Best risotto I've made

This might not be a surprise to you but I think that most restaurant meals are a tad bit overpriced.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to pay for a really delicious meal, but some restaurants get away with charging high prices for meals because people have a perception of the dish being very hard to make at home.

I think risotto is pretty much the perfect example of this. I mean, risotto is a poor man’s meal. It’s rice. And stock. Nothing fancy. The only reason why it’s expensive is because there’s a perception that it’s a difficult dish.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen risotto in a restaurant for less than $15 and most are above $20.

You can buy a lot of rice for $20, people.

And I have better news for you. The concept that risotto is hard to make is a myth. It’s really not. You can do it. I promise. And while you’re making it, you can also fold in some delicious persimmons. If you do this, you’ll be left with a big pot of some of the best risotto I’ve ever eaten.

Persimmon Risotto

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/4 cup shallots
1/3 cup white wine
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
2 persimmons, peeled and chopped
1/2 lemon, juice only
3 tablespoons olive oil
Pomegranate seeds
Salt and pepper
Seared Chicken breasts (opt.)

Directions:

1) Peel and dice persimmons. Dice shallots. Toss chicken breasts with some olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.

2) Heat chicken stock in a large pot until it's simmering.

3) In a large, high-sided pan, add a drizzle of olive oil over high heat. Once it's hot, add chicken breasts, skin side down. Sear for 5 minutes on each side.

4) Transfer seared chicken breasts to an oven-safe dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until they are cooked through.

5) In the same pan that you used to sear the chicken, add some fresh olive oil and the shallots. Cook for a minute or two over medium high heat until shallots soften. Try to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.

6) Add rice and continue to cook for a minute or two.

7) Add white wine and continue to cook. At this point you should be able to easily scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.

8) Once white wine is cooked off, ladle in warm chicken stock. Add about 3/4 cup of stock at a time and stir risotto as it cooks over medium heat.

9) When pan is dry, ladle in more stock. Continue doing this until the risotto is soft but still has a tiny bite to it. This will probably take between 4-5 cups of stock and about 25-30 minutes.

10) When risotto is desired texture, season with salt and pepper and stir in chopped persimmons.

11) To remove pomegranate seeds, cut the pomegranate into quarters and break apart the quarters submerged in a bowl of water. The seeds will sink.

12) Serve risotto with chicken and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.

Persi-what?

Persimmons are a strange fruit. They look kind of like tomatoes, but are much firmer. They are seasonally available in the winter (Nov-Feb normally) and can add a slight sweet flavor to dishes. They are actually really mild though so don’t be afraid to use a lot of them in something flavorful like risotto.

Strange tomatoes...

The important part about persimmons is that their skin is really tough. It’s not like tomato skin even though it looks like. You definitely want to peel these guys before using them.

Once they are peeled you can just dice up the fruit and set it aside for later.

Gotta peel these guys.

Some Protein

The finished risotto is pretty hearty and can definitely be served on its own. You can make it with vegetable stock and make it vegetarian even.

To make it a full dinner though, I decided to sear some chicken and serve it on top of the risotto.

I just tossed a few chicken breasts (bone-in and skin-on) with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Then I seared them on high heat in the same pan that I used for my risotto.

I just cooked the chicken breasts for about 5 minutes skin side down. Then I transferred the chicken to an oven-safe dish and finished them off in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Finished in the oven...

The nice thing about this is that searing the chicken in the pan leaves some great flavors in the pan that we can use for our risotto.

Making the Risotto

Before you can really start cooking the risotto, add your stock to a large pan and bring it to a very light simmer. Adding hot stock to the risotto will make the cooking process a lot faster.

Once your stock is hot, start the risotto by adding a drizzle of fresh olive oil to the pan that you seared the chicken in (don’t wash the pan). Then toss in the shallots and cook them for a few minutes over medium-high heat until they are soft but not browned.

Lots of flavor already.

Then add in your rice. Obviously this will be very dry, but it’s important to heat the rice before you start to add liquid so the grains open up.

Risotto is easy.

Once the rice and shallots cook for a minute or two, add in the white wine. It’ll hiss and sizzle and complain, but use the liquid from the white wine to lift any bits of chicken that might be stuck to the pan from the earlier searing.

The white wine will be gone in no time and then you’re ready to start adding your hot chicken stock.

Ready for stock!

The “Hard” Part

The next part is the part that people think makes risotto difficult. Basically, you need to ladle in small batches (about 3/4 cup at a time) of the hot stock and stir it into the rice until the rice is cooked.

This could take anywhere from 25-35 minutes and probably use 4-5 cups of stock.

Traditionally, you are supposed to never stop stirring the risotto while it cooks, but I don’t really do that and my risotto always turns out fine. I just ladle in some stock, stir the risotto so the liquid distributes, then I walk away for a minute or two if I need to.

You don’t need to stir constantly, but you do need to keep a close eye on it because if it gets dry you need to immediately add more stock to the pan or the risotto could burn.

That’s really all there is to it: Stock. Stir. Repeat.

This was my finished risotto. The finished version is rich and creamy and the grains should still have a very tiny bite to them. They shouldn’t be mushy.

Almost there...

Finishing the Dish

When the risotto is cooked, go ahead and add in all those chopped persimmons and a dash of fresh lemon juice.

Stir this all together and season it with a bit of salt and pepper and your risotto is done!

Nice color.

The Pom Seeds

I wanted to add on a fun and colorful garnish to this dish and pomegranate seeds seemed like the perfect choice. They are a bit crunchy which adds a nice texture and the have a strong flavor that I thought would go well with the creamy risotto.

Of course, the problem is how to do you get all those seeds out of the pomegranate?!

So good.

It’s really easy actually. Just quarter the pomegranate and then submerge each quarter in a large bowl of water. While the pomegranate is underwater, use your fingers to break up the seeds. The seeds will sink and all of the white pith parts will float. Then you can just drain the seeds and you’re ready to go!

Like I said, you can serve the risotto by itself like I did in the first photo or serve it with the seared chicken.

$25. At least.

Betsy and I both agreed that this was the best risotto I’ve ever made. Just delicious.

I would charge at least $25 for this at my imaginary restaurant.

But you wouldn’t pay that much, of course, because now you can make it for yourself!

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?

Savory and delicious.

I was thrilled when risotto won the poll last week. It’s really one of my favorite dishes. When made right, it’s creamy and flavorful. It can be paired well with a ton of dishes or just eaten on its own. It also rocks for leftovers.

For this version I wanted to use some old cherry tomatoes I had in my fridge as well as some really old tomatoes that I left sitting in the sun for 2 months. Just kidding. Just wanted to see if you were reading.

Anyway, the end result was really fantastic. I think the only thing I would change about this recipe is the quantity. If I make it again, I’m doubling it!

Super Tomato Risotto

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Arborio (or Risotto) Rice
1 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped finely
1 Cup cherry tomatoes, halved and roasted
1 medium white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 Cups chicken stock, hot. Homemade is best, and I would have probably 8 Cups ready knowing I won't use it all.
2/3 Cup dry white wine (like a Chardonnay)
2 Tablespoon heavy cream (optional)
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Basil for garnish

Directions:

1) Slice cherry tomatoes in half, toss them with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt. Lay them cut side up on a baking sheet and bake for about an hour at 325 degrees.

2) Pour all your chicken stock into a pot and get it to a simmer.

3) Chop your onions and mince your sun-dried tomatoes until they are a rough paste.

4) Add your butter and oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted add the onions and cook until they are soft, about 3-4 minutes.

5) Add risotto rice to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring regularly. It'll be very dry obviously.

6) Add the sun-dried tomatoes and your white wine to the pan and stir until it's absorbed in the rice.

7) Once the white wine is absorbed, turn the heat down to medium and start laddling your hot chicken stock into the risotto about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir continuously after each laddle of chicken stock.

8) When the rice looks dry, add more stock. Keep doing this, stirring regularly, until the risotto is cooked through and creamy. It'll probably take about 35-40 minutes until the rice is nice and cooked. It should still have a small bite to it, but not be hard at all.

9) Once the risotto is the right consistency, add the cream, the oven-roasted tomatoes, and taste for salt and pepper.

10) Serve immediately and garnish with chopped basil and Parmesan cheese.

Roasting the Tomatoes

I really wanted to have tons of tomato flavor in my risotto which is why I decided to use two different kinds.

Some old and some new!

This is my preferred method of roasting tomatoes. It works like a charm. Chop your cherry tomatoes in half and toss them with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt (this is in addition to the olive oil in the recipe). Then lay them cut side up on a baking sheet like so…

Ready to roast!

Stick these in a 325 degree oven for about an hour and you’ll be left with these delicious little roasted things. You might think an hour is too long, but there’s a ton of water in tomatoes and it takes awhile to evaporate. Just check on them ever 15 minutes or so to make sure they aren’t burning.

They should have some moisture in them, but they’ll be dry and wrinkled around the edges. Like this:

Yum.

These are pretty hands-off which is good because the rest of the meal is very hands on. I suggest roasting them while you are doing other stuff obviously unless you want to turn this meal into a 2-3 hour production.

Prepping Your Ingredients

I’ve always really enjoyed making risotto. There’s something very calming about it to me. Slowly stirring as this very hard thing turns into something creamy. It’s damn near magical people.

And while it does take some work, I wouldn’t exactly classify it as hard.

To prep for the risotto making, you need to do two things:

1) Pour all your chicken stock in a large pot and get it simmering. It has to be hot when you add it to your risotto later.

2) Take care of all your chopping before you get started. That means mince your garlic, chop your onion, and mince all your sun-dried tomatoes.

If you’ve never chopped sun-dried tomatoes before, they can be a bit hard to handle. I usually just go kamikaze on them until I get them into the desired size, which for this recipe is a very rough pesto-like paste.

Tough chopping...

Cooking the Risotto

The thing to remember about risotto is just to take your time. If you rush it, it just won’t turn out as good. It’s the Italian way you see to spend time making good food.

Start with a heavy pot (I use a cast iron enameled pot, but any large heavy pot will work). Put it over medium high heat and add your butter and oil. Once the butter is melted, add your onions to the pot. Let them cook down for a few minutes (you don’t even want them browned). Then add your garlic and cook for another thirty seconds or so.

Next, add all your risotto rice. It might seem odd to add the rice to an essentially dry, hot pan, but it’s what you want to do. Heating the rice will open it up some and allow it to soak up moisture better and faster.

At this point, you should have something like this:

The start of something wonderful.

Let the rice cook with oil, butter, garlic, and onions for no longer than a minute. Stir it constantly during this time so the rice doesn’t stick to the pan.

Next, add all your sun-dried tomatoes and your white wine. This will cause some serious hissing. Use the white wine to scrap up any little bits that are on the pan and keep stirring!

The Waiting Begins

At this point your rice is ready to start adding your hot chicken stock. It helps if you have your chicken stock heating in a pot right next to the pan with your risotto in it. Add your first ladle of hot stock to the risotto once all the white wine is almost evaporated. That’ll be about 30 seconds after you add it. Not long at all.

I used a ladle that I think had about a 3/4 Cup capacity so if you don’t have a good ladle, you can definitely just use a measuring cup to add in your chicken stock.

Once you add the stock to the rice, stir slowly. When the rice starts to get dry, add another ladle! Keep stirring!

As you can imagine, your first ladle of stock will be absorbed almost instantly. Your second ladle will take a minute or two. By your third or fourth ladle, it should start being 5-6 minutes in between ladles.

Keep stirring but you don’t need to stir vigorously. You aren’t whipping egg whites or anything. Just keep it moving.

Cheater’s Note: You don’t actually have to stir continuously once you get the hang of it. You can take a break for a minute or two to drink your wine which, according to the country of Italy, is the only acceptable reason to stop stirring risotto.

After about 25-30 minutes of this, you should be about half-way home.

Getting creamy!

The only thing to really remember about this is to not add your stock too fast, but don’t let the rice burn. Right when it’s starting to look a bit dry, add more stock.

Taste the risotto regularly to test the texture. The final product should have a very tiny bite to it. You don’t want it mushy. But you also don’t want it crunchy. I’ve found that my risotto is about perfect after 40-45 minutes or so of cooking. It seems like a long time, but it’s really not that bad.

Warning: I always recommend heating up more chicken stock then you’ll need just in case. It sucks to run out and have to switch to lukewarm water to finish your risotto.

Finishing the Risotto

When the risotto is at the perfect consistency and you aren’t planning on adding in any more stock, stir in a tiny amount of cream if you want along with the Parmesan cheese and all of your roasted tomatoes.

Also, taste for salt and pepper at this point and adjust. I don’t like to add salt before this because normally chicken stock is pretty salty.

More tomatoes... why not.

Serve this as quick as you can! Basil as a garnish is a great touch.

Basil is a given here.

According to Betsy, this was one of the better risottos I’ve made. It was really creamy and the tomato flavor was very intense, but in a good way.

Like I said, if I made this again the only thing I’d change is that I’d double this bad boy!

When you bite into the first arancine though the first thing you will do is look at how many are left and calculate how many you can score before you are labeled a complete pig. Because of the citrus zest, these guys are light and refreshing.

Citrus arancine is a definite win.

So good.

Arancine (or arancini according to Wikipedia. I’ll stick with Bon Appétit’s spelling) is normally made with leftover risotto which makes for a great quick appetizer. This dish however calls for fresh risotto. For the life of me I don’t really know why. I think the only reason why is because citrus risotto is not something that you would maybe want by the bowl.

Frankly though, I would eat this stuff by the bowl without a problem. So my advice is to make double, eat it as a side dish one night, and then make arancine the next day.

Citrus Arancine

Yield: About 30.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Cup shallot, finely diced (you can substitute white onion)
1.5 Cups arborio rice
1 Teaspoon salt
3/4 Cup white wine
6 Cups low-salt chicken or vegetable broth (You may not use all of it. I always error on having too much rather than not enough.)
1 Teaspoon ground fennel seed (freshly ground is best if you can)
1 orange, zest only
1 lemon, zest only
1 lime, zest only
30 1/2-inch cubes (about 6 ounces) of young sheep's milk cheese like Brinata. I think you could substitute a wide variety of cheeses here.
3 large eggs
1/4 Cup whole milk
3 Cups panko breadcrumbs
6 Cups vegetable oil for frying

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry/Candy Thermometer

Directions:

1) Pour in a quart of stock and add one carrot, a few celery stalks, a whole head of garlic chopped in half, and one onion. Roughly chop everything. Then add a pinch of salt, some parsley, and about 20 peppercorns, plus about 2 or three cups of water. Let that simmer for about 30 minutes and then strain it.

2) While the stock simmers you can get some other ingredients ready like you shallots and the citrus zest.

3) Add the butter, olive oil, and shallots into a large pot. Stir on medium-high heat until the shallots are translucent.

4) Add the rice and salt. Stir rice for 3 minutes or so.

5) Add the white wine all at once and stir until it is all absorbed.

6) Ladle in 1/2 Cup of stock at a time into the rice mixture. Stir it until the stock is all absorbed (about 3 minutes), then add another 1/2 Cup of stock. Repeat this until the rice is nice and creamy. This whole process should take 30 minutes.

7) Stir in the fennel seed and all of the citrus zest.

8) Spread the risotto on a sheet pan and stick it in the fridge. Test for salt! It will cool down in about thirty minutes.

9) Whisking together the eggs and milk and putting the breadcrumbs in a bowl.

10) Cube up the cheese.

11) Once the risotto is cooled, take a big Tablespoon of risotto and place a piece of cheese right in the center. Form a ball and dip it in the egg mixture followed by the breadcrumbs.

12) Line up all the arancine on a sheet pan!

13) Refrigerate for another 30 minutes (and have a mojito).

14) Heat up the oil at about 350 and drop them in five or six at a time depending on the size of the pan. They should take about 5 minutes to fry up and be golden brown delicious.

15) Drain on a paper towel and let them cool for a few minutes before devouring them.

Adapted from Sept. 2009 Bon Appetit.

The Stock

Risotto is just rice. Well, plus some onion and butter, but really it is just rice. The only real flavor in a risotto dish comes from add-ins (like mushrooms or in this case citrus) and stock. So it’s pretty important to get a good stock. Ideally, you could make it yourself, but if you just don’t have time you can also enhance store bought stock in about 30 minutes.

I always like to enhance my broth a bit.

Pour in a quart of stock and add one carrot, a few celery stalks, a whole head of garlic chopped in half, and one onion. Roughly chop everything. Then add a pinch of salt, some parsley, and about 20 peppercorns, plus about 2 or three cups of water. Let that simmer for about 30 minutes and then strain it. That will leave you with a much more flavorful stock than you would have otherwise.

While your stock simmers you can get some other ingredients ready like you shallots and your citrus zest.

A little zest. A lot of flavor.

The Risotto

If you are making the risotto and the arancine the same day, be sure to give yourself plenty of time for the risotto to cool. It’s not really possible to get hot risotto to stay in ball form.

Before starting your risotto, make sure your stock is simmering. It doesn’t have to be boiling hot, but it should be pretty close.

To get your risotto going, add your butter, olive oil, and shallots into a large pot. Stir on medium-high heat until the shallots are translucent. Then add your rice and salt. Stir rice for 3 minutes or so. It will be very dry obviously. The point is to heat up the kernels of rice so they open up and allow in more moisture later.

Then add your white wine all at once and stir until it is all absorbed.

Then comes the hard part. Ladle in 1/2 Cup of stock at a time into the rice mixture. Stir it until the stock is all absorbed (about 3 minutes), then add another 1/2 Cup of stock. Repeat this until the rice is nice and creamy. It should be tender but still have a tiny bite to it. This whole process will take probably 30 minutes.

Your arm will be tired, but it’ll be worth it.

Creamy perfection.

At the very end, stir in your fennel seed and all of your citrus zest. If you want to make the arancine right away, you can spread the risotto on a sheet pan and stick it in the fridge. It will cool down in about thirty minutes.

Chillin.

Very Important Note: Taste your risotto for salt before cooling it down. I forgot to do this and my final arancine was very much lacking in salt. Salt now or pay later!

While the risotto chills, you can prep the stuff for forming the arancine. Prepare your breading station by whisking together your eggs and milk and putting your breadcrumbs in a bowl.

You’ll also need to cube up that cheese.

Don't make these too big.

Now if you are like me, that will only take you about 10 minutes and your risotto will be nowhere near cool.

If you are like me, you’ll notice that you have an entire lime, lemon, and orange leftover from the zesting. These should not just go to waste!

Finally, if you are like me, you like mojitos.

I decided to whip up a few of these for me and my dinner guests while the risotto chilled.

Tasty.

Here’s the basic recipe.

Citrus Mojito

- 1 Tablespoon sugar (Muddle with the mint)
- 5 sprigs fresh mint
- 1-2 ounces white rum (depending on your workload)
- 2 ounces citrus juice (lime, lemon, and/or orange)
- Top with soda water

The Arancine

Sorry. Back on track. These guys are pretty easy to form. Even easier if you can find a helper or two. Take a big Tablespoon of risotto and place a piece of cheese right in the center. Form a ball and dip it in your egg mixture followed by your breadcrumbs.

Then line up all your arancine on a sheet pan!

An army of arancine!

The recipe in BA says to refrigerate these for six (YES 6) hours before frying them. That seems kind of ridiculous to me. I refrigerated them for another 30 minutes (and had another mojito).

Heat up your oil at about 350 and drop them in five or six at a time depending on the size of your pan. They should take about 5 minutes to fry up and be golden brown delicious.

After a hot bath.

Drain them on a paper towel and let them cool for a few minutes before devouring them.

Ooze is a good thing.

These were really tasty. They were very light and refreshing considering that it’s really just fried rice and cheese. As I said, I messed up on the salt thing. Kind of an amateur mistake, but whatever. It took us a few arancine to discover what was missing. One of my friends sprinkled a bit of salt on one and screamed out, “SALT!” Problem solved. Not a problem I usually have though.

Arancine are kind of elaborate to make, but if you have the time and are looking for a good recipe, this one is definitely a keeper.

As you can see I’ve used the legs, thighs, and breasts of the chicken. I really had nothing left except the carcass. Risotto with homemade stock came to mind right away.

If you love your risotto, it will return the favor.

The first part of this dish involves making stock out of the leftover parts of the chicken. I use this as an exercise in cleaning out my pantry as well. I must admit that I’m not sure I’ve ever made the same chicken stock twice. This is what I did this time around.

Nick’s Pantry Chicken Stock

- 1 chicken carcass. Leftovers. Stuff other people throw away.
- 2 onions, quartered. Skin on is fine.
- 2 carrots, quartered.
- 2 celery sticks, quartered.
- 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally.
- 3 sprigs of thyme.
- 1 sprig of rosemary.
- 1 bay leaf.
- 10-15 peppercorns.

Put all of this in a big pot and cover the ingredients with water.

Cleaning out the pantry.

Bring this to a boil and let it simmer for about an hour. Then strain off all of the solids and you will be left with a lovely golden liquid.

The real deal.

There will be a good amount of fat floating to the top of the liquid. You don’t really want this fat in your risotto so we need to get rid of it. The best way to do this is to make your stock a day in advance and then chill it in the fridge. The fat will solidify and then you can easily strain it out.

I usually make my stock first thing after cutting up a chicken as it seems weird to me to keep a cut up chicken carcass in the fridge.

Now, assuming you don’t have chicken but still want to make risotto, you can of course buy stock at the store, OR you could make a veggie stock with the above veggies minus the chicken. It will have a lot of flavor and beat most store bought stocks.

Now let’s tackle the rice. I like to use arborio rice, but their are other grains you could use for risotto.

Grains of delicious.

Risotto is one of those mystical foods. Everybody loves it, but there is this strange magic around making it. And with due cause. It isn’t the easiest thing to make and you have to give it attention and love, but if you do you will be rewarded with a flavorful, wonderful dish.

In my risotto, I wanted to add some mushrooms, but they are optional. I also like to add an onion and good Parmesan cheese. If you have good stock however, you can make risotto with nothing but that and it is pretty tasty. These are just bonus items.

Good Parm is pricey but worth it.

I washed and sliced my mushrooms and also sauteed them for about 5 minutes in a bit of olive oil to soften them up.

Chopped shrooms before a brief cook.

I am far from a master at risotto, but here are a few tips I use that produce good results:

- Don’t rinse your rice. You want to keep the start on the rice which will help a creamy sauce develop.
- Cook your rice “dry” for a few minutes.
- Add HOT stock slowly.
- Taste frequently.

Those are simple and will get you pretty far in the risotto world.

To start, I softened my onions in about 3 Tablespoons of butter AND 3 Tablespoons of oil. I was cooking 1.5 Cups of rice because I wanted lots of leftovers. If you were cooking 1 Cup of rice, 2 Tablespoons of each would be enough.

The start of something beautiful.

When the onions are soft, but not browned, add your rice. This is what I mean by “dry” cooking. You are basically sautéing rice. You want the rice hot to the touch, but not brown. This should take 3-4 minutes.

This rice is amazing stuff.

After that, add about 1 cup of stock to this. It is important that your stock is HOT, so put it in a pan on the side and bring it to a boil. Stir in your first cup of stock and stir well. It won’t take long for that first cup to get soaked up.

Then start adding a less amount of stock, 1/2 cup at a time, always stirring gently. Don’t worry about stirring vigorously. We aren’t whipping egg whites or anything. Just gently circulate the rice and make sure none of it is sticking to the pan.

After about 20 minutes, you will get something like this.

This was after about 20 minutes of stirring and stocking.

This is when I start tasting frequently. Good risotto isn’t mushy but isn’t hard. It has a “bite” to it. It’s kind of hard to describe if you’ve never had it. It is sort of like rice, al dente.

For my 1.5 cups of rice, I would guess I used between 4 and 5 cups of stock to get there and it took probably 30 minutes total. Then I killed the heat and stirred in about 1/3 Cup of shredded Parmesan and the mushrooms and some salt and pepper.

Good Parmesan is very important. If you can't find good Parm than just leave it out.

I’m not claiming by any means that I can make perfect risotto. It’s hard to get it perfect and I’m far from there, but honestly, any risotto is pretty good unless you just mutilate it. I like to serve mine right away! It’s so rich and creamy, I usually find it to be a meal in itself.

I ate leftovers from this meal for 3 days. Still delicious.

Risotto is one of those dishes that I think you can taste the love in. Something about the homemade stock and the constant stirring and attention that really comes through.

That said, I think mine could definitely be improved.  Does anyone have any good risotto making tips? Leave a comment!

I knew I wanted to make some peppers last week so I picked up a few at the store. I also knew I wanted sausage in them, so I picked up some Italian sweet sausage. The rest of the below ingredients were things in my pantry and things that could be easily substituted or omitted entirely.

Random ingredients in my fridge

If you are playing along these are the ingredients I used:

- 4 red peppers. Actually one was rotten so I only ended up with three. It is pretty much a guarantee that if I ever plan for a certain amount of one thing I will end up with more or less of that thing but never the amount intended.
- 3 links of Italian sausage. You could use more if you love sausage and/or are German.
- 3 apples. This was one impetus for this meal. We went apple picking last weekend so we have 20 pounds of apples I have to figure out how to dispose of. Since I don’t have a pig to feed them to, I have to use them in basically every meal.
- An onion.
- Some rice (1 1/2 cups pre-cooked). I used risotto because I was completely out of rice (DOH!) Do not use risotto for this meal. It is a pain in the butt. Just use normal rice dude.

It's just sausage. Calm down.

The first thing you want to do for this meal is cook up the sausage. I just browned it in a bit of olive oil, breaking it up as it cooked. I find it easier to do this if you cut off the casing before cooking. You can leave it on though if you are in love with sausage casing.

You want to make sure the sausage is browned before you hit it with the apple. Take the time to chop up the apple into pretty small chunks. Obviously you don’t want a slice of apple sticking out of your pepper. After you throw in the apple, you just want to stir for a minute or two. I wanted to make sure the apple still had a tiny bit of crunch to it.

Ok. Now it is getting exciting.

I’m omitting the next step which is making the risotto. That is because risotto is an entirely different post. Just make normal rice. I wouldn’t recommend the instant kind though. It might just get too mushy after baking it in the pepper. You want a rice with some heft if you can imagine such a thing. After the rice is done just stir in the apple-pepper mix.

Now it's a party.

So at this point my sausage apple risotto is delicious. Really the pepper is just a nice vehicle to deliver the awesome stuffing. Here are the vehicles:

An empty shell of a pepper.

Sometimes when people are filling peppers they do just that – they fill them. I don’t believe in that though. If you fill the peppers you end up with:

These peppers are filled.

That’s fine and all, but that is not what Macheesmo is about. Macheesmo is about stuffing peppers. This is a meal – not a side dish.

These peppers are stuffed.

It’s a subtle difference, but stuff them as high as you can. They will brown up nicely in the oven and just be lovely. Nobody will turn down a pepper because it is “overstuffed” and if they do never let them back in your house again.

So after they are stuffed, put them in a baking pan and in the oven for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. When I pulled them out after these 35 minutes a voice asked me, “Nick, is there a reason why you couldn’t cover these with cheese?” I didn’t have a good answer so I covered them with cheese. This turned out to be a good idea.

Now, some astute readers may notice a discrepancy. I said there were only three peppers after one went bad but in the below photo there are four red things. Surely an error! Well, I had left over stuffing because I planned for four peppers and I ended up with three. The one in the bottom left there is a tomato that I hollowed out and filled. The jury is still out on whether or not this was a good idea.

Add some asiago because why not?

So in the oven for 15 more minutes after the cheese. If you don’t want to add the cheese that is fine, just leave them in the oven for 50 minutes total. You will end up with a lovely browned crusted pepper. The pepper itself will be soft and flavorful, the filling lighter than you would think.

I served it with a salad and a good IPA.

Stuffed full!

I think this was a really solid recipe for stuffed peppers but the point is that many things are a lot better if you stuff them in a pepper and bake them with cheese on top. Next time you are looking to get rid of some produce, don’t forget the humble pepper. It can be a great vessel for your leftover stuff(ing).

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