No-Fuss Risotto

My risotto always turns out crunchy.  Every time.  Well all 5 or 6 times I've made it.  No matter how much broth I stir in or slowly I incorporate it, it comes out much more al dente than I prefer.  I think risotto is some kind of art that the right side of my brain has never been able to master.  Lucky for me the brilliant testers at Cook's Illustrated created a paint by numbers version.  Don't assume because it's "no-fuss," that it is any less fabulous than risotto made via the traditional method (I've had some excellent ones in restaurants).  This unique method of cooking the risotto covered in a dutch oven produces a creamy, velvety rice perfumed with wine and Parmesan cheese.  Ahhhhh!  And it's just right.  Not crunchy in the slightest (and also not mushy). 

This is cause for serious celebration!  Okay, maybe not that serious.  But I was a little impressed with myself for making a risotto that I would be proud to serve to guests.  Finally!

Oh, see that bread in the background?  That's Hubby's handiwork on his quest to master the baguette.  :) Go Hubby!  This is one of his early works where he forgot to score the bread...but that didn't deter us from gobbling it all up.  He's gotten quite good at it and can whip out a baguette in no time these days.

To the folks at Cooks Illustrated: I'm fairly certain you guys and gals are cooking geniuses.  

The only comment I have on the risotto, other than the heavenly heartwarming thoughts I have when thinking about it, is the teaspoon of lemon juice called for in the recipe was unnecessary in my opinion.  Hubby agreed as well...it's tasted too lemony.  If you want a lemony risotto, keep it in.  The recipe calls for a cup of white wine so there is already a fair amount of acid to balance the rich, creamy, Parmesan cheesy goodness.

Risotto is comfort food akin to a good homemade macaroni cheese.  The variations and flavor profiles are vast.  And I'll be trying several of them out now that I've been introduced to this no-fuss method.

Here's to easy (non crunchy) risotto!

Enjoy!

No-Fuss Risotto
from Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cup water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I will omit next time)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat broth and water in a large saucepan on high until it reaches a boil, then reduce to a simmer. 

In a dutch oven over medium heat,  melt two tablespoons of butter.  Add in onions and 3/4 teaspoon of salt and cook until the onion is soft about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring often.  Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in Arborio rice and cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is translucent around the edges, about 3 minutes.  Add the wine, stirring continually, and cook until fully absorbed, about 2 to 3 minutes. 

Stir in 5 cups of broth/water mixture and reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 16 to 19 minutes, until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed, stirring twice during that time.  Add 3/4 cup of broth/water mixture and stir gently and continuously about 3 minutes until the risotto is creamy.  Stir in Parmesan cheese.

Remove from heat and cover.  Allow the risotto to stand for 5 minutes.  To finish, stir in remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, parsley, chives and lemon juice.  If you want a looser consistency, add additional remaining broth/water mixture.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Red Rice Salad and A Photography Workshop

I've missed you guys!  It's been a crazy, busy week. 

Remember the photography workshop I gushed about last month?  The one that I won a spot in?  It happened on October 15th and I've been dying to tell you about it all week.  Work and a mishap with deleting all my red rice photos from my memory chip before they made it onto my computer delayed this post a bit.  I finally have some quiet time to get it all down (and I squeezed some time in yesterday to re-shoot the red rice).  Right now I'm sitting in the quiet of my living room, with a cup of hot tea and the cats snoozing nearby while Hubs is still sleeping upstairs.  Ahhhh.

From Left to Right: Shawnda of Foodie Bride, Katie of Epicurean Mom, Nancy of A Communal Table (in the black), Lori of Lemons and Lavender and Diane of White on Rice Couple

A week ago today at this time I was driving to spend the day with the White on Rice Couple and several other talented bloggers for an all all day food photography and food styling workshop.  I have to say, I had a few butterflies in my stomach during the car ride there.  And the night before...I felt kind of like a kid, too excited and restless to sleep in anticipation of going to Disneyland the next day.  I was also a little nervous to meet everyone in person for some reason.  This was my first time meeting any other food blogger in the flesh.  Going from cyberspace to real life is kind of surreal.  But my butterflies disappeared seconds after I walked into Todd and Diane's beautiful studio and I was warmly greeted with a big hug from Diane, followed by a greeting from their sweet dog, Sierra. 

Though it was only 8 am, the studio was buzzing with energy.  Nancy from A Communal Table was serving her delicious egg bake with salsa and Alex from Dishin' it Out with Alex was plating her bounty of gluten free sweets, including cinnamon chocolate chip cookies, banana peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and mixed berry mini muffins.  Todd was setting up the audio/video.  And Diane was being the hostess with the mostess! 

The workshop participants trickled in and we all talked and got to know each other.  And we ate. There was A LOT of eating going on throughout the day!  Though many of us were from various reaching parts of Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego, we had a few from out of state as well, Brooklyn, Houston and Portland.  Everyone was there to learn, have fun and support a great cause. 

The workshop was a fund raiser for Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen who's husband, Mikey, passed away unexpectedly just over 2 months ago.  To learn more about Jennie's story click here.  Jennie attended the workshop with us and it was great getting to know her.  She is an amazingly strong and inspirational woman.  She is real and down to earth.  I encourage you to check out her blog. It's about food.  It's about life.  It's inspiring. 

Diane walking us through her styling process step by step

After the breakfast meet and greet, we got down to business and Todd and Diane began sharing their knowledge about photography, food styling and community.  They have an incredible passion for what they do and you can see that it is not a "job" for them.  It's an integral part of their life. 

We got the opportunity to do our own hands on photography and styling, with full access to their drool worthy "prop room".  I have to figure out how to get one of those....or maybe a prop closet to start?  

My first attempt at styling...was not much of success

Diane showing her approach to styling the lemons...she lost the bulk and broke it up with lemon slices.  See the difference?

Someone else set this up and I played around with the positioning and lighting

Another perspective on the same scene

Alex shooting her peanut butter banana chocolate chip cookies with Sierra standing guard

Diane putting her styling touches on Alex's cookies.

My attempt at shooting Alex's cookies.  Diane added the ribbon to break up the dark colors and add movement to the shot.

Playing around with pears and light and shadow

Aren't figs pretty?

Todd took the time to help me take the first baby step in using my camera on manual settings.  Not an easy thing! Though I have relied on the food setting on my camera for the past year and a half, I realized that my control is very limited.  It will take some time and a lot of practice, but I plan to ween myself off my beloved food setting.  This week I have been taking some pictures with food setting and an equal amount of photos the manual setting...I'm not quite ready to take the training wheels off, but I'm working on it! 

This is the second hands on styling session where I tried my hand at styling baked goods leftover from a cookbook shoot.

Shooting more cookies

We shared breakfast, lunch and dinner together on Saturday and the food was homemade, healthy and delicious.  At lunch we had tender pulled pork with crisp sesame rice crackers (asian nachos as Diane called them) and a trio of salads - kale salad with pine nuts, edamame salad and my personal favorite, red rice salad.  Don't get me wrong, they were all mouthwatering, but the red rice salad had me going back for seconds.  I knew I wanted to make it at home.

Lastly, I want to tell you about the culmination of our day with Todd and Diane.  Dinner was a family style Vietnamese feast of spring rolls where we got to cook own own shrimp, beef and veggies on tabletop grills.   The rolls are filled with your choice of ingredients...lettuce, fresh herbs, veggies, pineapple, beef and shrimp, dipped in a fish sauce or peanut sauce. 

Todd and Diane doing some pre-dinner prep

Jennie helping set the dinner table

It was fun, fresh and healthy.  And of course, like everything else we ate, it was delicious!  Another inspirational dish that I hope to make at home very soon.  Hubs and I might even venture to Little Saigon to try out some other Vietnamese cuisine.  

See all those fresh herbs and lettuce?  Marinated shrimp and beef and fresh veggies are under the plastic wrap.  The rice paper wrappers are on top of the plates.  You dip the wrapper in the red rimmed bowl filled with warm water to soften the wrappers.  All you have to do is cook your food, fill your wrapper and dip in one of the sauces.  Good stuff!

I want to extend my thanks to the White on Rice Couple and everyone who was at the workshop for a fabulous day!  I met some amazing people, learned a ton and walked away with my mind racing with thoughts about how to incorporate all that I learned into my blog and into my life. 

Check out these posts from fellow workshop participants recounting their experiences last Saturday.

Lemons and Lavender

Epicurean Mom

Confections of Foodie Bride

Scaling Back

Now, let's get into the nitty gritty details of this unique rice.

I love the exotic look of the red rice

I had never heard of red rice before last Saturday.  I took Diane's advice and went to a local asian market to find it at an affordable price. It's a slightly chewy grain of rice with a nutty flavor. The texture is similar to brown rice, but not quite as chewy. The rice is dressed in a magical caramelized shallot vinaigrette. Fresh parsley and mint give it a nice bright flavor and diced cucumbers provide a refreshing crunch. It makes a great side dish, or you could turn it into a main dish with some grilled shrimp on top.

The salad is easy to make. If you can figure out how to cook red rice. The package I bought from 99 Ranch Market had no cooking instructions. So I turned to the web for help. Apparently there are wildly different thoughts on how to cook this uncommon grain. One recipe recommended soaking the rice overnight, while another said to soak it for an hour and another said just rinse it to remove the excess starch. In Diane's recipe she mentions that red rice takes a bit more water than standard rice and recommends using a rice cooker for more even cooking. Basically I took an amalgamation of suggested techniques and just gave it a go. I rinsed the rice to remove excess starch and used a rice cooker. The first go round turned out very sticky. I think I had too much water. I tossed it in the garbage and started again. This time I used less water, added a spot of butter (to prevent sticking). After nearly 2 hours in the rice cooker, it turned out pretty darn good.

The shallot vinaigrette is fantastic. It would be great on any salad, from couscous to kale. I will be making it again to experiment with other uses for this tasty goodness.

The red rice salad kept well in the fridge and fed me for lunch for several days. This recipe is going into the keeper file. Now I have 3 1/2 pounds of red rice to use up and will be trying out some other recipes with this pretty little grain.

Red Rice Salad
from White on Rice Couple

Serves: 3-4 (yields 4 cups of cooked rice)

Ingredients:

1 cup raw red rice, cooked according to the package instructions (I used a rice cooker used a ratio of 2:1, 2 parts water, 1 part rice)
1 cup diced cucumbers
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint

Shallot Vinaigrette:
3 large shallots, minced
3 medium cloves of garlic minced and crushed with side of a kitchen knife (use a sprinkle of salt to help crush the garlic)
4 tablespoons of olive oil or grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Cook the rice and allow to cool.  In small non stick skillet add 2 tablespoons of oil and heat on low.  Add shallots and garlic and cook until the mixture is a light golden brown (about 15 minutes).  Remove from heat and add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, the sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, vinegar, lemon juice and black pepper.  Stir until the ingredient are well incorporated and the sugar is dissolved.  Set the vinaigrette aside and chopped the cucumbers and herbs.

Once rice is completely cooled, stir in cucumbers, herbs and the shallot vinaigrette.  You can serve it room temperature or chill it in the refrigerator.

The dish can also be served warm.  Toss in cucumbers and herbs while rice is still warm and then serve.

Cheesy Zucchini Rice

Looking for an easy side dish?  This is it.  It's simple, tasty and the cheese takes this rice into the comfort food category.  Hubby and I had cheesy zucchini rice alongside grilled mahi mahi with mango avocado salsa on Friday night.  Whenever I serve a new dish, I anxiously await the verdict from my somewhat picky particular husband.  Apparently I'm not the only one. 

Have you seen the Pioneer Woman's new show on Food Network yet?  Hubby and I watched the third episode on Saturday morning and she shared some of the things her husband won't go near.  Like goat cheese and sauces containing wine.  I had to laugh when I heard this.  Especially with Hubby sitting right next to me.  He can't stand goat cheese and has a number of other particular food preferences.  (Though, I must give him credit, he does like wine based sauces.)  The Pioneer Woman decided to do a blind taste test with her husband and had him try her penne alla vodka. She didn't tell him it had vodka in it (just in case he carried over his aversion to wine in sauce to other alcohols).  He ate it and....drum roll please.....he liked it! 

And that's what happened with my Hubby and the cheesy zucchini rice.  Though I didn't keep any of the ingredients a secret.  Hubs generally isn't big on cheese, but enjoyed it in this dish.  He even went so far as to say he would like me to make it again...the true sign of a successful dish in our house.

I don't have kids, but would imagine if my picky particular Hubby likes this, so would my nieces and nephews.  Zucchini has a very mild flavor and brings a nice texture to the rice.  You get to sneak in some veggies but still lure them in with the cheesy rice. 

Good stuff for kids and adults alike!


Cheesy Zucchini Rice
from Pink Parsley adapted from Comfort of Cooking

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain white rice (I used basmati)
2 cups chicken broth (use vegetable broth for a vegetarian version)
2 tablespoons butter (optional)
1 medium/large zucchini, grated on the large holes of a cheese grater
1 cup grated white cheddar cheese (or your favorite cheese)
Salt and pepper to taste

Getting ready:

Thoroughly rinse rice under cold water to remove excess starch.  Measure out chicken broth and butter. 

Start cooking:

In a medium saucepan bring rice, chicken broth and 1 tablespoon of butter to a rolling boil.  I also added in a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Turn heat to low and cover rice tightly and cook for about 20-25 minutes until the chicken broth is fully absorbed. 

While rice is cooking grate your cheese and zucchini.

Once rice is cooked, remove from heat and add grated zucchini and remaining tablespoon of butter on top of the cooked rice, re-cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  The steam from the rice will cook the fine slivers of zucchini.  Transfer rice to a serving bowl and stir to mix in zucchini.  Add cheese and salt and pepper to taste and stir until well combined.  Serve immediately.