which came first

The chicken or the egg? This same conundrum applies to risotto. How do you photograph a great plate of risotto so it conveys the fact that in its ugliness it is a great plate of risotto? I have tried and I will keep on trying. I am more picky about rice than I am about al-dente pasta. Blown out rice - or 'dog bone' as it has been so affectionately called is nothing more than good rice cooked bad. People will often come up with neat little things to call mistakes to make the mistake more acceptable. Not me. I want my rice to look like rice, not a dog bone or a plate of whatevers just because I am a careless 'chef.' This is where risotto stretches the limits. Risotto looks mushy but its not, risotto looks over cooked but it is not - risotto is the rockstar of rice - it pushes the limits.



Zoom in, have a look. Nice, neat, perfect grains of rice.



Wild mushroom risotto with asparagus broth. Porcini, maitake, and winecap mushrooms give the flavor, asparagus broth gives the secret and wild green onions smack it upside the head. Peace out bunny's. Oh, did I forget to mention that I had found and then dried these mushrooms? Well, I did.

I like Risotto - it should be my middle name.

I think the one thing that I eat as much of as I eat eggs would have to be rice. I like rice. I have liked rice since I was a kid and as a kid I liked it simple with butter, salt and pepper - the fluffier the better, even as a kid I was very particular that the rice was not blown out or mushy. Then I got into brown rice and the wild rices and as time went on I eventually moved into risottos. Now to be honest risottos had all the mushy qualities I didnt like in rice so I had to learn to like risottos and learn I did. Now I make them all the time, for me or for anyone that asks.

I was fortunate to do a mushroom trade with my friend Addison from the lovely small town of Pojoaque, in the great state of New Mexico recently. I sent him a little dried mix of what I have (heavy on the winecaps) and he sent me a little dried mix of what he had (heavy on the king boletes) and can I tell you that I totally scored! See those bad boys - those are fresh - he sent me some of those all sliced up and dried just for me - I cant wait to be there next week and get some fresh ones of my own.

I rehydrated a nice handful and ended up with a couple of cups of broth so naturally a risotto was in order and not any risotto I might add, this risotto has my new passion and my seemingly never ending supply of squash blossoms and king bolete mushrooms and to max it out just a teeny tiny bit more - a little drizzle of truffle oil - yup I upped the ante. The mushrooms are so earthy and flavorful, the blossoms are so delicate and light, and the unctuousness of the truffle oil smoothed out all the rough edges. In case you are wondering, sometimes I make the risotto a little loose and sometimes I make it a little tight - this one is tight.

I am also making another risotto for a party tonight. This risotto will have some of my signature squash blossoms and it will also have some scarlet runner bean blossoms, see the cute little red flowers, those are going to go into a stunning risotto that I will have to show you later. Dont forget Battle Sandwich - the stakes are high entries are due no later than August 23rd.

lots to look at not much to say plenty to do so lets eat risotto

Perhaps you are wondering where I am? Perhaps you dont even care? Perhaps I dont care? Whatever the case may be one thing is certain - I went from posting every single day down to -

will I ever post again. The answer to that is yes. I have been busy with all kinds of things, things that distract me from the luxury of posting my what nots on my blog. I have been cooking more than ever, I have started new projects, thought about others and completed some. I havent gained a pound and I havent exercised in forever. I joke that I am "a month away from buff" all the time but truth be told I have been "a month away from buff" for a couple of years now and I dont seem to be getting any closer.

Enough talk about me - lets talk risotto. "Risotto" you say "you make risotto all the time" and that would be correct and since I make risotto all the time it only gets better. I make it at home, I make it for clients, I will make it just for fun if you want. The secret(s) behind great risotto are many but it does start with good rice. I have used Arborio mostly until I discovered Carnaroli. Carnaroli is the rice of rices and thats all I have to say about that, if you can find it use it and you will know one more secret.

By now you have realized that this is not the place to come for recipes - recipes are all over the place - this is a place to learn technique, though if you are excited to see some recipes I am working on that as one of my other little projects.

Morel mushrooms and shaved Romano cheese make this creamy dish all that it should be.

By some small chance morel mushrooms and Romano cheese is not enough for you why not put some crumbled bacon on top.

This was so good I couldn't wait to have the leftovers for breakfast, and while it wasnt as creamy as the night before it sure was good with this double yoke poached egg. Get some good rice, make some risotto, practice on having some secrets of your own.

Dont forget your daily vote in the never ending poll.

BIG HUGE WHOOPS - Blogspot deleted the comments for this post!!!

Lobster Risotto

Hip, hip hooray I am in another MarxFoods contest, this one is the Integrale Gauntlet and the winner gets $200 in credit with MarxFoods so if you were me and I were you you would know that they have good stuff and then you would know that I would want to win. Its a public vote and the top ten bloggers move on to the next round.

We were sent 1000 grams of rice, Riso Vignola, Integrale Rice to be exact and with this box of rice we need to make three separate dishes for the contest (provided we go all the way). 

Lobster risotto is what I came up with for my savory entry. 

Are you ever faced with having that extra lobster just lying around and you just don't know what to do with it? Make lobster risotto. I chopped up a bit and folded it in and saved some big chunks to put on top  and to mix in while eating - I wouldn't want the delicate lobster to get tough from too much heat!

The beauty of cooking is you can do whatever you want. If you want to put queso fresco, creme fraiche and cotija cheese in with your lobster risotto (like I did) then go right ahead and do it - there are no rules.

Basil tastes delicious so why not put in some basil too, I like to cook with color and experiment with flavors.

Tobiko tastes great too, so why not make a plate with tobiko, the colors are beautiful and the sweet and briny crunch of the roe will make a nice addition.

Lobster Risotto

2 cups Integrale Rice

1 small onion

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2-3 cups chicken broth (use as necessary)

2 tablespoons creme fraiche

1 tablespoon cotija cheese

1 tablespoon queso fresco

1 cooked lobster - chopped

2 tablespoon tobiko roe

basil for garnish

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Toast rice in hot pan until slightly golden then add onion and butter and sauté until soft. Slowly add broth stirring constantly to activate starch, 15 minutes into it ( or as rice becomes al dente) add cheeses and some of the chopped lobster. Test for taste - plate and add more lobster, basil and tobiko on finished plate.

This was a winner and it should stay on that track so PLEASE vote for me ChezWhat? Lobster Risotto.

electrolux

Another foodbuzz event and this time it was a meet and greet at Relais & Chateuax in Midtown to hear about Electrolux appliances and eat some tasty treats brought to us by the River Cafe. This was fun and it was like a little gallery opening except we had name tags, which actually make things so-much-easier. I hate that I cant remember names, like tonights chef for example, but I remember everyone who had a name tag. The appliances are pretty cool and I will post a youtube later about that but for now here is the food.



The theme was holiday since we are moving into the season and our bouches were amused with this little spoonfull of braised pork, squash and a toasted marshmallow.



Tasty indeed and I have to say my bouche was amused, various other tasty bits were passed about and the food bloggers went crazy, this was a tapenade with goat cheese and pimento.



We talked turkey and how to cook it, when we all learned how we were given a sandwich.



Dont let me forget that we had risotto, oh yeah, real good risotto with a few of my favorite mushrooms, this, my friends, made the whole journey worth it. This risotto was - and I hate to say things like this - sublime. It was. It was everything about the rice that you want, it was all about the mushroom that you desire and it just screamed cheese in the softest most cheesiest way, it was creamy and chewy and risotto-y as it should have been.




The coupe de torchon had to be the pumpkin creme brule. I wont even say too much about this little masterpiece. I am making this bad boy for my next whatever. I had a great time and I was happy and fortunate to be invited.

cruising in reverse

The closer I get to 1000 posts the further it seems, or is that more like the less I want to seem to get there? I am about 45 or so posts from that little milestone and at the rate I have been posting lately it looks like we wont get there till March. Without a doubt there have been some tasty dishes but no mojo to take pictures and even less mojo to write about it. I can re-cap whats happened but without the photos to back it up its only words. Words are great in fact a lot of people thrive on words but I subscribe to the notion that a picture says a thousand words. I could get out my calligraphy pen and bo jangle my way all over this page, telling you about my grandmother and the neighbors and the rash I had but its all words, I am more of a poet and I like to use less words to say more.



My grandmother never made fried risotto, in fact I dont think she even knew what risotto was and as a result of that my parents didnt know either, lucky thing I came along. Panko crusted fried risotto (arancini de riso) with wild mushrooms (shaggy manes) butterhead lettuce, remoulade, red pepper, and lime.

balls said the queen

Why make a ball when you can make a cube? The sphere is nice, its even, its perfect in so many ways but a cube has character. The only thing that can trump a cube is a pyramid.



Fried risotto cubes with a chipotle pico de gallo. Take that and put it where your fusion sun dont shine. I had left over risotto so the next logical step was to make these tasty appetizers.



I have had fried risotto balls, in fact they might even have their own name (they do they are called arancini de riso) well thank you blog answer guru - anyway they are usually served with a spicy marinara sauce.



The sauce seems like the same sauce you would serve with fried calamari, its good but a chipotle pico de gallo is better.



Easy peasy.

hey marco polo....

You are going to need a passport because this post is all over the planet. I have been making some lunches lately that rival any thing out there and the more the envelope gets pushed the more the results vary and improve. Who says you cant have Italian and Asian flavors on one plate? And if you want to get technical its just chicken and rice anyway.



I started the day before by soaking some morel mushrooms....



and marinating some chicken skewers. The chicken skewers were made from the ground chicken I mentioned in yesterdays post and the marinade was a delicious honey, soy and ginger concoction with sesame seeds - can you see the influence on this?




The mushrooms were then chopped up and they went into the risotto along with a chicken broth base and fresh thyme.



Risotto is so creamy on its own nothing else is really needed and the woodsy earthy flavor of the morel mushrooms made this a dish I wanted to - well - scarf!



The skewers were grilled and the risotto was plated with the steaming hot chicken and I threw my arms up in the air waiting for the judges decision.

runner bean blossom and squash blossom risotto

Very few words are needed to describe this risotto - it was stunning, full of mysterious flavors, great tooth feel from the al dente rice, not too creamy but creamy enough, it was a hit!

The rice was toasted a little this time to give it more of a nutty flavor and to help keep its structure throughout all the stirring, risotto is nothing without the stirring, the stirring releases all the starches that create the creaminess. I tossed in the blossoms and some percorino romano for the last few minutes to melt the cheese and bring the flowers up to temperature.

Subtle, potent and delicious is the only way I can describe it, subtle because of the sweet underlying flavors of the flowers but potent due to their releasing their perfumes into the dish and well delicious because it is. Put some flowers in your food and take stopping to smell the roses to a whole new level.