I cannot believe I’ve only made risotto a handful of times this winter! That is crazy because I luuurve risotto. Maybe the weather is turning all crappy again to inspire me to make more risotto?

Anyway, this is the latest risotto experiment — sort of a Spanish-inspired theme. I’ve just started eating cauliflower and I am trying to throw it into as many dishes as possible. Cauliflower in 2007/2008 is like the spinach of 1995.

I think cauliflower is the last vegetable I have left to develop a liking for…er, okay, wait, still not crazy about beets. And I have tried…but that’s a different story.

So, cauliflower is very good roasted, which is how this recipe starts. Roasting is always a good place to start. After the roasting, there is sauteing, stirring, melting and then eating.

Cauliflower Risotto with Saffron, Pancetta and Manchego
1 head of cauliflower, cut into 2-inch-wide florets
2 tbsp + 1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
1/4 cup pancetta cubes
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sprig of rosemary, leaves removed and chopped
1 pinch saffron threads
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup of white wine
4 cups chicken stock, simmering
1/2 cup manchego cheese, grated (you can also sub different cheeses — Parmesan, feta, gruyere, goat cheese, I think they’d all work just fine)
Garnish: more chopped rosemary, grilled shrimp

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss cauliflower with oil, parmesan, some salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spread evenly on a baking pan and roast in upper third of oven, stirring occasionally, until golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Set aside.

Now, heat up a big pot and add the remaining olive oil and the pancetta cubes, onion and garlic. Cook for about 2-3 minutes and add the rosemary and saffron.

Next comes the rice. Add that to the pot and stir to coat in the oil and pancetta-y goodness. Add the wine and stir until it is mostly absorbed. Then, start adding the simmering broth (about 1/3 a cup at a time), stirring, adding more when the liquid in the risotto pot is almost absorbed.

When you’ve gone through about half the broth, add the cauliflower (do not forget the golden Parmesan bits!) and continue to add more broth as it cooks. On your last addition of broth, add the cheese. And stir while it melts. Taste and salt and pepper as needed.

Serve in bowls with more chopped parsley duh, I meant rosemary, as a garnish and grilled shrimp on the side if desired. And really, who doesn’t desire grilled shrimp on the side?

Red wine and bread on the side is also quite nice! Oh, hell, get a plate of green olives too…

This was one of those, “hmmmm, I wonder what I could throw into a risotto?” kind of meals. Really, once you have arborio rice, broth, wine and Parmesan cheese, anything else goes. So, I had a bag of interesting green garbanzo beans from Trader Joe’s in the freezer. I also had about a half pound of medium (say 36/40 count or somewhere around there — not too important, though) shrimp. Add some cherry tomatoes and it’s the first risotto of the 2006/2007 season!

Shrimp, Garbanzo Bean & Cherry Tomato Risotto
1/2 pound medium shrimp (size doesn’t really matter so much here, as you are going to slice the shrimp into bite-sized pieces — just don’t use small bay shrimp)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup frozen green garbanzo beans, (you could easily substitute edamame, canned garbanzo beans or frozen peas)
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth (if your chicken broth is super chickeny, use a combination of chicken broth and water for the liquid)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper

Start with the shrimp. Rinse and devein as needed. Remove the tails, then slice in half length-wise. Cut those pieces in half if you are using super large shrimp. You want nice, bite-sized pieces. Salt and pepper the shrimp. Meanwhile, set a soup pot on the stove top and heat up the water and broth. Keep it at a simmer.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Saute the shrimp for about 1-2 minutes, until pink. Remove from the pan and cover with foil. In the same pan, add the rest of the olive oil, the onion and the garlic. Let cook 2-3 minutes until they start to soften. Add the rice and dried oregano. Stir to coat in the oil and let toast about a minute.

Now add the wine and stir while it is absorbed. Here’s the fun part — add the water/broth about a 1/2 cup at a time until it is absorbed by the rice. When you have about a cup left, add the garbanzo beans and tomatoes. The nice part about doing this when it’s cold out is that it keeps you warm.

On your last addition of liquid, add the shrimp. Stir until a bit more of the liquid is absorbed and the texture is nice and creamy. Add the cheese and combine. Squeeze in the lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste. Serve with more Parmesan as a garnish.

Next week: Some special baking, a retro thing, and a pot roast!

This last week here in Portland has been cold and rainy. A few nights ago, jwa and I even contemplated using the last of the firewood. We considered it briefly, but decided it was cozy enough lazing on the couch watching the Daily Show and the Lost finale with the cats (they make surprisingly good lap and leg warmers).

Feeling the need for more warmth and a little comfort while the rain pounded the roof and the basement collected a little bit of water, I decided to whip up a pot of asparagus risotto. It’s a very good dish but it can be tricky to time it right. Ideally, you want to make it in the Spring, when asparagus is in season, but when it’s too hot, the last thing a person wants is a big bowl of hot, heavy rice. Thankfully, we live in western Oregon, where except for one typically weird week towards the end of Spring/early Summer, it can be counted on to be cold and rainy until July. Excellent.

My other reason for posting this recipe is to participate in Kevin’s Asparagus Aspirations event over at Seriously Good. It seems that there are a lot of asparagus fans with food blogs out there. Check out his site for some serious asparagus inspiration!

Asparagus Risotto
Loosely based on a recipe in The Rice Bible by Christian Teubner.
12-16 asparagus stalks, depending on size (large, thick stalks use less, medium-sized use the whole 15)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced shallots (I did not have shallots, I used 2 green onions, chopped instead)
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup dry white wine or amber beer
3 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 green onion, diced (both white and green parts)
1 tbsp butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cook asparagus in 2 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until the asparagus is bright green and a little tender. Drain and reserve cooking liquid.

Add the asparagus liquid to the chicken stock and heat in a pot, bringing to a simmer. Meanwhile, heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pot and sauté the shallot (or your onion of choice) until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add the rice and coat with the oil. Next, add the wine or beer and stir until absorbed.

When the alcohol is absorbed, start adding the stock/asparagus liquid in 1/2 cup increments. Stir frequently, adding more liquid just when the previous bath is absorbed.

When the risotto is almost done, add the asparagus with the last bath of liquid. Stir until it is creamy and the rice is tender, but still with a little bite.

Add the Parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate. The risotto should be even creamier now. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Sometimes, I also add a pinch of cayenne pepper here. Finish with the tablespoon of butter and mix until it is all melted.

Garnish with a little diced green onion, more black pepper and extra Parmesan cheese.

These recipes for shrimp skewers and glaze, I found on Epicurious the other day and thought they looked really good. It was one of those, “Oh, I think we’re having that for dinner tomorrow” moments. It just looked all fresh and healthy and kind of light. Okay, this was in the pre-risotto phase but bear with me here.

The original recipe was for outdoor grill cooking but I used my grill pan. If you make these outside, it’s pretty much the same thing — 3 minutes per side. Oh and if you make these outside on the grill, you’ll want to soak your skewers in water for 30 minutes before assembling or use metal skewers.

Shrimp, Mango & Red Pepper Skewers
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried crushed red pepper
36 jumbo shrimp (about 2 pounds), peeled, tails left intact, deveined
2 red bell peppers, each cut into 12 pieces
2 firm but ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted, cut into cubes
twelve 12-inch bamboo skewers
Garnishes: Lime wedges and fresh, chopped cilantro

Mix olive oil, ginger, pepper flakes and garlic in large bowl. Add shrimp, bell peppers and mangoes; toss to coat. Alternate bell pepper, mango and 3 jumbo shrimp on each of the skewers. I ran out of bell pepper before shrimp and mango, so one of my skewers was just mango and shrimp. That was okay.

Heat a grill pan and cook shrimp until done, brushing with glaze during last 2 minutes. This will be about three minutes per side. I brushed with glaze before turning over on second side.

I found that my shrimp were not laying completely flat due to the mangoes and peppers. Therefore, they weren’t really cooking completely. An easy way to fix this was to cover the pan. That way, if they didn’t cook with direct heat from the pan surface, they cooked from the heat present inside the covered pan. They still got a few nice lines on them from the grill pan and turned pink so it worked out fine.

Cook the skewers in batches and keep finished skewers warm on a plate, covered with foil until ready to eat.

Guava-Lime Glaze
1 can guava nectar
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup red wine vinegar (I only had port wine vinegar so I used that — that’s why my glaze is a little dark)
1/3 cup fresh lime juice

Combine nectar, orange juice and vinegar in heavy medium saucepan. Boil until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 30-40 minutes. Keep a close eye on this as I almost had a boil over of epic proportions. Imagine cleaning some of that off your stove top. Yikes! Cool completely. Mix in lime juice. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

You can also, completely guilt-free, just buy a jarred marinade or glaze instead and use that on the shrimp.

Coconut Risotto
1 can light coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Thai chili paste or red pepper flakes (to your taste really, if you like things spicy, go crazy, if not, be timid)
1 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 leek, trimmed, washed, and sliced
1 tsp lemon grass paste (if you don’t have this, don’t worry about it. You could also just simmer a piece of lemon grass in the coconut stock too)
1 cup arborio rice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper to taste

This I decided to make at the last minute instead of plain coconut rice. Well, it wasn’t really at the last minute, as risotto isn’t really a last minute type of undertaking, but it was when I was getting everything together to start dinner. I realized I had everything to make risotto and just sort of winged it as I do love the creamy. As I mentioned before, this is one of the things I love most about risotto (besides the creamy) — once you get used to making it, you can pretty much just make recipes up.

So, for this version, begin by combining the coconut milk, chicken stock, lemon grass paste, chili paste (or pepper flakes) and the piece of ginger in a pot. Bring it up to a simmer. Next, in a heavy bottomed soup pot, add the olive oil and sauté the leeks and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes (medium heat). Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil. Begin to add the simmering liquid in 1/2 cup portions, stirring until all the liquid is absorbed before adding more. When you get close to the end of the liquid, fish the ginger out and discard.

Edited to add – Oh, if you have some white wine open, go ahead and start with a 1/2 cup of that into the rice (before adding and coconut-stock). I just didn’t have any white wine open and red wine didn’t seem like a good idea for this risotto.

You can cheat a little here and not stir constantly but try to stir every couple of minutes at least. This will allow you to get the shrimp going while still making the risotto.

You will probably go through most of the liquid. When you’re getting close to using it all, give the risotto a taste and see if it’s done. It should be creamy and soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on a plate and place 2-3 skewers alongside. Garnish with lime pieces and cilantro. Serve more chili paste on the side, if someone you know is like jwa, who is slightly insane and likes things crazy-spicy-hot. Laugh a little when he burns his mouth and begs for more wine.

This savory little number is from way, way back in December. Then jwa and I got stuck in California. Then it was 2006. Then I forgot all about it. It’s Risotto with Caramelized Onion, Brandy and Roasted Red Bell Pepper and it’s fabulous. I served it with some oven roasted broccoli on top for extra color and beta carotene. Mmm!

Risotto with Caramelized Onion, Brandy and Roasted Red Bell Pepper from The Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes cookbook — otherwise known as the “Risotto Bible”.
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp brandy
1 medium red bell pepper, roasted
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups Arborio rice
Fresh pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, rosemary and salt. Reduce heat to medium low and sauté, stirring frequently for 20 minutes. Onions will get very limp and nicely browned. Stir in the brandy and keep warm until needed.

Roast the bell pepper under the broiler, turning as needed until all sides are blackened. Place in a plastic bag, seal and let steam for about 10 minutes. Peel skin off and slice into strips.

Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot and sauté garlic for one minute. Add the nutmeg and rice and stir to coat. Add the broth 1/2 cup at a time. Stir and wait until most of the liquid is absorbed to add more. You may not need all six cups but it will be close.

With the last batch of stock, add the onions, bell pepper strip and Parmesan. Add some freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Oven-roasted broccoli makes a nice side (or top). Here is that recipe is again.

Roasted Broccoli:
1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Toss the broccoli florets with the olive oil, salt, and pepper on a baking sheet. Spread them out and then roast, until the edges are crispy and the stems are crisp tender, about 15 minutes. Check often, as it may only take about 10 minutes if your florets are small.

Next week: Stout-braised skirt steak, onion & mushroom soup, SHF17 and who knows what else, perhaps a nice, non-fattening house post!

I have mentioned my love of risotto before — mainly here and here — and I’m sure there will be more references in the future too. But, this is one of my favorite risotto recipes, once again from the book, The Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes. I add sliced avocado to the top and substitute cilantro for the parsley in the original recipe but it’s pretty much as written. Oh and I like to use stock (chicken or veggie) instead of water but other than that it’s exactly like in the book!

Yeah, I probably use a bit more cheese too…and sometimes, I throw a roasted and diced jalapeno in there too. Okay, so it’s closely-based on the recipe in the book, The Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes.

Black Bean & Corn Risotto with Pepper Jack Cheese:
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
3 1/2 cups simmering stock (chicken, turkey or vegetable)
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 tbsp canola oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup amber ale (Ropewalk Amber Ale is good for cookin’ and drinkin’)
1 1/2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced
1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded

Garnishes:
Avocado, sliced
Corn tortillas, warmed up and cut into wedges
Diced, roasted jalapenos for the more adventurous

Make a broth by stirring together the tomato juice and stock in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then keep at a simmer. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Sauté the onion, garlic and spices for 2-3 minutes, then add rice and coat with spices and oil. Add beer and stir gently until liquid is absorbed. Drink the rest of the beer while making dinner. Stir in the corn and add stock/broth mixture by 1/2 cupfuls, stirring and waiting until liquid is absorbed to add more tomatoey stock. Add beans with last 1/2 cup of broth.

Heat one corn tortilla for each serving of risotto. In a dry pan, blister each side. Cut into wedges.

Stir in cheese and cilantro and spoon into bowls. Fan avocado slices on top and serve with warm corn tortilla wedges.

This meal was so very good. It’s –
1. Creamy
2. Mexicany
3. Cheesey
4. A bit spicey

I love risotto. I don’t even mind all of the stirring! And you can relax after eating your wonderful risotto dinner by watching Season 2 Scrubs dvds or perhaps an Arrested Development.

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love risotto. Because I do…I really, really do. I think at one point I even dreamed of opening a risotto stand — serving nothing but a few different kinds of risotto for take out (and perhaps a couple of tables for dining in) and being a risotto nazi.

::Sighs wistfully::

Anyway, we had this risotto the night we carved pumpkins, the weekend before Halloween. It was so, so good and I found an awesome trick I’m going to use on Thanksgiving — I fried some sage leaves in butter and then salted them for the top of the risotto. On my god — were these tasty. Crunchy. Salty. Sagey. I think I’m going to fry up a bowl’s worth and have them on the table at Thanksgiving as a snackable garnish!

It’s also worth noting that a person, if properly motivated, can make almost any kind of risotto. I just always use one cup of risotto rice to about a 3 1/2 - 4 cup broth ratio, with a 1/2 cup of wine or beer and add any kind of veggies, meat or whatever that I think might be tasty. So there, go crazy.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Fried Sage Leaves:
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed — or– a bag of peeled and cubed butternut squash — or– you could probably just roast a squash cut in half and use the scooped out roasted squash flesh, granted with that option, no squash cubes but the flavor would be the same
1 cup arborio rice (or other Italian risotto rice)
1/2 cup red wine
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 1/2 cups simmering chicken stock
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp dried, ground sage
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8-10 sage leaves, washed, patted dry and left whole
1 tbsp unsalted butter
salt & ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Toss butternut squash cubes with 1 tbsp of the Olive oil. Because I am lazy!lazy! and fear I would cut my hand off if I tried to peel and cube a raw butternut squash, I just buy the bagged, cubed squash at Trader Joe’s. Sprinkle the oiled up cubes with a little salt and turn out onto a baking sheet. Roast in the oven about 30 minutes until soft and caramelized a bit on the edges. Seat aside when done.

Heat butter in a small pan. When it’s melted and foamy, add the sage leaves. Cook a couple of minutes on each side. You don’t really want to brown the leaves, just crisp them up. When done, remove and let drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle with a little kosher salt.

Heat stock in a pot and let simmer. In another heavy pot, heat up olive oil and add onion and garlic. Cook until softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat.

Then add the wine. Stir until wine is mostly absorbed. Then add dried sage and about 1/2 cup of the stock. Stir until absorbed. I tend to maybe let the risotto sit for a couple of minutes without stirring, but that’s about it. Otherwise, it’s pretty much constant stirring. It’s worth it though!

Keep adding the stock and stirring until you have only about one cup of stock left. This time add the squash. Add the next portion of stock and stir until absorbed. The risotto should be pretty creamy by now and will darken with the caramelized squash. On the final addition of stock, add the cheese, salt and pepper. Stir and taste. Adjust seasonings.

Serve with a few fried sage leaves on top and more grated Parmesan. Mmmm!

Next week: Thanksgiving menu ideas, buckwheat crepes with ham and swiss, red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate-peppermint frosting and more!

I love Fall. No really, I am completely ensorcelled with the season that is Autumn. I think some of it is my 18+ years of being on an academic calendar but it’s also the layering and the sweaters and Halloween and the cool crisp air. Ohhh, and the apple crisp. And stew. And pancakes.

And risotto!

I started making risotto a while ago, using recipes in this book — Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes. It’s to the point now, where I really don’t even need to consult the book (although the black bean, tequila and jack cheese risotto recipe in here is amazing). One cup of Arborio rice to 3.5 cups of hot broth and 1/2 cup wine, veggies, cheese and baby, you’ve got a risotto goin’.

So, after raving about my pork chop sauce the other week and with the drop in temperature, I decided the time was right to make the first risotto of the season. I decided to base it on the sauce flavors — mushrooms, Madeira wine, fresh herbs and uh, zucchini because we had some in the fridge that I needed to use. Oh, I also threw in a little chopped yellow bell pepper, because I had that too. So, the rule here is, feel free to improvise.

Wild Mushroom & Zucchini Risotto
2 tbsp olive oil
a mix of mushrooms, sliced — I used shitake and cremini, but any combination (or all white button) would work
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup Arborio rice (the kind of rice is important — you want a very starchy type that will produce a creamy consistency)
1/2 cup Madeira wine (Port will work here too, so will sherry, if all you have is a bottle of open red or white wine? Go ahead and use it!)
3.5 cups chicken stock, simmering on the stove
1/4 (or less) cup goat cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped herbs (I used parsley, chives and tarragon)
salt & pepper

After getting the stock in a pot and heated up, sauté the mushrooms in 1 tbsp of the olive oil. I do these first (and by themselves), as they tend to soak up a lot of liquid. When they are done, set aside. I let mine go until they are soft, have released some liquid and are just a little bit golden.

Next, add the other tbsp of oil to the pan and sauté the onions and zucchini over med-high heat. Cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute more. Next, add the rice and stir to coat. Incorporate the wine into the rice and veggies — stir until absorbed. Now, start adding the hot chicken stock about 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring until it is absorbed each time, before adding the next 1/2 cup. Personally, I may go a minute or so without stirring, but I really try to stir it very often. I know there’s one school of thought that says you don’t have to stir but I’ve never tried it that way. I learned that you stir — so I stir.

Before you add the last 1/2 cup of chicken stock (the risotto should be looking pretty creamy by now), add the cooked mushrooms. As the last batch of stock absorbs into the risotto, it’s time for the cheese and herbs to join in. Taste. Season with salt, pepper and — if you like things a little spicey — a couple of red pepper flakes.

Feel free to sprinkle a little more parmesan on top of the individual servings.

Put on a sweater, uncork the wine, serve and enjoy.