Ah, rice. As an Asian, I sure do love rice. White fluffy sticky yummy delicious rice. But I do have to say; those Italians sure do know a thing or two about rice, too. What am I talking about? Risotto, of course! This creamy delicious yummy oh my god wonderful dish is just what you need to eat. It is seriously so good that if you make it well enough, you’d probably get a nice little smooch for being so awesome.
So, to get started here's what you'll need:
2 cups of arborio rice
6 cups chicken stock
1 small onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup white wine
A little heavy cream
Parmesan Cheese
Pepper (salt if you used low sodium stock)
And here we go!!
Ugh, it's hard taking pictures with one hand while cutting with the other. Anyways, cut up those onions really small. You know, going one way and then the other. Look, if you don't know how to cut onions, it's ok. Just make sure they're not GIANT pieces. Or you'll be eating GIANT pieces of onion in your risotto.
Do the same with the garlic. Sorry, no garlic picture.
Now, in a nice sized pot over medium heat, put a tablespoon or so of olive oil. If you don't have one of these Tablecraft things, GET ONE!! No, they're not paying me, but seriously, this is one of the nicest things to have. It's kinda stupid, but it's nice.
Next, the BUTTER! Add a tablespoon of butter to that oil! You know it's gonna be good when you got butter.
Once that butter melts, add the onions and garlic! And cook for a minute or so.
While that's cooking, you might want to start warming up the broth. It doesn't have to be boiling or simmering, but just warmed. You don't want cold broth.
Once you sweat out the onions, add the rice!
Coat the rice in the oil and butter and cook for like 2 minutes. Just be sure to keep stirring and don't stop. The thing about risotto is to keep stirring. You will hate stirring after making this, but it will be rewarded.
Yum! Give it a splash of white wine! I used a light Chardonnay, but you can use whatever white wine you want. Underage and can't get white wine? Then, leave it out. Honestly, I think it's just for show and just gives me a chance to drink while cooking.
Stir and let that rice soak up all the wine. Keep stirring!
Once your wine is basically soaked in, stir in between 1/2 to 1 cup of the warm broth.
Just like with the wine, just stir until the rice absorbs most of the liquid.
Add more stock and stir. Just keep repeating this for about 25 minutes or so.
The small amount of broth allows the rice to absorb the rice while slowly thickening the liquid with the starch. If you add it all at once, the thing looks awful. Don't do that. Just be patient.
And keep stirring!
After a bunch of times of stirring in broth, keep tasting the rice to see if it's done.
The rice shouldn't be mushy, but there definitely shouldn't be any of that hard crunch of undercooked rice.
Now for some more fun! Wooo!!! I know I said parmesan, but I only had pecorino romano (which I think is the same as parmigiano romano, which I think is a type of parmesan). Well, it really doesn't matter what cheese you use. Heck you could probably use swiss or a little cheddar, or some gruyere but it'd still taste great!
Oh you know this is gonna be good. Butter, cheese, and now the heavy cream!
Don't go too crazy overboard though. We're looking to have a nice meal, not die of a heart attack. Just add a little to give it that creamy texture.
As with all dishes, taste for salt and pepper. If you used regular and not low-sodium broth, and if you added a good amount of the cheese, you probably won't need any salt. But feel free to add some pepper. I also like to add some basil to my risotto.
Enjoy! It goes wonderfully with steaks, or chicken, or just about anything. Heck, it's great by itself. I like it with a little of that Chardonnay I used earlier. ;)
Anyways, this is the first food post. I will get better at the pictures, and hopefully I'll be better at remembering to take them at every step. Well, until next time, enjoy.
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