Tag: rice

January 31, 2024 – Risotto, As Easy As 3.141592653589793

January 31, 2024 /

Of course I am being facetious. Risotto has a stigma of being on the menu of fancy restaurants, therefore it has to be complicated or difficult. Not so, and I am going to tell you how. First of all, we have to understand Risotto itself. It is a specific variety of rice that is grown in Italy, not as it is sometimes described as a pasta.

Risotto itself is the name of the dish, you start with Arborio rice. This is part of the confusion. When you go to the store you don’t find anything named risotto and you certainly don’t find it with the pasta noodles. As rice goes, a little goes a long way. I only see it in small packages.

The basic formula is aromatics, Arborio rice, chicken broth and parmesan cheese. Everything after that is optional. I am making shrimp risotto today.

In my opinion, the most important thing with risotto is mis en place. Because technique is really the only thing that makes the dish, everything needs to be prepared and in place so that you can focus on the cooking. It is not like you cannot look away but you better be close and paying attention if you want good risotto. I release the flavor in the shallot.

Put in the rice and brown it up a bit. So far, it is just like Rice-A-Roni. Now, to make risotto, add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and stir it in. Keep the mixture boiling until it is almost gone and repeat. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked. How do you know it is cooked? Taste it. As a guide, this 1 1/2 cup of rice used about 4 cups of liquid.

Proper risotto is slightly al dente, just like pasta. However, my wife prefers that all gone. I am fine either way so I try to go her way. Make it how you like. When the rice is cooked, I added cream and cheese and turned off the heat. I want it to be hot but I don’t want a lot of extra mixing after I add the dairy. That is it, you have made risotto.

End Your Programming Routine: Chef Keith Snow says that risotto is a secret restaurant joke. The patrons think that it is exotic dish that turns out to be premade and reheated rice. Sometimes we get disappointed because when order it, the dish doesn’t deliver as in your head. The nice thing about making at home is that you can make it how you want it. See, it wasn’t hard.

November 1, 2022 – Paella, You Can Do It

November 1, 2022 /

On our trip to Spain this year, we had Paella at least three different times. I was disappointed three times. To me, it was too fishy and in my book that is a sign of low quality ingredients. In the last two books we read, there was recipes for paella. So, for our monthly dinner, I decided that I wanted to fix my fishy thoughts.

I think what initially turns people off is that you are supposed to use a specific pan. That is the root of paella which means pan. I really don’t think it is required, but part of the dish is the layer of crusty rice on the bottom. The more that can be spread out, the more of it there is. We happen to know someone that had one we could borrow.

Most of the complications of making it comes from the number of ingredients and having your mis en place. A strict Valencian paella would be seafood only but there is a surprising number of variations that can be done. The keys are the rice and not stirring it in the pan. Here was my version (or really Aran Goyoga).

  1. chicken thighs
  2. onion
  3. garlic
  4. chicken broth
  5. saffron
  6. Arborio rice
  7. Spanish chorizo
  8. tomato
  9. green beans
  10. shrimp
  11. mussels
  12. clams
  13. lemon
  14. parsley

Start by browning the chicken, then the onion and garlic. Meanwhile, heat up the broth with saffron. Mix the chicken back in and add the green beans and chorizo. Then add the chicken back in and brown the rice. Pour the broth on top of all that and don’t touch.

Once the rice is mostly cooked, add the seafood and cover the pan with foil. Finally, garnish with lemon and parsley.

Now, this was something to look forward to.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s hard to really compare. It just may be that my taste are not acclimated to the same spectrum as Spanish people. I often find that the American interpretation is more to my liking than the original. For instance, I found pasta bland in Italy. It could also be that restaurants are almost always worse than when someone makes it. My point being, don’t be intimidated. You can do it.

September 29, 2021 – Repurpose Rice

September 29, 2021 /

Knowing what my week looked like, I set about making a plan on how to line up the meals. Usually, part of my strategy is to look at what we have and what is risking going bad and how I can try to ‘get rid of this’ (without waste). Looking at the schedule I also have need to have some leftovers or at least quick meals.

Currently, my biggest problem is that my freezer is at capacity. I also know that is a good problem to have. However, inheriting a lot of food yields things that we wouldn’t normally purchase or prepare. With that, I am trying to clear up space while trying to do new and interesting things (that will be eaten). We got an open package of pot stickers to finish off last night.

Yesterday, I talked about beans. I don’t always, but I did decide to pair with rice for my fish tacos. I partially did that because I was expecting to make fried rice with the pot stickers the next day. How do you make rice that pairs with beans and can then be repurposed to Asian the next day and by the way make it vegan and meat only eaters will eat it? Well it is not easy, but we found a way to make it work.

Let me diverge a slight bit, I am going to beat up on Mexican restaurants again. When you go out, the only rice you see is reddish in color and has some degree of seasoning. That is an attempt to make the classic rice preparation which is essentially rice made in salsa (at least that is the color). The best way to finish the combination is balance the remainder of the liquid with chicken broth and add some cumin.

I learned a long time ago that is only one way to prepare rice. You can omit the salsa and make a white rice (with onion). This is more typical in the southern part of Mexico. Cumin is out if it is to become fried rice tomorrow and of course chicken broth fails the vegan test. We also learned recently another way of doing it which is to use coconut water. This becomes more Caribbean and leans more to the Asian for sure. Plus, I think that it is highly appropriate for fish tacos.

I softened some onion and then browned some rice. Then, I added the coconut water and made rice the way you normally would. Typically, part of the recipe is also coconut milk as well, I just wanted a small amount for us, so I omitted that this time. and that is it.

The next day, I fried some vegetables and added the rice, some soy sauce and viola. Again, to keep this vegan I had to omit the butter, egg or fish sauce. But, it was good enough to pair with pot stickers and green beans in black bean sauce.

End Your Programming Routine: With planning and modification, you can span the globe in two nights with half the amount of work. That may be a slight exaggeration but the principle holds true. The other advantage is that it reduces the chance of orphaned side dishes that can sometimes be difficult to eat or pair. Not every meal is fancy, tonight there is enough from the previous meals in the last couple of days for leftovers too.