First gumbo is a good one.

I’ve had gumbo on my list of recipes to try out for over a year now. There’s one main reason why I haven’t made it until now: Gumbo snobs.

Yep. You read that right. I’ve discovered that people who make gumbo are very… um… opinionated. There’s one way to do it and it’s their way.

Of course, the reality of it is that there are a bunch of different ways to make gumbo. It can have seafood, sausage, chicken, or just veggies. It can use a dark or light roux made from oil or butter. It should probably be served over rice, but I’m sure there are other options.

So let’s just get this out of the way: This is one way to make gumbo. I’m not sure if it’s the best, but it’s damn good.

If you have issues with it, please take it up with Bettyjean, the creator of the recipe. Who’s Bettyjean you might ask? I have no idea.

A friend (Hi Jess!) let me borrow a cookbook to browse through called Old Biloxi Recipes and this was the recipe that caught my eye. The book is basically a collection of really wonderful recipes that have been handed down generation to generation. Some of the recipes don’t even have amounts. It’ll just say stuff like “Carrots” or “Celery”, but you can figure it out.

Anyway, Bettyjean apparently let them publish her gumbo recipe and I’m glad she did. I made a few changes to it, but nothing major.

Bettyjean's Chicken Gumbo

Yield: Serves 8.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

Stock:
1 whole chicken or 3 pounds pieces with bones
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
3 stalks celery, quartered
20-30 black peppercorns
1 head garlic, halved
A handful of parsley stalks

Roux:
1 cup peanut oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Finished Gumbo:
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6-8 scallions, diced (reserve green parts for garnish)
1/2 cup white wine
Hot sauce
Long grain white rice
File powder
1 pound sausage (andouille is best), sliced and browned (opt.)

Directions:

1) Add stock ingredients to a large pot with enough water to cover everything, 8-10 cups. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low, covered, for at least 2 hours.

2) Remove chicken pieces from stock. Remove skin from chicken and shred the pieces into large chunks. Strain the stock.

3) Add stock and chicken back to large pot.

4) To make roux, stir oil and flour together over medium-low heat until it turns a nice dark color. The lightest it should be is the color of peanut butter, but you can go much dark. Stir regularly while it's cooking so it doesn't burn. It will take at least 20 minutes to get to the right shade.

5) Dice up onions, bell peppers, and celery for finishing ingredients. Split into two piles.

6) Add one pile of diced veggies to the roux when it's the shade you want. That will stop the cooking process for the roux. Stir together veggies and roux.

7) Saute the second pile of veggies in a skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes.

8) Bring stock and chicken to a simmer and start adding roux mixture to it. Add it in large spoonfuls and make sure it dissolves completely before adding more. It'll take 5-10 minutes to add all the roux to the stock. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes uncovered to thicken the mixture. If you're using browned sausage (like andouille) add it now.

9) Add sauteed veggies to gumbo and white wine. Season with hot sauce and salt and pepper.

10) Serve gumbo over rice sprinkled with file powder. Garnish with scallion greens.

Adapted from the Old Biloxi Recipes book.

Starting with Stock

I got into a brief comment debate recently on an old post about how I’m a hypocrite. Basically, I talk a lot about how people should make their own stock and stuff and then I sometimes use store-bought stock.

This is true. At the end of the day, I’m a human being and try to have a life outside of the kitchen. Even when I do use store-bought stock though, I’m well aware that there’s a better way to do it. I don’t kid myself.

But when I do have time, I always try to make my stock. This is especially true for soups (although Macheesmo detectives will be able to find examples of soups on the site that I used store-bought stock to make).

This is really especially true though when the soup involves chicken because you have to cook the chicken anyway so it’s not a too much extra work to just make stock at the same time.

Taking stock.

For this recipe, you can either use a whole chicken or about 3-4 pounds of chicken pieces. Whatever you do, don’t make stock out of boneless skinless chicken breasts. There will be no flavor!

You need bones and skin to make your stock. So if you’re doing pieces (which I did for this version), use some thighs or legs and make sure to get breasts with the bone in.

Then just add everything to a large pot and bring it to a simmer.

This will smell great in an hour.

Let this simmer, covered, for at least two hours. The longer you go, the deeper your stock will be. Two hours is the absolute minimum.

When you’re happy with it, remove the chicken pieces and let them cool. Then strain the stock you’ll have a nice dark chicken stock that will smell delicious.

The real stuff.

Once your chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the pieces and shred the chicken into large pieces. Then add the chicken back to the pot with all the stock. You should have about 8 cups of stock here. If you have less, then add water or a good store-bought stock to make up the difference.

Chicken and stock.

The Roux

I make a lot of roux for recipes. Most importantly, it’s how I make queso dip. The roux for gumbo though is a much different beast although the idea is the same. Basically, it’s just fat and flour, cooked together and used to thicken something.

Instead of butter though, I used peanut oil. You also need much more of it and it’s good to get it much darker than when you’re making a light cream sauce.

Just two ingredients.

Add your oil and flour to a medium pot and get it cooking over medium heat. Stir it frequently while it cooks to make sure it doesn’t burn.

After 15-20 minutes, it’ll resemble the color of peanut butter. This is about as light as you can go for gumbo. You could stop here if you wanted and proceed with the recipe.

You could stop here.

Generally though, you’ll get a more flavorful gumbo if you continue to cook your roux for another 5-10 minutes so it gets really dark.

Like I said, this was my first gumbo so I wasn’t sure exactly how far you could go before burning the flour, but I got mine a few shades darker before deciding it was done. You might be able to go even darker, but this was the stage I stopped at and it made for a great gumbo.

You could maybe even go darker.

It’s really important to stop the cooking of the roux when it reaches the color you want. It could keep cooking and possibly burn.

The easiest way to stop the cooking is to stir in about half of the finishing veggies that you’ll need for the finished gumbo. Stir these in and it’ll stop the roux from cooking and actually cook the veggies a bit at the same time.

Stop that cooking!

Finishing the Gumbo

The gumbo is really easy to finish at this point.

Take your other half of the finishing veggies (onions, scallions, pepper, celery) and saute them on medium in a drizzle of oil until they are soft. You don’t want them browned, just soft. This will bring out some of the sweet flavors of the veggies.

Just 4-5 minutes of cooking should do the trick.

More veggies.

Bring your stock and chicken mixture back to a simmer and slowly start adding your roux to the stock in large spoonfuls. Make sure each spoonful gets dissolved before adding more.

Once all your roux is incorporated into the stock, let the gumbo simmer for 20 minutes or so to thicken up. Then add in the sauteed veggies, white wine, and sausage if you’re using it. Brown the sausage and slice it up before adding it to the gumbo.

Season the gumbo with hot sauce and salt and pepper. It’s really important to taste it and adjust the seasoning. I probably added 2-3 tablespoons of hot sauce to mine and a few big pinches of salt and pepper.

Don't forget to taste and season.

Serving Gumbo

While there is a lot of different ways to make gumbo, I’m not sure how many different ways you can serve the stuff. It’s really made for rice.

I just used normal long grain white rice and sprinkled on some gumbo file which gives the finished dish a very distinct gumbo flavor. I think this stuff is worth ordering if you want your gumbo to taste authentic, but you could definitely forego it and still have a pretty good meal.

Good stuff.

I garnished my gumbo with some of the greens from the scallions.

This was a really great winter meal.

Really good!

Besides being delicious, this also makes a metric ton of gumbo. Betsy and I ate it for multiple meals. It would also freeze really well if you wanted to keep it for longer than a week.

The next time I make it, I do think I’ll try adding some sausage to it, but I was pretty happy with this as my first gumbo attempt.

Ok. What did I miss?

People who know gumbo – leave a comment with tips/suggestions/etc.

This warms the soul.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted something made in my crockpot, almost two years in fact. So I was very happy when a crockpot dish won the poll last week.

Plus, it just makes sense. It’s cold and you’re probably busy this time of year so a dish that you can RONCO (set it and forget it) is probably helpful.

Funnily, this soup fits almost all of the categories in the poll last week. I swear that wasn’t planned… sometimes it just works out that way.

I’ve made chicken tortilla soup before, but never posted on it. This version was, by far, the best version I’ve ever made though. Something about letting the flavors just kind of mingle all day long really gave the finished soup an interesting and deep flavor.

You’d be silly not to try this!

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Yield: Serves 5-6

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Serrano pepper, diced (with seeds)
1 red pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 chipotle pepper, minced
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 pound chicken breasts
2 dried New Mexico chile peppers (or poblano)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
A few sprigs cilantro
3 corn tortillas, diced
1 cup corn
Salt and pepper

Garnish:
Corn tortilla strips
Avocados
Limes
Cotija cheese
Sour cream

Helpful Equipment:
Crockpot

Directions:

1) Finely dice the onion, garlic, peppers, and celery and add them to a crockpot.

2) Also add in the chicken breasts, canned tomatoes, bay leaves, cumin seeds, dried chiles, and chicken stock. The stock should just cover all the ingredients.

3) Cover and set the crockpot on low. Cook for 6-8 hours.

4) Remove dried chiles and bay leaves and discard. Remove chicken breasts, shred, and return to crockpot.

5) Add in cilantro sprigs, corn, and a few corn tortillas cut into bits. Let the crockpot simmer for another 30-60 minutes.

6) Season soup with salt and pepper.

7) To make tortilla strips, dice corn tortillas into strips and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned and crispy.

8) Serve soup piled high with tortilla strips. Other fun garnishes include lime wedges, crumbled cotija cheese, avocados, and sour cream.

Preparing the Veggies

I know what you’re thinking: ”Holy crap that’s a lot of ingredients!”

True. But hang in there. Most of them are basic stuff and once they are all in the pot, there’s very little work involved in this meal. You can go cross stuff off your list and come home to a delicious soup.

These are the few veggies that you need to start this soup.

Just a few basics.

The key to these is to dice them pretty finely.

For the Serrano pepper, I left the seeds in. You could take them out though if you’re worried about the heat.

Then just toss all this stuff into your slow cooker!

A fine dice.

Besides the veggies you need a few other things to get this soup going.

This is where a lot of the flavor comes from in this soup.

Flavor town.

Add all this stuff to the crockpot along with your chicken breasts. I would shoot for about a pound of chicken but you could use more if you wanted.

For the chipotle pepper, make sure you dice it very finely. Nobody wants a big bite of chipotle in their soup.

For the dried peppers, you can use almost any dried pepper. I went with New Mexico chile peppers, but poblanos would work also. Just break up the dried peppers into a few pieces and scrape out the seeds. Then throw the dried pieces into the crockpot along with the chicken breasts.

Everybody in the pot!

Add in all your chicken stock which should just barely cover all the ingredients.

A Slow Cook

Set your crockpot to a low heat and let this sucker cook, covered, for at least six hours. If you wanted you could cook it for even longer though. Six hours is the minimum.

After that, your house will smell amazing and your soup will look something like this.

6 hours later...

Finishing the Soup

There’s a few things we need to do to finish this soup now that most of the cooking is done.

For starters, take out the bay leaves and dried peppers from the soup and discard them. They’ve given the soup plenty of flavor and there’s no need to hang on to them.

Next, take out the chicken breasts and use a few forks to gently shred the meat. Then you can return it to the crockpot.

Get it?

Finally, there are three new ingredients that I recommend adding at this point as they don’t need to simmer all day long.

First, add some corn and cilantro sprigs. Second, cube up a few corn tortillas and add those cubes straight to the soup.

Just some more flavor!

Cover this and let it simmer for another 30-45 minutes. The tortillas will soften and some will completely disintegrate into the soup which will give it a really rich texture. The cilantro will give the soup a nice herb flavor.

After it’s second cooking, remove the cilantro stalks and season the soup generously with salt and pepper.

The Garnishes

My favorite part of chicken tortilla soup is serving it with tons of fun garnishes and toppings and then people can kind of make their own bowls.

The essential topping (in my opinion) is crispy tortilla strips. These are super-easy to make. Just cut a few corn tortillas into long strips and bake them at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

The strips will be lightly browned when the are done and super-crispy.

Great garnish.

Some other topping ideas that I like are sliced avocado, crumbled cotija cheese (or any cheese really), sour cream, and lime wedges.

Some other fun add-ins.

Once your soup is seasoned well with salt and pepper just ladle it into a bowl and pile on the toppings!

From above.

It’s actually a very filling meal for soup because of the chicken, tortillas, and cheese. It’s very warming and just a complete winner of a meal in my book.

Don’t be daunted by the ingredient list here, people. You can and should give this a shot sometime this winter!

The cute little napkins in this post were kindly donated by Oh Little Rabbit.

My childhood in a bowl.

There has been some sort of mild plague going around our town for the last few weeks and Betsy’s office has been hit pretty hard with it. It was only a matter of time before one of us woke up sniffling and aching.

I was lucky enough to avoid the sickness this time around but it sure did smack Bets right upside the head.

So I did what I do best when dealing with a sickness: Make soup.

This time around I happened to find these tiny little star-shaped pastas in the grocery store that sent me flying back to my childhood when my mom would always make me chicken and stars soup when I was sick.

So this is my homemade take on chicken and stars soup. It’s soothing and healing and will get you back on your feet again for sure.

Chicken and Stars Soup

Yield: Serves 8-10.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Stock:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery ribs, quartered
1 head garlic, halved
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Handful of fresh parsley
20ish black peppercorns
10-12 cups water

Finished Soup:
Stock from above, strained
Shredded chicken from above, remove fat
1/2 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 glove garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
6-8 ounces star pasta
Salt and pepper
Crackers and/or crusty bread

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven
Strainer

Directions:

1) Chop chicken into pieces and add the carcass pieces and wings to a large sturdy pot over high heat with a drizzle of oil. Let the chicken pieces brown well over high heat for about 8 minutes. Turn the chicken every few minutes to make it browns evenly.

2) Add your other stock ingredients (including other chicken parts) except the water to the heavy pot and let them all sautee for a few minutes. Try to scrape up any stuck-on bits.

3) Add the water to your pot and make sure you have enough water to barely cover the ingredients. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat down to medium. Simmer the stock on medium, partially covered, for about 60-75 minutes.

4) Remove all the chicken pieces from the stock and let them cool briefly.

5) Strain the warm stock into a large bowl. If there's a lot of fat on the surface of the stock, try to spoon off some of it. It's okay though to have a small layer of fat on the stock for this recipe.

6) Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin from chicken and shred it into bite-sized pieces.

7) In your same large pot, add a new drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Then add all your diced veggies. Sautee for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add fresh thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper.

8) Add stock back to pot and bring to a simmer.

9) Once soup is simmering, stir in stars pasta and cook until al dente, about 9-10 minutes.

10) Finally stir in shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper.

11) Serve soup with crackers or crusty bread.

Making The Stock

I do occasionally take shortcuts and use store-bought stock for some dishes, but there’s absolutely no question that the best way to make a good soup is to make a good stock. It does add at least 90 minutes onto your preparation time (unless you have some frozen), but there’s just no debating that it takes homemade soup to another level.

I like to use a whole chicken when I make chicken soup so there’s a mix of white and dark meat. I like to chop up the chicken before cooking the stock which just makes it a bit easier to work with and gives you an opportunity to brown some of the meat.

Use any pieces you want.

If you’re intimidated by cutting up your own chicken, this video is one of the best I’ve seen at showing the process. It’s really not that hard and after you do two or three, you’ll get really fast at it.

Besides chicken and water, there’s a pretty standard list of vegetables that you’ll need to make a good stock. I wrote down a recipe, but it should be a guide. The good news about making stock is it’s a pretty flexible thing. Feel free to use more or less of the veggies depending on what you have and also don’t worry about chopping them up.

I just kind of quarter all of my vegetables.

Nothing fancy here.

To make the stock (and soup), I like to use a big heavy dutch oven. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan over high heat and then add just your chicken carcass and wings to the pot. That’s probably all that will be able to fit in a nice layer in the pan. If you can fit more chicken pieces, feel free to add them.

Let those chicken pieces cook for about 4-5 minutes per side until they are nice and browned. Some bits might get stuck to the pan and that’s just fine. The browned bits will give the stock a really deep flavor.

After your chicken has browned for a few minutes, you can add all your other veggies, herbs, and seasonings.

The start of something great.

Let these guys cook for a few minutes and try to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.

Then add any other chicken pieces to the pot and cover the whole thing with water. You want to cover everything by about an inch or so. This will probably work out to 10-12 cups of water.

Bring this all to a simmer and let it simmer and turn your heat down to medium. Let the stock simmer, partially covered, for about 75 minutes. Check on it every 20-30 minutes and if there’s a lot of foam on the surface, just scoop it off with a spoon.

The Soup Pieces

One reason why it really makes sense to make your own stock if you’re making homemade chicken soup is because you have to cook the chicken anyway. Making the stock accomplishes that for you!

Once your stock is cooked, just pull out your chicken pieces, let them cool for 5-10 minutes, and then shred them up. Try to remove as much fat and stuff as possible and just shred the chicken into bite-sized bits.

Get it?

For that delicious stock that’s been simmering, I recommend straining it with a strainer to remove any tiny bits of vegetable or whatever.

If there’s a lot of oil on your stock, try to spoon off some of it. A little bit definitely won’t hurt the soup at all.

This was my strained and finished stock that I used for my soup.

Liquid gold.

For the actual soup, take your time dicing up some veggies so they are roughly the same size. You don’t need a ton of vegetables to make a good soup at this point.

Half an onion, a few ribs of celery, a carrot or two, and a clove of garlic should do the trick.

Chopped nicely...

And, of course, you’ll need some stars. You could obviously use noodles or whatever, but I just think these are fun.

Love stars!

Making the Soup

I didn’t even bother washing out my pot from making the stock. I just added a new drizzle of olive oil, set the pot over medium-high heat, and added all my veggies to it.

Just a few minutes...

Cook the veggies for a few minutes until they start to soften and then add the thyme and all the stock. Bring that all to a simmer and then add your stars.

A Note on Over-starring. I actually added the full 16 ounces of stars to my soup because they looked so tiny! Like any pasta though, they swell! I think my version ended up a bit star-heavy! Six to eight ounces of the star pasta should be enough.

The stars will need to cook for about 9-10 minutes and then you can stir in your shredded chicken and season the soup with salt and pepper.

Done deal. Really not too much work.

Serving the soup

I really like soup like this with crackers, but I know that super-crusty bread is also a hit. Any way you scoop it, this is just a good bowl of soup.

So good.

Betsy ate this for a few meals (I did too just to ward off the germs) and she was feeling much better after about 24 hours!

I take full credit for her recovery.

Yum.

José Andrés, if you’re reading (yea right), you might want to stop.

Allow me to explain.

When I used to live in DC, there was this big event once a year or so when Chef Andrés would set up a huge paella wok thing outside in downtown DC and cook paella for like a million people.

I never was able to go to it. Sad face.

Recently, I was blessed with a fair amount of really good saffron from a few worldwide travelers and so I figured What the Hay. I can make paella.

And I can. And it was good.

But I started with chef Andrés’s recipe and ended up with something else altogether. So, if you happen to be him, sorry for mutilating your recipe, dude.

Cast Iron Paella

Yield: Serves 5-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
3 Cups water
6-8 Tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds chicken, cubed (you could sub 1 pound of shrimp for one pound of chicken)
1 pound mixed mushrooms, I used a mix of shiitake and oyster
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Cups short grain white rice (paella rice)
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 Teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in a bit of warm water
2 Cups chicken broth
Chopped parsley (garnish)

Allioli recipe (Served with paella)
4 garlic cloves, halved and center germ removed
1/2 Teaspoon fine salt
2 large egg yolks
3 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
1 Cup light olive oil
Fresh black pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet!

Directions:

1) For allioli, smash garlic cloves and add them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up even more. Whisk in egg yolks, vinegar, water, and salt.

2) Set bowl over a water bath with simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Whisk continuously until temp is 140 degrees. It should take about 3 minutes and be hot to the touch, but not boiling. Continue to whisk, keeping it at that temperature for 3 more minutes.

3) Let yolk mixture cool and then whisk in oil in a steady, slow steam. Whisk constantly and it should thicken up. Season with black pepper. This can be made in advance and stored in the fridge.

4) For Paella, bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add to a bowl with dried mushrooms. Let reconstitute for about an hour. Then strain broth and squeeze any liquid you can out of mushrooms.

5) Dice fresh mushrooms, onion, garlic, and chicken.

6) Add a few tablespoons of oil to a cast iron skillet over high heat. Sear chicken in two batches for about 5 minutes per batch. Chicken doesn't need to be cooked through, just seared.

7) Remove to a bowl. Add a bit more oil and sear mushrooms. After a few minutes add onions and garlic and continue to cook. Season with salt and pepper and cook for another minute or two until slightly soft, but not completely cooked.

8) Add mushrooms and onions to chicken and set aside.

9) Add a bit more oil to pan along with rice. Stir over medium-high heat for about a minute to coat rice.

10) Add mushroom broth, spices, tomatoes, saffron (and broth), chicken, onions, mushrooms, and 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock. The liquid should just cover all the ingredients.

11) Bring to a simmer on the stove and then add to a 400 degree oven. Cook for 30-40 minutes, checking frequently. If it is dry at any point and the rice still isn't cooked, add a bit more stock.

12) It's done with the edges are a bit crusty and the rice is cooked al dente.

13) Serve with chopped parsley and allioli.

Crazily adapted from this recipe.

Variations aplenty!

Like I said, I made a few changes to this recipe. One, I think, was a particularly good idea and one was a particularly bad idea.

I decided to not use any shrimp in my version, but if I had access to really good, large shrimp, I would totally use them. I think the lightness of the seafood would help the dish. But this was neither here nor there.

I think my good idea was to make this in a cast iron skillet. It allowed for even heat distribution and you ended up with some crusty edges which is what paella is known for. Normally paella is made in a very specialized pan, but if you aren’t making it regularly, it makes sense to use something that you probably have on hand.

My bad idea was using brown rice instead of white rice. It took forever to cook. Don’t do this. Just use short grain white rice (although not the instant kind) and you’ll be in much better shape. If you can find specially labeled paella rice, even better.

The Allioli

There some good spicy flavors going on in this dish and a garlic-packed sauce is the perfect complement. Allioli, or aioli, is almost like a mayonnaise, but slightly different. You heat the egg yolks first and pack in other flavors: mainly garlic.

So you’ll need these things!

Kinda like mayo!

Start by smashing your garlic cloves and adding them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up a bit in the bowl. Then whisk in the egg yolks, water, vinegar, and salt.

Set this bowl over a simmering water bath, but make sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Continue to whisk until the eggs reach about 140 degrees. A thermometer really helps, but if you don’t have one handy, it should be hot to the touch, but not burning or simmering at all.

Continue to whisk, maintaining that temperature for 3 minutes. Be careful not to let it get too hot or the eggs will completely cook. Then remove it from the heat and let the yolks cool completely to room temperature.

Next, gradually whisk in oil in a very thin stream until mixture is thick. Cooking the yolks makes it a bit easier to incorporate the oil. Then season with pepper!

You can make this in advance without a problem. I think it gets a bit better after a chill in the fridge.

Aioli is a weird word.

The Paella

To start the paella, be sure to prep all your ingredients. This is one of those dishes where it’s kind of annoying to have to stop to chop an onion or something, so just make sure you have everything ready.

To start this, bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil and add it to a bowl with the dried mushrooms. Let these sit for about an hour to reconstitute.

Flavor town.

When you’re ready, strain the broth out and squeeze as much liquid as possible from the mushrooms. Even though it’s kind of gross, I literally pick up the shrooms and wring them out like a wash cloth. There’s tons of flavor in those guys that you don’t want to waste.

Meanwhile, dice up the fresh mushrooms and an onion, and cube up the chicken.

Some basic choppin'

In your cast iron skillet, add two tablespoons of oil over high heat. Add the chicken in two batches, searing the pieces well on each side.

After the chicken is seared (about five minutes), remove it to a bowl and add a bit more oil. Then add the mushrooms and cook for another few minutes until they are seared. Finally add the onions and chopped garlic and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook all this for just a minute or two on high heat. You goal is just to get them started and bring some flavor to the party.

Then you can add your mushrooms and onions to your chicken.

Lightly cooked.

Working with saffron is super-fun. This is the first time I’ve had my hands on some really good stuff.

I added my saffron to about 1/2 Cup of water to let them kind of bloom and start giving off some color.

Just look at that color!

Devil sperm.

To get the paella ready for the oven, add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pan along with the rice over medium high heat.

Again, don’t use brown rice like me people. It was a bad idea.

Use the right rice please.

Once the rice is coated well with oil and hot, add 3 cups of the mushroom stock the pan. Also add the tomatoes, spices, saffron (and broth).

Then stir in all the chicken, mushrooms, and onions. Add about 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock to the dish. The liquid should basically cover the other ingredients.

Ready for a bake!

Bring this all to a simmer on the stove top and then add it to a 400 degree oven, uncovered.

It will probably need to cook for somewhere between 30-40 minutes.

Check it frequently if it looks really dry at any point, but the rice isn’t cooked, add a bit more chicken stock. It’s done when the liquid is gone and the rice is cooked through.

If you were to add seafood to this, you would want to add it in the last few minutes. Cooking shrimp for 30 minutes is never a good idea.

Great color.

This dish had lots of really good flavor, but my rice never really cooked all the way through. Brown rice is just too sturdy to use in a dish like this.

I ended up cooking mine for about 75 minutes and eventually the rice softened enough that we could eat it.

But it was a struggle.

So feel free to make this. It was delicious. Just use the right kind of rice.

Colorful things!

A few weeks ago Betsy and I went skiing for the last time for this season. Betsy and I usually have a pretty light lunch while we’re on the slopes. Sometimes we’ll split a sandwich or something just because I’d rather not be in a food coma while speeding (falling) down a mountain.

On this day, we split a really delicious wrap that involved wild rice, butternut squash, goat cheese, and a few other veggies. Because it was on a ski slope, it also cost like $10.

I figured I could make them at home for a very small fraction of that. I substituted beets for the butternut squash just because beets are a bit easier to find in the spring.

These are fantastic for healthy and quick lunches during the week though!

Wild Rice Wraps

Yield: 8 Wraps

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup dry wild rice, cooked according to package
Chicken stock or veggie stock, for rice (probably need 3-4 cups)
Goat cheese, one ounce per wrap is good
Fresh baby spinach
2 beets, roasted and cubed
8 flour tortillas

Directions:

1) Roast beets at 350 degrees on a baking sheet for 60-75 minutes until knife tender.

2) When cool, peel beets and cube them fairly small.

3) Cook wild rice according to package.

4) When rice is cooked, stir in beets.

5) To make wraps, spread about one ounce of goat cheese on tortilla. Top with spinach and rice/beet mixture. Roll up and serve!

Roasting the beets

These wraps are easy to make, but not necessarily quick. Both of the two main ingredients (rice and beets) take a while to cook. You can obviously cook them at the same time though.

To roast the beets, just cut off the stem and bottom root section. Set them on a baking sheet and roast them at 350 degrees until they are tender. You should be able to easily push a knife into their center. It’ll probably take 60-75 minutes depending on the size of your beets.

These were mine after a good long roast.

Beets are so good.

Once they are cool enough to handle, peel the beets and cube them fairly small.

It’s kind of messy, but worth it.

Kinda messy but worth it.

The Rice.

If you’ve never worked with wild rice, it’s a different creature from the white stuff you’re used to. It has a really nutty flavor. It also takes about an hour to cook.

You should cook yours according to the package, but it’ll probably involve 3-4 cups of liquid per cup of rice, plus a pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil. I used chicken stock to cook my rice in, but you could use water or veggie stock if you wanted to make these vegetarian.

Basic stuff.

Just kind of throw all of this in a medium pot, bring it to a simmer, cover it, and let it simmer for about an hour.

Slow food.

When the rice is done, fluff it up with a fork and then stir in your cubed beets.

This would be a fantastic side dish as is. So you can use the leftovers for other meals pretty easily.

All mixed up.

Making the Wraps.

While you can use any flour tortilla for these guys, I found these fun veggie tortillas at the store. They came in different varieties (carrot, spinach, and tomato). I’m not exactly sure why the carrot version is yellow instead of orange, but whatever.

Carrot - Spinach - Tomato

For each wrap, spread about an ounce of goat cheese on the tortilla. This adds some nice richness to the wrap. Totally necessary in my opinion.

Can't go wrong with goat cheese!

Then layer on a good handful of spinach and top with about 1/2 Cup of the rice/beet mixture. Depending on the size of your tortilla, you might have to adjust. You want a stuffed wrap for sure.

Piled high!

Roll this up and you’re ready to go!

I sliced mine all in half so you could check out the cross-sections.

Rolled and sliced!

I found that a wrap is a really good healthy lunch. Two was almost too much for me. The rice is really filling actually.

I’m sure you could add other things to these wraps, but I wouldn’t get too crazy. The rice and beets are the stars of the show.

I think I made about 8 of these for the cost of one of the wraps on the slope. Go figure.

If you’re looking for a great lunch dish though, these hit the spot for me!

This worked just fine.

One of the best winter dishes I can think of is a really good chicken pot pie. The buttery crust paired with the thick chicken broth and veggies is guaranteed to warm the soul.

But there’s a few problems with traditional chicken pot pie. Most importantly, it takes a while to make! Making the crust, rolling it out, fitting the little bowls, making the filling, baking. Definitely block off 2-3 hours if you want to make it right.

Second, and less importantly to me, is traditional chicken pot pie isn’t the healthiest thing on the block. It usually has a lot of butter and cream in it which is delicious, but maybe also diet-busting.

Enter the chicken skillet pie, which won last week’s poll! This guy has all the flavors of chicken pot pie, less fat, and shaves an hour or two off your prep time. It’s pretty much a win-win and the flavors are all still very solid.

Chicken Skillet Pie

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 Cup buttermilk
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (only butter in the recipe)

Filling:
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds chicken, trimmed of fat. You could use breasts or thighs
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, minced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
2 red peppers, seeded and roughly chopped
1 rib celery, cut into 1/4 inch slices
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
4 ounces spinach, chopped roughly
1/2 Cup frozen peas
1/4 Cup half-and-half or cream
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley (optional)
2 Teaspoons fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) For the biscuits, combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in wet ingredients until combined. Spoon mixture onto parchment lined baking sheet into 6 equal biscuits.

2) Bake biscuits at 425 degrees until they are set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

3) Cool on a wire rack until needed.

4) To start the filling, add the flour to a dry pan and cook until lightly browned over medium heat, probably 6 minutes. Let flour cool.

5) Whisk chicken stock into cooled, cooked flour to create a slurry.

6) Add oil to an oven safe large skillet or dutch oven. Dry off chicken with a paper towel and season well with salt and pepper. Add chicken to hot oil and cook over medium-high heat until chicken is browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.

7) Add chopped celery, peppers, onions, and carrots to skillet and cook until they start to get soft, about 8 minutes. Stir frequently and use the veggies to scrape up some of the stuff stuck to the pan.

8) Add thyme (opt.) and garlic to pan and cook for another 30 seconds.

9) Add slurry and bay leaves to pan and stir to combine. Then set chicken pieces back in the pan. Cover and cook for 12-15 minutes until chicken is done. Remove chicken and shred it when you can handle it.

10) Let sauce and veggies simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently, over medium-low heat until sauce thickens, another 6-7 minutes probably.

11) Once sauce is thick, stir in spinach and cook until wilted.

12) Stir in shredded chicken, peas, and half-and-half. Once well combined, set biscuits on top of filling around the edges of the pan.

13) Bake at 425 until filling is bubbling and biscuits are nicely browned, probably another 10 minutes.

14) Serve it up!

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe.

Looks like a lot of ingredients, but most of them are veggies and they’re good for you!

Let’s start with the biscuits though as they really made the meal in my opinion.

Making the Biscuits

Even if you’re trying to be super-healthy, you need some butter in biscuits. There’s no two ways about it. Some biscuits have a Tablespoon per biscuit (so 6 in this recipe), but this original recipe brought it down to 3 and I upped it to 4.

I thought mine were perfectly buttery. Besides butter, buttermilk also makes biscuits really good. You can substitute whole milk in a pinch, but buttermilk does make a really noticeable difference.

The basics of biscuits.

To make these guys, just combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and then whisk in your wet ingredients (buttermilk and melted butter). Stir to combine and then drop batter into 6 even-sized biscuits on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

The batter should be really thick and hold its shape.

Dropped.

Bake these at 425 degrees until the biscuits set and are just turning a light brown, probably about 10 minutes. Then let them cool off on a rack if you have one. They won’t be cooked completely and that’s good.

We'll finish these guys later.

Making the filling

Normally, to make the thick sauce for a pot pie, you make a roux, which is butter and flour cooked together. It thickens liquids really well.

This recipe though involved a new technique that I was completely skeptical about, but it definitely worked. Instead of a roux, you just omit the butter and cook the flour and then mix it with the stock.

So start by adding your dry flour to a skillet over medium heat and cook it, stirring frequently, until the flour is a light brown color. It’ll take maybe 5 minutes, but keep a close eye on it.

Just flour...

Then let this flour cool for a few minutes and once it’s cold, whisk in your chicken stock. This creates a slurry which will thicken almost as well as a roux. It took me a bit longer to thicken the sauce, but the end result was about the same.

Gettin' all slurry.

To start the stuff in the filling, dry off your chicken with a paper towel and season them all liberally with salt and pepper.

Just salt and pepper.

Add your vegetable oil to a large OVEN SAFE skillet (I recommend one with high sides). If you don’t have an oven safe skillet, you could use a dutch oven for this actually.

Anyway, add oil to your pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken and brown on each side for about 4 minutes. The chicken won’t be cooked all the way through at this point, but that’s okay. Remove it from the pan when it’s well-browned.

Next, add the chopped carrots, celery, red pepper, and onion to the same pan. As the veggies cook, they’ll pick up any bits and pieces that are stuck to the pan.

Cook these until the veggies are starting to get soft, about 8 minutes.

This will start smelling good.

Then add the garlic and thyme if you’re using it (I didn’t) and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

For the next step, add all the slurry to the pan and stick the chicken pieces back in. Stir this all together, add the bay leaves, cover it, and cook this for about 12 minutes on medium until the chicken is done.

Add the slurry.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the pan and set it aside to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, let the sauce and veggies simmer uncovered for a few minutes so the sauce can thicken nicely.

When the chicken is cool enough to touch, shred it with a few forks or just roughly chop it up.

When the sauce is pretty thick (this will take maybe 5 minutes), then stir in the spinach and stir it until the spinach is wilted which will take probably 30 seconds.

As a last step, stir in the shredded chicken, half-and-half, and the frozen peas. Now would also be the time to taste for salt and pepper. It’ll probably need a pinch of both but if you use certain chicken broths they contain a lot of salt so you might not need any.

Just taste it and adjust to your liking.

All together now!

Once your filling is stirred together, add the biscuits around the outside. The filling should be thick enough so the biscuits don’t really sink into the mix.

Such a good idea.

Return this pan to the oven and cook it until the filling is bubbling and the biscuits are nice and browned, probably another 10 minutes.

Then serve it up! Obviously each serving should come with its own biscuit.

Piled high and deep.

I was pretty shocked at how flavorful and rich this was considering there’s no butter in it. Sure, the little bit of cream or half-and-half helps, but for a dish with mostly vegetables and lean meat, it tasted really rich.

For me though, the dish is all about the biscuit. Mushing it up with a spoon and getting a bit of buttery biscuit and creamy broth is just amazing.

This is a dish that you can easily do on a week night (it took me about an hour) and I think you’ll really like the results.

What's the beef with stroganoff?

I’m from the generation that grew up on soup can dinners. Smart marketing departments came up with twists on traditional recipes that took out all the fuss and substituted in a can or two of their delicious Elmer’s-like goop and most of my generation’s parents ate it up.

I guess these dishes are still popular today, but I know that I pretty much grew up eating them. And while they actually taste okay, we can do better. One of the classic dishes where real ingredients get substituted for soup (of the mushroom variety) is beef stroganoff.

Here’s what I don’t get about the substitutions in this case: They really save you no time. Whether you use the can or real ingredients, it takes about the same time to prepare because you still need to cook the beef and the noodles and stuff.

You might save a buck or two, but we’ll completely make up for that in the flavor department.

Real Beef Stroganoff

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin or sirloin, cut into 1 inch chunks
3 Tablespoons butter
1 large onion, sliced
8 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (I like cremini)
1/2 Cup chopped canned tomatoes
1 Cup chicken or beef stock
2/3 Cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (opt.)
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley for garnish (opt.)

1 pound egg noodles
2 Tablespoons butter (or the noodles)

Directions:

1) Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once melted, add beef and let brown well on all sides. This should take 2-3 minutes a side.

2) Add onions and mushrooms to skillet after beef is browned and continue to cook for a few more minutes until veggies are tender. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

3) Add tomatoes, stock, and mustard if you're using mustard. Turn heat down to low and simmer for a few minutes.

4) Finally, stir in sour cream and garnish with some parsley if you want.

5) Cook egg noodles according to package. Drain them and stir in a few tablespoons of butter to coat the noodles.

6) Serve stroganoff over noodles as soon as possible!

Adapted from How To Cook Everything.

The Ingredients

As you can see, the ingredient list here is pretty simple. It’s really not a complicated dish. All the soup version does really is substitute some of the mushrooms and the sour cream for a can or two of the goop soup.

There is some chopping involved (onions, mushrooms, beef), but it’s pretty simple work. The mushrooms and onions should be kept in pretty large chunks.

Keep it simple people.

To make the sauce, I used some chicken broth I had in the fridge. I wish I had homemade handy but I’m out of it at the moment. Also, I think if I were going to buy some stock just for this recipe, I would’ve went with beef stock just to enhance the beef flavor, but this is what I had on hand. You can use either.

Fresh tomatoes would be good, but not in the winter. It’s better to just use canned in my opinion.

No soup sauce!

And don’t forget the noodles! These are non-negotiable in my opinion for this dish. They do such a perfect job of sopping up all the delicious sauce.

No substitutions!

Cooking the Dish

Start to finish this dish took me 30 minutes and some of that time I was futzing around with my camera. I bet you could do it even faster.

When all your ingredients are ready, melt your butter in a sturdy pan over medium-high heat. Once it’s melted and bubbling, add your beef chunks and brown well on all sides. Try not to move the beef too much when doing this.

Cook for a few minutes on each side until the pieces are nicely seared.

I love this smell.

Then add the mushrooms and onions to the dish with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir this all together and continue to cook until the veggies are a bit soft.

This will probably take 5 or 6 minutes.

Yum.

Next, add the tomatoes, stock, and mustard if you’re using it. I recommend the mustard but I left if out for my version because Betsy has a horrible aversion to the stuff.

Turn your heat down to medium and let the whole pot simmer for a few minutes until the beef is nice and tender.

As a final step, stir in the sour cream which will make the whole thing deliciously creamy and thick.

Creamy and delicious.

As far as the noodles go, just cook them according to the package in heavily salted water. Once you drain them, add in a few tablespoons of butter and stir it together until the noodles are nicely coated.

The butter is optional but not if you’re eating at my table.

Egg noodles rock.

Then pile it high and deep!

Great winter dish.

Betsy and I both agreed that this version pretty much ruled. It has so much more flavor than the canned situation.

So, ditch the can and go with the real thing. You won’t lose any time and you’ll be happy that you did.

Never making enchiladas again!

I was really excited when Alton Brown won the poll last week. He happens to be my favorite of all the major celebrity chefs because he’s a) smart b) funny and c) geeky. All things that I aspire to be.

Browsing through Alton Brown’s recipes, I wanted to make sure I picked one that really embodied his philosophy. This philosophy, it seems to me, is finding ways to keep all the flavor while making cooking as accessible and easy as possible.

When I saw enchilada lasagna on the list I knew I had to make it. Actually, my first thought was, “Yea. Why would you need to roll up a corn tortilla? Why can’t you just layer it?”

Turns out you can and it tastes identical to real enchiladas. I’m not sure that I can justify ever making real enchiladas again!

Enchilada Lasagna

Yield: 9x13 baking dish

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Sauce:
2 16 ounce cans tomato sauce (about 3 cups)
2-3 chipotles in Adobo sauce, diced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons cumin seeds
2 Cups chicken broth
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Filling:
1.5 pounds chicken breasts or thighs, diced (you could also use beans for a vegetarian version)
2 poblano peppers, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Other stuff:
12-14 (6 inch) corn tortillas
1 pound shredded cheese, I used a combination of Pepper Jack and Queso Oaxaca.

Directions:

1) In a medium pot, add a swirl of olive oil over medium heat. Then add diced garlic and chipotle peppers and cook for a minute or two.

2) Add cumin and chili powder and continue to cook for another minute.

3) Add chicken stock and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer with a pinch of salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until needed.

4) For filling, add a swirl of oil to a skillet and add diced chicken. Once almost cooked, add peppers and onions and continue to cook until they are soft, about 3-4 minutes.

5) In a 9x13 baking dish, rub it down with vegetable oil, then ladle in 1/2 Cup of sauce to the bottom.

6) Dip tortillas in sauce and lay them in the bottom of the dish until they cover it. You'll probably need 4 and you might need to cut one in half.

7) Add half of the chicken filling, followed by 1/3 of the grated cheese.

8) Then add another layer of tortillas with sauce, followed by the rest of the filling, followed by another 1/3 of the cheese.

9) Finish with a third layer of tortillas and the last of the cheese.

10) Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly, about 30 minutes.

11) Let cool before serving.

Heavily adapted from Alton Brown.

Start-to-finish this dish will probably take you 75-90 minutes to make depending on how quick you are in the kitchen. I’d guess this is 25-30 minutes faster than a traditional enchilada recipe.

Making the Sauce

The first step for this recipe is getting the sauce ready. In a pinch, you could use a canned enchilada sauce, but I like customizing my sauces a bit so I always try to make it if I have time.

A really simple sauce.

The only real chopping that you’ll need to do for the sauce is to mince up the garlic and chipotle peppers. I left the seeds in my chipotles to give them extra heat. Just mince up everything pretty finely like so.

Chopped up.

To make the sauce, add a swirl of olive oil to a medium pot and get it heated over medium heat. Add the garlic and chipotles and cook for a few seconds.

Then add all the spices (cumin, chili powder) and continue to cook. This will smell really good and the dry pan will toast the cumin seeds a bit which enhances their flavor. Be sure to stir it regularly and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

After a minute or two of cooking, add the tomato sauce, chicken stock, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer until you’re ready to make the lasagna.

Making the Filling

The filling for this dish is almost as easy.

You’ll just need these things. I added the poblano peppers to give the filling some color and flavor. Alton’s recipe didn’t have this, but I liked the addition.

The basics for filling

Dice up the chicken and add it to a skillet over medium high heat with a swirl of olive oil. Once the chicken is almost cooked, add the onions and poblano peppers and cook until they are soft, about 3-4 minutes.

My poblano peppers in this photo are WAY too big. Be sure to dice yours finer if you use them.

Peppers should be smaller!

Putting Together the Lasagna!

This is the part where you really save a lot of time. If you’ve ever made enchiladas before, it usually involves quickly soaking tortillas in sauce, then adding some filling, rolling them up, and stacking them in the dish.

In short, it’s a messy process that takes some time.

If we’re doing it lasagna style though, all you need to do is lightly oil your baking dish, add about 1/2 Cup of sauce to the bottom of the dish, then start dipping your tortillas in the sauce and layering them in the pan.

You’re just going for an even layer of tortillas here so feel free to rip them up to get that. This was my optimal layout.

Easiest enchiladas ever.

Then just add about half of your chicken filling. This is easy people.

Layer of filling.

Next add a layer of cheese. Use about 1/3 of your cheese.

Then another layer of tortillas in sauce, then the final 1/2 of your filling, followed by 1/3 of your cheese.

Then more tortillas and finally the last 1/3 of your cheese.

This will all take you maybe 10 minutes and be a lot less messy than the traditional rolling method. You’ll end up with this awesome casserole dish full of delicious filling, cheese and sauce.

Lots of cheese is important as always.

Bake this at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until the cheese is really melted and the sauce is bubbling.

Let it cool for a minute or two before slicing into it.

Nice and bubbly.

The awesome thing about this dish is that I promise if you did a side-by-side taste test between this and traditional enchiladas with the same sauce and filling, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

It tastes the exact same, which is to say that it tastes amazing.

Man these were good.

I forgot to photograph it but I served mine with some Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it was really taste.

You’ll most likely have lots of leftovers here which is just fine because they re-heat beautifully.

I can’t exactly think of a reason right now why I’ll ever make traditional enchiladas again. This was just too easy and too good.

As always, thanks Alton.

Fall in a bowl!

People need to make more risotto. Does it take 45 minutes? Sure. Do you have to occasionally stir it? Yes.

All of that in mind though, I still think risotto tops my list of dishes that are always over-hyped in difficulty and under-hyped in deliciousness.

At the end of the day, it just isn’t that hard to stir rice for a few minutes and you’ll have one of the most warming meals you’ve had in a while and enough leftovers to eat it until you forgot how long it took you to make it.

This version is kicked up a notch for fall with roasted butternut squash, sage, and bacon.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 10 minutes + roast butternut squash

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

2 Cups arborio rice
1 large onion, diced
8 ounces bacon, diced
8-10 Cups chicken stock, homemade is always best
2 Cups mashed butternut squash
1/3 Cup white wine (opt.)
1 Tablespoon fresh sage, minced
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Chop onions, bacon, and sage just so you have everything ready.

2) Heat stock in a large pot near where you will be making the risotto.

3) Add bacon pieces to a large high-rimmed pan and cook over medium heat, letting the bacon fat render out. You want the bacon to be very crispy, but not burned.

4) Remove the bacon and add onion to pan. If the pan is dry, add a bit of olive oil or butter. Cook onion over medium-high heat until onion is translucent and soft, about 5 minutes.

5) Add rice to dish and stir for about a minute, heating rice.

6) Add one cup of hot stock and stir well. Be sure to scrape up any bits of bacon or onion that are stuck to the pan.

7) Turn the heat down to medium and continue to add batches of stock (3/4 Cup about). Stir in each ladle of stock and wait until it's almost all absorbed before adding the next ladle.

8) Keep adding stock in this manner until rice is tender, but with a slight bite. It should take about 30-40 minutes.

9) Add mashed butternut squash to risotto and stir in another ladle of stock.

10) Cook until squash is incorporated and rice is done. Add Parmesan cheese and taste for salt and pepper. Serve immediately with bacon and sage.

Roasting the Squash

I love roasting butternut squashes this time of year. You can use them in a bunch of different dishes (quinoa salad is one of my favorite). They also freeze well, so if you can’t use a whole one, just keep it until you need it.

Of course, for a dish like risotto, you don’t need to roast a whole squash. You can definitely just use the frozen butternut squash cubes without a problem.

IF you want to roast a whole one though, just grab a sturdy knife and slice it in half by stabbing it in the middle and then pressing down on the knife to cut it open. Do this on both sides and your squash should split right open.

Then put it skin-side up on a baking sheet and punch some holes in it with a fork. Roast at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until it’s very tender.

You could just use frozen I guess...

Again, you can do this way in advance for a dish like this. Also, you should only need half of a squash for this dish.

Standard Risotto Stuff

The only things that you always need for risotto are onions, rice, and some sort of stock. If you have some white wine on hand, it’s a nice addition to de-glaze the pan, but I just used stock for this version and it was still delicious.

Definitely get all your ingredients ready before you get started cooking. For this recipe, that means chopping up the onions, sage, and bacon, and heating your stock.

You'll want this stuff too.

The Setup

Depending on your pots and pans, you’ll have to figure out a risotto set-up that works for you but basically you need:

1) A large high sided pan or pot to cook the risotto in.
2) A large pot to keep your chicken stock warm in.

Ideally you’ll have these very close to each other. This is my standard set-up these days.

The Setup.

Making the risotto

Take a deep breath people. It’s time to make risotto. (It’s seriously not that hard.)

Usually butter or olive oil is used to start a risotto dish, but I decided to fry up some bacon and use the bacon grease to kick things off.

So add your chopped up bacon to your pan over medium heat and cook it until all the fat has rendered out and the bacon is really crispy, about 10-15 minutes.

Nice and crispy.

Remove the bacon and save it for a garnish on your risotto. Then add your chopped onion to the bacon grease and cook it over medium-high heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

If your pan is really dry, add a Tablespoon of olive oil to it. That might be the case depending on your bacon.

Once your onion is cooked, add all your rice! This is kind of a weird step because you don’t normally add rice to a dry pan, but just go with it.

This makes a lot of risotto.

The dry heat from the pan will heat up the rice and allow it to absorb more moisture later on.

Stir this all together for about a minute.

Now it’s time to start adding the stock! Ladle in about a cup of stock to start off. It’ll sizzle and hiss and evaporate pretty quickly.

It’ll also look like you have a ridiculous ratio of onions to rice.

Looks like more onion than rice.

The Annoying part

This is the annoying part that people always rant about with risotto. Yes. You need to slowly add your HOT stock to the rice in about 3/4 Cup batches and stir it occasionally.

Do you need to hover over your risotto constantly stirring? No. You just need to make sure that it’s not burning and add more stock when it’s dry. That’s the important part.

So in other words, you can do this.

After 30-40 minutes of this, you’re risotto will be nice and plump and be tender but still have a tiny bite to it. The only way to really tell when risotto is done is to taste it regularly in my opinion!

This is almost there.

Getting close.

When your risotto reaches this point, add in all your mashed butternut squash. This is an exciting step because the color is awesome and it will smell really good.

Awesome colors.

Stir this all together and add another batch of stock to it to smooth out the squash and risotto. It should be really creamy.

Near the end, taste it one more time to make sure your rice is cooked. Then hit it with some Parmesan cheese and taste it for salt and pepper. You probably won’t need to add much salt, but maybe a pinch will be in order.

You’ll be left with a huge pot of delicious risotto.

Lookin' good!

Serve this as soon as possible and top it off with some crispy bacon and chopped sage.

Pretty dish alert.

Looking at this dish now as I write this post, I think it looks freakin’ elegant. It looks like something you’d pay $18 for in a restaurant.

But screw restaurants. Make this at home and anytime you want some you’ll have a huge dish of it your refrigerator, just waiting for you.

Can't go wrong!

I knew I was probably getting into trouble when I put arancini on the list for last week’s poll, but I couldn’t help myself! I also couldn’t think of too many other foods that were round.

It’s not really the most summer-y dish in the world (hot oil, hot stove, hot risotto), but I wanted to try to make this version as summer-y as possible. So I came up with the idea of folding in fresh corn into the risotto. It gave it a wonderful sweetness.

Now, I’ll be completely honest. I’m not sure that I would ever make this just to make arancini. The risotto is fantastic on it’s own. So I’d encourage you to make that as a meal, but maybe double the batch, and then make arancini with the leftovers the next day or something!

Fresh Corn Arancini

Yield: Makes 40 arancini.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours + some chilling time

Ingredients:

3 ears fresh corn
1 medium onion, diced
4 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1.5 Cups Arborio rice
1/2 Cup white wine (optional)
8-10 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock), hot
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and pepper

For Arancini:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups bread crumbs
1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper
6 ounces sharp cheddar (or you could use a spicy cheese and eliminate the cayenne)
Canola or peanut oil for frying

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

1) Cut your corn off the cob and add it to a large pan over medium-high heat with 2 Tablespoons of butter. Cook for a few minutes until it soft, but not browned. Remove it and set aside.

2) Add 2 Tablespoons oil and butter to the same pan and the chopped onion. Cook until soft, but not browned, just a few minutes.

3) Add risotto rice to pan and cook for 30-60 seconds to heat the rice.

4) Deglaze the pan with white wine (or water) an stir.

5) Start adding hot chicken stock to the rice 1/2 Cup at a time and stir continuously until rice is translucent and soft, but has a slight bite. Keep adding chicken stock as the rice dries out. After 30-40 minutes the rice should be cooked through.

6) Stir corn back into risotto along with Parmesan cheese and taste for salt and pepper.

7) Cool risotto completely. It'll probably take 4 hours in the fridge. Overnight is best though.

8) Mix your bread crumbs and spices together and cube cheese when you're ready to make the arancini.

9) Take a small spoonful of risotto and add a cube of cheese to the center. Do this with all the risotto and set the finished balls on a baking sheet.

10) Once all the balls are formed, dip each ball in egg wash and then coat in the spiced bread crumb mix.

11) Allow the balls to set up in the fridge for at least an hour.

12) Fry the balls in 350 degree oil until they are a deep golden brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel for a minute before serving.

Making the Risotto

Like I said, I never really plan to make just arancini (except this time). I usually just make extra risotto and then use the leftovers for arancini.

I think people are intimidated by risotto, but I honestly think it’s a chef’s trick. It’s almost like they don’t want you to know how easy it is to make because then they couldn’t charge you $20 for a 1 Cup serving of it.

I digress… let’s make some.

You’ll need to start with some really nice fresh corn. If you just can’t find this, you can use frozen, but you can’t use canned. Not allowed.

Don't use canned obviously.

Also, when you’re searching for Arborio rice, it’ll sometimes be in a box called “Risotto Rice” or something like that. This will be expensive. I don’t recommend buying it that way.

I recommend finding a place that sells it bulk (even Whole Foods does). Then you can scoop out as much as you want. It usually runs like $1.50-$2/pound which actually makes this meal pretty affordable.

I keep my rice in a big plastic container.

I'm gonna start making more risottos.

Start this dish by melting 2 Tablespoons of butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Once it’s melted add all your corn after you cut it off the cob.

Let this cook for a few minutes until the corn is soft, but not browned. It should smell like, well, corn.

Don't overcook it.

Once your corn is done, remove it from the pan, add another 2 Tablespoons of butter and 2 Tablespoons of oil. Once that’s hot, add your chopped onion and let the onion cook down until it’s soft over medium-high heat. Again, you don’t want them really browned, just soft.

Then add all your rice!

The start of something wonderful.

The risotto process is always the same from here on out:

1) Cook your rice in the dry pan for about 30 seconds, stirring continuously.
2) Deglaze the pan with your white wine. It’ll sizzle! Continue to stir. If you aren’t using white wine, you could just use water.
3) Start ladling in your hot chicken (or veg) stock about 1/2 cup at a time. Keep slowly stirring.
4) When the rice is looking dry, add more stock.

Remember. There’s no need to stir aggressively. Sometimes people make risotto a workout. It doesn’t need to be that. Heck. You can even walk away from it for a minute or two. The rice will never know!

After about 25 minutes of this, you should be almost home. You’re rice will have expanded a lot.

Getting close...

Taste it!

Always taste risotto as it cooks. Is it crunchy? Needs more stock. Does it have a tiny bite to it? Perfect. You don’t want it soggy.

When you’re at a consistency that tastes good to you, stir in your corn and also your grated Parm! Now would be a good time to taste for salt and pepper also. It’ll probably need a good pinch of both.

Yum.

Eat it!

You’ve worked hard. Eat this now while it’s hot and at it’s best. Save the arancini for the next day.

The next day!

One reason why you really don’t want to jump right into the arancini is because your risotto needs to cool completely before you even attempt it. If you plan on making it the same day, you need to make your risotto early and let it cool for at least 4 hours!

When you’re ready though, you’ll need a few extra things. Starting with cheese!

Something spicy would work also.

I used a really sharp cheddar for mine. In hindsight, I think I might have used something spicy like Pepper Jack.

You’ll also need some eggs lightly beaten to coat the arancini and then finally a bread crumb mixture. Spice goes very well with corn so I added a big pinch of cayenne to my bread crumbs. If you use pepper jack, this might not be necessary.

Spicy!

Shaping the Arancini

You can make these, theoretically, as big or small as you want. I think about golf ball size is good. Using cold risotto makes this a lot easier. I’ve tried it with even room temp risotto and it’s a lot harder.

I find that it’s easier to roll all my arancini and then go back and coat them with bread crumbs.

To make one, just scoop out a small handful of risotto, put a cube of cheese in the middle, and mold the risotto around the cheese, forming a ball.

Once you have all the arancini formed, then it’s pretty easy to coat them. Just dip each one in the egg mixture and then roll it around in the spiced bread crumbs.

I think it took me about 15 minutes to make 20 or so of these.

Not shabby!

Cooking the Arancini

Deep fry the arancini (a deep fry thermometer is handy) at 350 degrees for about 4-5 minutes until they are a deep golden brown. I use canola oil for frying normally. Don’t try to do too many at a time or they won’t brown well.

Also, don’t forget about them or they might explode!

I always like to do a test one before I start tossing them in in batches. My test turned out pretty darn good!

Always do a test!

As did my batches!

Best leftovers ever.

Risotto is quickly becoming one of my favorite dinners. It’s extremely filling and actually fairly economical. Once you get the method down you can make tons of variations and the leftovers can be eaten as-is or turned into these little globes of goodness!

What do you think? Successful? Are you scared of risotto?