A common myth about risotto - which I would like to dispel right away. You DO NOT stir risotto. Stirring aggravates the starch, which leads to carbs, which leads to all those things they say you should not have carbs for. Instead, you should just agitate (or flip) the pan you are cooking the risotto in (not a pot) and only stir (very gently) occasionally in order to make sure that all the rice is coated in stock. Repeat after me, "stirring, bad!". If you cook pasta or rice al dente, and do not stir or beat it around roughly, you do not activate the carbs. Result? 2/3 less carbs in the pasta or rice you are eating. Much better for you.
I'm not strong enough to flip the pan, so I agitate it, which basically means shaking it back and forth on the burner. I shudder to think that that shaking back and forth, metal on metal, on the burner will do to the bottom of my pan, but that's the point of using the pan the correct way, I guess.
In case you are wondering what I mean by agitating, flipping or shaking back and forth, here's a video that will show you how to do it, courtesy of someone who has uploaded the vid. Note the shaking back and forth before the flipping. The flipping is pretty impressive, but I'm not strong enough to do that, so I just shake it. This vid is shot using a wok. It doesn't matter wok or fry pan.
Okay, so onto making the risotto. Here's the RECIPE for making a base risotto. From this base, you can pretty much make any type of risotto.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion diced
- 2 or 3 garlic cloves, finely minced (more garlic, if you like it)
- 1 litre stock (type depends on the risotto you are making, either chicken or vegetable) per 2 cups of rice
- 2 cups of Arborio rice
- 75g of unsalted butter
- Olive oil
- 1/2 to 1 cup of Parmesan cheese for texture
Instructions:
- Heat stock and bring to boil. Turn off heat but make sure that stock stays hot
- Put frying pan (large enough for the amount of risotto you are making) on medium heat and add olive oil
- Put onions and garlic into pan and saute till onions are translucent
- Melt butter into pan and when butter is melted add rice
- Coat rice in butter by flipping pan (do not stir - you don't want to activate the starch) and brown over heat for a few minutes
- When rice starts to turn a lovely yellow color, add one 3/4 ladle of stock to the pan
- Simmer stock in pan, flipping pan occasionally, until stock is absorbed
- Add more stock and repeat until rice is al dente. This means the rice needs to be firm but not hard (and the rice does not crunch).
Note: you can occasionally use a spatula and gently scrape along the sides of the pan or turn over the rice from bottom to top, to make sure all the rice is covered by stock and absorbing
I learned that while doing this, my pan was a little too hot at the beginning and I had to turn the heat down. The result of the pan being too hot was that all my stock was evaporating and it was not being absorbed into the rice. That is not good.
So that's the base risotto. What happens next is that you add whatever flavoring you want to make it a risotto of your choice.
For a mushroom risotto:
Ingredients:
- A whole bunch of different types of mushrooms
- 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
Instructions:
- About 2/3 way through the stock absorption process of the rice, add in the mushrooms and fold through mushrooms to make sure the mushrooms are mixed through the rice
- Continue to add stock until risotto is al dente.
- When risotto is al dente, add Parmesan cheese for texture
- After Parmesan cheese is mixed in, just before serving, gently fold through parsley to add a bit of color to the dish
- Top the risotto with a small handful of rocket salad in a white wine vinegar and dijon mustard dressing
Note: The mushrooms will release liquid, so watch this to determine how much more stock to add. Also, you want the risotto to have enough liquid in it yet, so that it falls off individually from the spoon when scooped up, instead of being clumpy. You can add a bit more stock for this.
For a pumpkin and goat cheese risotto:
Ingredients:
- 4 cups grated pumpkin
- 1 packet goat cheese fetta crumbled
Instructions:
- Grate the pumpkin
- About 2/3 way through the stock absorption process of the rice, add in the grated pumpkin and fold through to make sure the pumpkin are mixed through the rice
- Continue to add stock until risotto is al dente.
- When risotto is al dente, add Parmesan cheese for texture
- After Parmesan cheese is mixed in, serve into plates
- Sprinkle a small amount of the crumbled goat cheese on top of the risotto
- Top the risotto with a small handful of rocket salad in a white wine vinegar and dijon mustard dressing
For the rocket salad:
Ingredients:
- Packet of rocket, whatever amount is needed to serve the number of people you are serving
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- Pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions:
- Mix white wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon, salt and pepper together to make dressing
- Pour over rocket and mix through
- Serve
Note: do not mix dressing into salad until just before serving, otherwise the rocket will wilt.
There you have it, 2 variations of risotto from that one base. Of course, there are lots of different variations that you can concoct now that you know that base risotto.
Chicken and chorizo sausage is a very tasty variation and works great as a main meal. With the chorizo though, while frying it in a pan with the onions and garlic, it will release oil, because of the fat in the sausage. You want that oil to coat the rice along with the butter because that will give you all that lovely smoked chorizo flavor.
Another one that I like is chicken and green peas. It's a very clean simple dish and the peas add a lovely dash of color to the pale chicken risotto.
The sky's the limit. Enjoy!
So, are you going to try these risotto dishes? How do you like the variations? What would you like to add to the basic risotto recipe to make it essentially your own?
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