minutes or so it'll be thick and the rice will be chewy, neither tough nor soft. Add ½ cup of shredded parmesean.

The saute' should be done with 2tbsp. of butter, or olive oil if you choose to add meat. I did that last night, adding 3oz. of proscuitto. I also changed from my usual low-salt chicken broth to a "standard" vegetable broth. Bad mistake; the full-salt broth and the salty proscuitto made the risotto much saltier than either Omaha or I usually like.

It wasn't horrible though. Even Kouryou-chan ate a little. And it makes a nice leftover for lunch.

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Why oil rather than butter if you're putting in meat? At first I thought it a milk / meat thing, but there's also parmesan and, well, proscuitto.