Risotto

Several months ago, The Toast posted a Risotto Template. It's not a recipe so much as a guide for making risotto. One that you can personalize to your heart's content, but that gets a lot of the basics right. It's the kind of thing that might not work for the chemists in my life, but it's exactly the kind of recipe I've come to love.

I wanted desperately to try it out. But I was so busy planning the wedding that I couldn't seem to find the time. Then there's the fact that risotto is high in both fat and carbs, which didn't really mesh with my weight-watching goals leading up to the wedding. So I decided to wait until after the honeymoon. And last weekend (after a supremely busy month) I finally found the 2+ hours I needed to attempt this.

It didn't come out perfectly - the rice was still occasionally crunchy. Which, I don't even know how that happened. I was thinking that I maybe didn't cook it enough, but Kevin thinks I may have burned some of the rice grains in the toasting step. Whatever it was, it's something I'll hopefully be better about next time.

As I said, this recipe was pretty open to interpretation. I used tumeric instead of saffron because have you seen the price of saffron? And I threw in a little extra wine and a lot of extra cheese. I did the full 8 cups of chicken stock (minus what ever boiled off), which meant that I was adding stock and stirring for about an hour and a half. And drinking wine during that time.

To my finished product, I added mushrooms, shrimp, and peas. I should have added more of all three, but I was worried about overpowering the rice. I did about a handful of each, and will probably double that next time.

The risotto tasted really good, if occasionally crunchy. The wine helps with that part, though. It was fun to make. I watched two episodes of Orange is the New Black while I was chopping and simmering and stirring and eating. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening. Hopefully I'll find time to make it again in the future. This is one of those dishes I'd really like to perfect, as it works really well both fresh and as leftovers.