Spring Risotto

I always wait for spring very impatiently. The harsh cold is really not my thing, and lately, I have been eying my winter coat and snow boots with such pure hatred that I wonder why they haven’t spontaneously combusted… I want to wear my cute shoes, my dresses and my thinner jackets, dammit! OK, rant over.

This craving for spring always ends up influencing my food choices. I start ordering salads at restaurants, just to see green stuff. I drink buckets of that green fruit smoothie that kinda looks like swamp water (or so my tattoo artist says). And of course, spring vegetables are suddenly my favorite veggies ever!

Truth be told, asparagus and artichokes have always been some of my favorite vegetables, in any season. They both have a subtle yet very flavorful taste, and they can be prepared so many ways, from the very simple to the very fancy. I had seen a soup recipe combining both in “Betty Goes Vegan” (not a book that I’d recommend, to be honest, unless you are a carnivore trying to switch to vegetarian, as there is barely a recipe in there that doesn’t include “vegan” cheese and meat substitute… I don’t get the point of a vegan cookbook that tries to include “meat“ and “cheese”, but maybe that’s just me…), but I was in the mood for something more filling than soup. So I kept the basic ingredient combination, but applied them to one of my favorite things ever: risotto!

Lemon highlights the flavor of both asparagus and artichokes without overwhelming them, and it has its own sunny taste that will brighten up an entire dish if properly dosed, so I just had to add it. As for goat’s cheese, well... when is goat’s cheese ever superfluous? It’s delicate creamy tang is perfect with those vegetables, and makes the risotto extra creamy and decadent!

Pick a bunch of thin asparagus, to make sure they will cook completely in the broth and rice; the thicker ones will be a bit too crunchy unless you par-boil them before adding them to the risotto. I used canned artichoke hearts, but if you have the fresh stuff handy, by all means, use it! And obviously, pick some creamy goat’s cheese with no crust. I’d use a plain one, and not those that already have fine herbs mixed in: you want to control your seasoning as much as possible!

4 cups vegetable broth
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/2 tablespoon dried tarragon
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 pound thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup soft goat’s cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmagianno Reggiano
2 tablespoons butter

Bring the vegetable broth to a soft boil and keep on simmer. In a large pan, preheat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic until the onions have softened and the garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add the rosemary, tarragon and lemon zest, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the arborio rice to the pan along with the wine and the last 2 tablespoons of oil. Cook, stirring until every grain of rice is covered in oil and the wine has been completely absorbed.

Add the asparagus to the pan and mix well.

Add the broth to the pan, one ladleful at the time, and cook, stirring constantly, until the stock is absorbed by the rice.

Continue adding stock and cooking until there is one ladle of broth left. Add the artichokes, lemon juice and final ladleful of broth.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Once the broth is absorbed by the rice, remove from the heat, add the cheeses and the butter and stir until the risotto is nice and creamy.

I may get accused of tooting my own horn here, but I love it when a culinary experiment of mine wields such a delicious result! The combination of asparagus, artichoke hearts and lemon was amazing, and the uber-creaminess of the two kinds of cheese made this risotto the kind of dish that made me feel like licking my plate clean! The fresh flavors made it live up to its “springtime” name, while still being warm and filling enough to be the perfect bowl of comfort food, as I wait for the actual spring to arrive.

Portobello and Goat's Cheese Risotto

My baby brother just got his wisdom teeth removed... I've been through some rather intense dental surgery in the past, so I know first-hand how much it sucks to hardly be able to open your mouth to talk, let alone eat. And then chewing is incredibly painful...

To cheer up the bro, I got him the new Franz Ferdinand album and I made him a batch of something delicious he would not need to chew to enjoy! This is what's so wonderful about risotto: it's rich and creamy, but it's got a perfectly soft consistency that requires very little teeth! It's also great comfort food, and it's very filling.

Thanks to my best friend's careful instructions, I got pretty good at whipping up a delicious batch of risotto (my own tomato-basil recipe and this shrimp-lemon risotto were both huge, delicious hits), and I had wanted to try this recipe for a while. My brother loves mushrooms and cheese, so it was absolutely perfect!

The original recipe (from "Cookin' for Trouble" by Montreal's own Nadia G.) called for Gorgonzola cheese, and not goat's cheese. Personally, I love Gorgonzola, but it's a very strongly flavored blue cheese, so it's not for everyone... My brother has always preferred milder cheeses, and really, can you go wrong with goat's cheese? No, you can't. Choose a cheese with a soft, crumbling consistency as opposed to the ones that are very creamy and runny.

As with any other risotto recipe, get all your ingredients prepared and measured in advance. A risotto requires constant attention, so if you realize you have to run off to get your Parmigiano, do it at the risk of rice sticking to the pan. Just sayin': this is one instance in which being organized pays off. Also, an angled spatula is the best tool with which to stir to ensure no tiny grain of arborio is left behind.

My advice to make the 30-or-so minutes spent stirring go by faster: pour yourself a glass of the white wine when you are done measuring the cup that goes in the pot, and blast some fist-pumping music. Trust me, your risotto will be ready before you are done with the wine.

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, finely diced
3 portobella mushrooms, stems removed and discarded, caps diced
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup goat's cheese (or Gorgonzola, if you feel adventurous), crumbled
1/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
Sea salt and ground pepper

Pour the stock into a medium pot and heat to a simmer; keep it simmering over medium-low heat. In a large pan, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the garlic for about 1 minute, until golden. Add the onion and mushroom and sauté them for 3 minutes, until the mushrooms start releasing some moisture and become nice and fragrant.

Stir in the arborio rice and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to make sure the grains of rice are covered with oil.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and let it reduce completely, stirring.

Once the wine is gone, add the simmering stock 1 ladleful at the time. Let the rice absorb the stock, stirring constantly, and add the next ladleful, and so on until all 4 cups are mixed in and absorbed.

Fold in the cheeses and stir for a few minutes, until they have melted and are well incorporated.

Add a generous pinch of sea salt, several pinches of freshly cracked black pepper, mix and serve.

Now my brother is lucky I love him as much as I do, because as soon as I tasted the final result, I could have just kept on eating straight from the pan until there was nothing left... Earthy mushrooms, creamy, gooey, cheesy-ness, al dente arborio rice... My stars!!

My brother was very happy to get this luxurious risotto as a get-better treat! I wasn't there to see how fast he wolfed the whole thing down, but knowing him, it must have been gone in the blink of an eye.

Hope you get better soon, baby bro! xx

My Tomato-Basil Risotto

Since my best friend Véronique showed me how to make risotto, I was very eager to make more of the delicious, creamy, sticky rice dish. I made a very successful shrimp and lemon risotto this fall. Regular readers of this blog know how much I like the taste of tomato and basil, and when I was asked to bring a side-dish to a family meal, I decided to adapt the V-Wonder's recipe to make a big batch of gorgeous, gooey arborio to feed my in-laws.

The result was lip-smacking tasty, easy to pull-off and made a splendid and impressive offering to the big family meal. While it would be delicious devoured on it's own, it was also neutral enough to go along well with a wide range of main dishes.

Here is how to make this lovely and simple risotto, for 4 to 6 people:

1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved and tomatoes roughly chopped
Chicken or vegetable broth
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup white wine
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1 small bunch fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigianno-Reggiano

Pour the juice from the can of tomatoes in a 4-cups measuring cup. Top with chicken broth until you have 4 cups of liquid. Pour that liquid in a small sauce pan, and heat over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to keep it simmering.

Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan, and on medium heat, sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Be careful not to brown the onion.

Sprinkle with the dried basil and add the tomatoes, being careful not to add any of the liquid from the can. Add the arborio rice and 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and stir so that all the grains of rice are coated in oil. Cook until the rice becomes translucent.

Add the wine and let it get fully absorbed by the rice, stirring constantly. Take a ladle-full of stock and add to the rice with a good pinch of salt. Stir to mix, and cook, stirring, until all the stock is absorbed.

Continue to add stock, one ladle at the time until the rice is al dente and creamy, 16 to 18 minutes. When adding the last ladle, also add the fresh basil leaves.

Take the rice off the heat, add butter, Parmigianno-Reggiano, pepper and mix well.

After trying it a few times, I have found that the trick to risotto is to use a wide pan (so that as much rice as possible gets heated up at the same time), an angled spatula to stir (to make sure no grain of arborio is left untouched - my stir-fry spatula is my favorite tool here), to taste often to test the rice's texture... and obviously to keep an eye on it. The change in texture and creaminess is visible as the cooking progresses and when you move the pan around and notice fluid waves of fragrant rice, you know you are on the right track. You also want to make sure nothing is sticking, so blast some good music, pour yourself a glass of wine and stir-away!

Shrimp and Lemon Risotto

It was a lazy, grey afternoon. The kind of bleh weather that calls for a little plate of sunlight to brighten it up. I had wanted to try making risotto on my own ever since my risotto-fairy had demonstrated her skills at the stove, and I had the perfect flavor combination for the cloudy day: shrimps and lemons. There is something about nice big shrimps cooked with garlic and lemon that screams Mediterranean beach to me. Who would turn down an evening at the beach?

I'll be honest: I was terrified to try risotto again, even if I'd had an expert demonstrating her technique right under my nose. I had the V-Wonder read the recipe from David Rocco's "Made in Italy", and she gave it her seal of approval. That gave me a certain amount of confidence: if my expert said the recipe sounded good, I trusted her. I prepared all my ingredients in advance (because let's face it, a risotto needs to be looked after rather closely), got to work and gave this recipe my full attention.

1 pound large shrimps, peeled
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 lemons, zested and juiced
4 cups vegetable or fish stock
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup white wine, room temperature
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Heat up a frying pan, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic. Fry the garlic for 1 or 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the shrimp and lemon juice and toss the shrimp until they turn pink. Remove the pan from the heat. Remove and discard the garlic.

Put the stock in a medium pan and keep it at a gentle simmer. Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, and on medium heat, sauté the onion until soft. Be careful not to brown the onion.

Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the rice and stir so that all the grains of rice are coated in oil. Cook until the rice becomes translucent.

Add the wine and let it get fully absorbed by the rice, stirring constantly. Take a ladle-full of stock and add to the rice with a good pinch of salt. Stir to mix, and cook, stirring, until all the stock is absorbed. Continue to add stock, one ladle at the time until the rice is al dente and creamy, 16 to 18 minutes.

Just before you add the final ladle of stock, add the shrimps with the lemon juice.

Let the shrimps and risotto finish cooking, so that the flavors blend together. Take the rice off the heat, add the lemon zest, butter, Parmigiano, pepper and parsley and mix well. Serve immediately.

I was so proud of how this risotto turned out! It had the perfect, rich creaminess I was aiming for. I suppose that once you've seen it done right, it's not that hard to pull off! I also tasted the rice periodically, to make sure the texture was what I was looking for: firm, but not crunchy, with lots of rich creaminess.

Obviously, lemon and shrimp are a match made in Heaven (or in this case, on the Amalfi coast... which is pretty damn close to Heaven in my book). The texture of the risotto and the firmness of the shrimps makes for a great bite, and the color of the final dish was the exact shade of Italian sunlight a rainy afternoon required. A nice cold glass of Suave white wine worked perfectly with this risotto's bright taste.

Thanks for showing me how to make a great risotto, V-Wonder! I can't wait to try other variations!

Tomato, Olive and Basil Risotto

My best friend if one of those infuriating intuitive cooks, who eyeballs all her quantities, throws random stuff in the cooking pot, doesn't write anything down and always makes delicious food. I have a love-hate relationship with her cooking method: I love it because it's freaking good, and I hate it because I can never reproduce her stuff at home. The only method that works is to lure her in my kitchen with the promise of dessert, then watch her every move and take manic notes.

Risotto is something I had tried making once, and it turned out too dry. For Miss I-Cook-With-My-Eyes-Closed (I love you, V!), risotto is something she considers a quick meal. I had been anxious to watch her at work and figure it out.

This is her recipe, and it is to die for! Creamy, sticky and flavorful. Everything a risotto ought to be! She also had a few important tips to share concerning cooking risotto:

• Use a spatula with an angle to stir, to avoid some rice getting stuck at the bottom of your pan and not cooking well.
• The rule of thumb for the liquid/rice ratio is: 3/1. For example, in the recipe below, she used 3 cups of broth and tomato liquid for 1 cup of arborio rice.
• Keep the heat relatively low; risotto should cook very slowly, so adjust and reduce the heat to keep it slow and constant.
• Never stop stirring! The rice first needs to absorb the fattiness from the butter and oil at the beginning of the process so it can release it's starch at the end, and constant stirring is vital for a creamy and sticky risotto.

Now, to your pots and pans!

1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
6 Kalamata olives, finely chopped
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes, juice reserved and tomatoes coarsely chopped
Chicken broth
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1 small handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 to 1 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup butter, cut into 4 squares

Pour the juice from the can of tomatoes in a 4-cups measuring cup. Top with chicken broth until you have 3 cups of liquid. Pour that liquid in a small sauce pan, and heat over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to keep it simmering. In a large sauce pan, heat the onions, garlic and 1 piece of butter in 1/4 cup of olive oil, over medium-low heat. Sprinkle with the dry basil. Mix and cook until the onions are soft. Add the olives and about half the tomatoes, being careful to add no liquid from the can. Add another piece of butter, 1/4 cup olive oil and the arborio rice. Cook, stirring constantly for an entire minute. Add 1 ladle of the liquid. Cook, stirring constantly, until all the liquid is absorbed. Add another ladle and repeat the process. Keep adding the tomato-chicken broth mix in ladlefuls and stirring until the mixture is creamy until you run out of liquid. The whole process may take up to an hour, because the more liquid is added, the longer it takes to absorb. When adding the last ladle, also add the fresh basil leaves. When the mixture is thick and sticky, remove from the heat, add a third piece of butter and the Parmesan. Mix well until they are both fully incorporated. Let the risotto sit, covered for 3 to 4 minutes, so the flavors blend.

Yes, I noticed half the tomatoes and the final piece of butter were never thrown in the pot, but that's the V-Wonder's way. My job was only to write down what she did. The really important thing is that this risotto was the BOMB! I can say in all honesty that it was the best risotto I ever ate, and that I can only pray I'll be able to do this again without her in the kitchen.

We enjoyed it as a side-dish to some pork tenderloin cooked in mustard and beer (another one of her eyeballing miracles), but I could have easily fed exclusively on that risotto. The glass of Arrogant Frog red wine that I had with it was perfect.

Every Friday evening should feature such good friends and good food! Much love and gratitude to the lovely Véronique for sharing her magic with me! <3