an attempt at risotto

I haven't been able to find arborio rice here in China. I don't have my beautiful heavy-bottomed, perfect-for-risotto pot. Although I am perfectly happy to spend a long time cooking just for myself, I wasn't sure I could bring myself to spend an hour on my own stirring risotto in the hot, poorly lit kitchen. But my old uni friend S was passing through Beijing, and brought me a Chinese red wine that she promised was really good, and I thought maybe I could give it a go.

It turns out, despite all bottles of wine being sealed with corks in China (cork-corks, not plastic corks), cork screws are difficult to find. So I poked this one out with a chopsticks, into the wine, and decanted the remainder into a glass bottle I had lying around.

At the local supermarket I managed to find a short-grain rice, and though I'm not sure what it is it's definitely not arborio. I forked out quite a lot for some olive oil, and decided to make a mushroom and tomato risotto.



The risotto turned out softer than it should have, almost congee-like. I love mixing mushrooms, so I went for a couple of button mushrooms (delicious and familiar but fairly expensive here), and enoki mushrooms. I also caramelised half a red onion, and added a tomato in my usual risotto-y way, before heaping in the red wine and the stock.

It was a nice moment of familiarity, and I'm glad I had the wine to do it, and it was expensive compared to the other stuff I cook but not too pricy. But the congee-like consistency made it a little bit weird.

pumpkin + tofu risotto

For the first time in three months, could this be...A RECIPE?! I'm not even sure I remember how to do this.



pumpkin and tofu risotto

ingredients
300g firm tofu
2 cups arborio rice
half a cup of cashew nuts
some sundried tomatoes
a handful of baby spinach
500g(ish) pumpkin (i used jap but butternut is also okay)
1 brown onion
however much dried oregano, basil rosemary and marjoram takes your fancy
a whole lot of vegan chicken stock (massels you're my hero)
a little paprika
a bottle of red wine (you will be drinking some of this red wine, not pouring it all into the pot)

method
dice the tofu into cubes of about 1.5cm. put these cubes into a bowl, and throw in some of the red wine with a dash or three of paprika and rosemary, and stir to combine. put the tofu aside to soak it all in.

slice the onion, and skin and dice the pumpkin, and throw it all into a pot with some oil. let this fry for a bit, then add some herbs and maybe some more paprika and the cashews, then the rice, a cup of wine, and some stock. let it simmer and stir it, in the way of all risottos. at this point, fire up a fry pan and bring some oil up to heat, then throw in the tofu. stir this occasionally, until it starts to brown on most sides; then add it to the risotto, and keep adding that stock. add some more wine if you like. now is a good time to add the sundried tomatoes, too, chopped into little pieces. keep adding stock until it reaches that lovely risotto consistency, then throw in the spinach, let it wilt in, and you're done! serve with something delicious. the risotto seen here was served with an avocado and apple salad, and some rosemary bread from coles.

roasted pumpkin and mushroom risotto

We had a whole butternut sitting in the bottom drawer, and half a bag of mushrooms, so rather than venture outside in the horrible weather to get provisions, I decided to make a pumpkin and mushroom risotto - but not just any pumpkin and mushroom risotto. This delicious, creamy, flavoursome risotto was comprised of roasted pumpkin and roasted mushrooms. Roasting them before adding them to the risotto added an amazing flavour to the risotto, and filled the kitchen with the smell of roasting pumpkin.

I served this with some garlic bread. It was quite perfectly timed, I put the garlic bread in at the same time as adding the pumpkin and mushroom to the rice, and pulled it out just as the risotto was ready. I used some left over turkish bread for this, sliced thinly into fingers and funny shapes and baked for about fifteen to twenty minutes.



roast pumpkin and mushroom risotto

ingredients
one butternut pumpkin
two handfuls of mushrooms (i used a mixture of portobello and button)
quarter of a red onion, diced evenly
tablespoon of oregano
shake or three of rosemary
half a tablespoon of parsley
one clove garlic (minced)
2 cups arborio rice
five cups of vegetable stock
half a cup of white wine
salt + pepper
shake of nutmeg
three shakes of ground sage

method
Cut butternut pumpkin in half lengthways. Lightly oil a baking tray with olive oil, and place pumpkin cut side down. Roast at 175C for about forty-five minutes. In the meantime, pat down the mushrooms. After thirty minutes of roasting, pull the pumpkin out, and add the mushrooms to the tray. You can remove the stalks (this is my preference), and throw them into the tray also. Drizzle mushrooms lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with dried oregano. Put tray back into the oven, and continue baking for remaining pumpkin time.

After returning the pumpkin and mushroom to the oven, heat some oil in a pot, and add the red onion. Fry with oregano, rosemary and parsley until the onion starts to soften, then add the garlic. Stir through, and add in the arborio rice and a cup of stock. Stir continuously, adding more stock and the wine, as necessary.

When the pumpkin is ready, remove from oven. Remove the skin from the pumpkin immediately, roughly chop the mushrooms into large chunks, and add all, including the liquid in the tray, into the risotto. Also add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and sage.

Allow all the stock to soak into the rice, and continue stirring, for about another fifteen minutes, or until the rice is done deliciously.

sundried tomato, olive, mushroom and artichoke risotto

On Saturday, having not cooked a meal in several days, I found myself with very little food in the house and a need to cook dinner before we headed out for a going away party. As a result, I threw together a risotto made mostly from things in jars, and it's good to know that I can pull together something that's relatively quick and very tasty even when I think I've got nothing in the house.

I had a handful of mushrooms that were getting a bit old and tough, so I prepared them slightly differently from what I would usually do. I fried them for a little, with the onion and the garlic, and then added a little bit of stock to let the mushrooms soften a little, before adding the rice and the rest of the ingredients.

sun-dried tomato, olive, mushroom and artichoke risotto



ingredients
one half brown onion (diced)
1 clove garlic (minced or diced finely)
half a dozen mushrooms (sliced)
1 tomato (diced)
half a cup of sundried tomatoes
some artichoke hearts
handful of olives
2 cups arborio rice
½ cup red wine
5 cups of stock


method
In a little (vegan) margarine, fry the onion. As it begins to turn golden, add mushrooms and garlic, and a little of the oil from the sundried tomatoes. Continue to fry until the mushrooms begin to release their liquid. Add a small amount of stock, simmer for a minute, then add the fresh tomato and the arborio rice. Cover the rice in the mixture in the pot. On low to medium heat, slowly add the wine and the stock, one cup at a time, and stir the rice as needed. Keep adding stock until the rice looks almost done. More stock may be required, or more wine. This will take about twenty minutes to half an hour.

Add the sundried tomatoes, olives and artichoke hearts. Continue adding stock as necessary, and stirring, until the rice is soft (hopefully about six or seven minutes). Allow all the liquid to soak in to the rice.

pumpkin and leek risotto

D’s youngest brother came to dinner last night. Since their parents have been away, all he’s been eating is frozen dinners and takeout, because the only thing he claims to be able to cook is enchiladas, and he has run out of corn tortillas. Unfortunately, he hates mushrooms, so at the last minute I had to revise my original dinner plan and replace it with a pumpkin and leek risotto, which I served with a spinach and sundried tomato pasta salad, and garlic bread.




I don’t know how N felt about it all, but I’m really happy with how the risotto turned out.


pumpkin and leek risotto

Boiling the pumpkin and then frying in a frypan makes the pumpkin soft but crispy. This is also an awesome way to prepare pumpkin for pizzas. If your preference is for roasting instead, feel free, but it will add a little bit to the overall cooking time.

ingredients
one pumpkin (in small cubes)
sage
a shake or three of ground nutmeg
pinch of thyme
two cups arborio rice
five cups stock
half red onion
one leek (white part only)
one clove garlic (minced)


method

Boil the pumpkin until almost cooked, then fry in a fry pan for five or six minutes.

Dice the onion, and in a heavy bottomed pot sauté for about ten minutes, or until caramelised. Cut the leek into lengths of about five centimetres by five millimetres, and add the leek and garlic to the pot. Saute, add the rice, sage, thyme and nutmeg. Stir the onion mixture through the rice until covered, then add a cup of stock. Continue stirring the rice, allowing the stock to soak in before adding another cup.

I think fresh sage would be awesome with this, but I didn’t have any so I used ground, about a teaspoon worth. The amount used may vary.

After ten minutes, or about two cups, add the pumpkin to the rice. Continue to add the stock until the rice is soft, but with a slight resistance when bitten.