There sure are a lot of main dish food posts here in GBS. I thought we could use a little variety and create a fantastic side dish that goes with tons of food, and as my mom said when I first made it for her, "I don't know why I'd ever make Rice-A-Roni again."
These are the ingredients that you need:
What we have here, from left to right is:
First cut a pad of butter and get it melting in a nice pot
While the butter is melting, get you shallot nice and finely diced
With the pan on nice low heat, get the shallots sweating (they should get nice and translucent, not brown)
Once your shallots are good and translucent, add the arborio rice (I probably used about... 3/4 of a cup or so, I don't really measure). You want to "brown up" the rice (I don't really get it brown, I just mix it up with the butter and let it cook a little)
(Also make sure you don't wash the rice first)
If you're lazy like me, you probably want to heat the broth up, so the whole thing gets cooked quicker.
Once the rice is "browned up," add about a cup of broth, and start stirring.
Stirring is the most important part of this whole process. You want to liberate the surface starches of the rice, to create a nice creamy sauce for it. You want to vigorously stir it when you add broth.
When the rice has absorbed most of the broth, it's time to add some more. I add about one ladle each time, which is about half a cup I guess. It looks a bit like this:
Oh right, I forgot the mandatory bit of all food threads, the beer.
Here's my main dish (butterflied barbequed chicken breast), mostly cooked, and getting slathered in barbeque sauce to be slapped back on the nice hot barbeque grill to caramelize the sauce.
Here's the rice almost done:
Here's the point where you want to throw in the parmesean cheese. I like it a bit cheesy so I added about half a cup I guess. You also want to taste it and add some pepper and salt if needed.
Here's the rice good and done:
Mmm, look at that delicious creamy sauce, that's what plenty of good stirring gets you. It almost looks like rice pudding doesn't it?
And here's the delicious chicken plated up with the delicious risotto, ready for me to devour.
Now for some questions.
Do you have to use a shallot?
No, I just happen to like the mild flavor of the shallot better. It's perfectly fine to use a white or yellow onion.
What about other broths?
Beef, fish, crab, lobster, whatever type of broth you want to use will create a delicious risotto. Just use whatever you think will go best with the main dish you're cooking.
Any other additions you could add?
You could add some frozen peas when the risotto is almost done, some people love it. I don't really care, so I didn't add anything else.
These are the ingredients that you need:
What we have here, from left to right is:
- Pepper
- Arborio rice (most important)
- Chicken broth
- Fresh grated parmesan cheese
- Shallots (it's a big one, so I'll only need one)
- Butter
- Salt (it doesn't have to be kosher salt from an Alton Brown salt cellar, but it helps)
First cut a pad of butter and get it melting in a nice pot
While the butter is melting, get you shallot nice and finely diced
With the pan on nice low heat, get the shallots sweating (they should get nice and translucent, not brown)
Once your shallots are good and translucent, add the arborio rice (I probably used about... 3/4 of a cup or so, I don't really measure). You want to "brown up" the rice (I don't really get it brown, I just mix it up with the butter and let it cook a little)
(Also make sure you don't wash the rice first)
If you're lazy like me, you probably want to heat the broth up, so the whole thing gets cooked quicker.
Once the rice is "browned up," add about a cup of broth, and start stirring.
Stirring is the most important part of this whole process. You want to liberate the surface starches of the rice, to create a nice creamy sauce for it. You want to vigorously stir it when you add broth.
When the rice has absorbed most of the broth, it's time to add some more. I add about one ladle each time, which is about half a cup I guess. It looks a bit like this:
Oh right, I forgot the mandatory bit of all food threads, the beer.
Here's my main dish (butterflied barbequed chicken breast), mostly cooked, and getting slathered in barbeque sauce to be slapped back on the nice hot barbeque grill to caramelize the sauce.
Here's the rice almost done:
Here's the point where you want to throw in the parmesean cheese. I like it a bit cheesy so I added about half a cup I guess. You also want to taste it and add some pepper and salt if needed.
Here's the rice good and done:
Mmm, look at that delicious creamy sauce, that's what plenty of good stirring gets you. It almost looks like rice pudding doesn't it?
And here's the delicious chicken plated up with the delicious risotto, ready for me to devour.
Now for some questions.
Do you have to use a shallot?
No, I just happen to like the mild flavor of the shallot better. It's perfectly fine to use a white or yellow onion.
What about other broths?
Beef, fish, crab, lobster, whatever type of broth you want to use will create a delicious risotto. Just use whatever you think will go best with the main dish you're cooking.
Any other additions you could add?
You could add some frozen peas when the risotto is almost done, some people love it. I don't really care, so I didn't add anything else.