FoodB

Last night I made dinner. It's been pretty tough the last few weeks making dinner, what with our budget crisis and all. I wanted to break out of the funk we were in food wise and tried to make a fancy meal for the two of us. I'll split the two different items that I made into two posts so I can actually look like I am doing something with this website.

First was the side dish I made. I have never had it before and have always been curious. I am okay in the kitchen and have had more successes than failure recently, so I thought would try making risotto. Risotto can be considered a main dish in most cases, but I wanted it on the side so I would have a main dish in case this crashed and burned like it so easily could have. So for an Italian meal like Risotto I decided to try a Mario Batalli recipe. Here was the easiest one I found.

Risotto Milanese

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 teaspoon saffron threads
3 1/2 cups chicken stock, hot
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for sprinkling

1. In a 12 to 14-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened and translucent but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile add the saffron to the stock, stirring to infuse. Once the onions are translucent add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon until toasted and opaque, 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Add the wine to the toasting rice, and then add a 4 to 6-ounce ladle of the saffron-infused stock and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed. Continue adding the stock a ladle at a time, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding more. Cook until the rice is tender and creamy and yet still a little al dente, about 15 minutes. Stir in the butter and cheese until well mixed. Portion risotto into 4 warmed serving plates, serving with extra cheese.

Cool thing about this dish was that all I needed to buy was chicken stock. I had already bought the arborio rice at Trader Joe's some time back with grand ideas in my head. Luckily the package was vacuum sealed because it took some time to get around to that original plan.

If you have never made risotto before I have to warn you that it is a pretty intense meal to make. Not that it was overly tricky in the making, there is just a lot of standing and stirring involved. So make sure and wear some sensible shoes before attempting this one.

At first taste, I wasn't overly impressed. It just tasted like mushy rice with some flavor. Some reason I couldn't stop eating it though. By the end of my portion I actually enjoyed it. This is probably going to out me as someone that know very little about food, but I kept thinking that it tasted like a grown up version of mac and cheese. There was no nuclear orange flavoring involved and the consistency of the rice was like a macaroni noodle when cooked right.

With a little effort and more testing, I think I can grow to really like risotto. All in all I think I did pretty well for a first try (I didn't burn anything and it was edible). That was the least of what I was hoping for.

Next post: Fish! Not something I am used to cooking.

Posted by Gordon at 10:38 AM | Permalink

My wife tried to kill me last night...

Not really, but that statement doesn't quite reflect the amount of shock I am in today after her actions last night. What horrible thing could she have done to make me question her motives you ask?

She served me a sandwich with mustard on it!

I'm sure the look of horror on my face was worth a good laugh once I realized what was in my mouth. She made both of us a couple of panini's last night and decided that she wanted mustard and tomatoes on hers, which I asked to be omitted from my sandwich. Once served, I joked that she had given me the wrong sandwich and proceeded to bite into it. Jenn noticed that her sandwich was missing tomatoes and pointed this out. I made it to the bathroom in 2 seconds flat.

All in all, I didn't even taste the mustard. I was only on the first bite and it wasn't the really nasty yellow mustard (which in my eyes is equal to eating sulfuric acid). I lived through the harrowing tale but now have to cast a suspicious eye on anything my wife puts in front of me. Maybe I can hire one of those tasters that kings used to have in their courts to detect any poisons.

On more realistic news, there has been a real dry spell at foodb lately. Jenn has been out of work for some time and we had to really tighten our budget in the last few months. Unfortunately this means we have to really rely on a lot of recipes that we know are relatively cheap and that we have already covered on this here web site. So don't think I have abandoned this site entirely, I'm just waiting until we get back on our feet in some form.

Posted by Gordon at 11:13 AM | Permalink