Although I have a raging cold, I managed to whip up a monster batch of my mushroom risotto yesterday in my brand new stainless steel stewpot. This thing is faaaabulous and I can't think of a better way to break it in. I learned to make risotto from Jamie Oliver recipes, but now I kind of do it from memory and it's been tweaked quite a bit to fit the way I like to make and eat it. I think people are probably quite intimidated by risotto, but it's not that hard. It just takes a while and you can't leave it alone. Before I had my big pot, I was making half the amount most recipes make, but now I can make enormous pots of the stuff and freeze it for later. In any case, I'll put the half-recipe here. It's all quite tweakable, especially because this is coming from my head and, for the most part, it's not an exact science.
about 300g Arborio rice
one onion, chopped
one litre vegetable or mushroom stock (I make it from stock cubes)
1/2-1 glass white wine
butter
olive oil
mushrooms (How many is really up to you. I go for more is better, but it's really the variety that counts. Use the craziest ones you can find. I guess a good guide amount would be about 300g uncooked. I probably use more. And remember, they always reduce by about half when they're cooked.)
about 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
marjoram or oregano (Fresh is best, but I usually end up using dried.)
a handful of grated parmesan
lemon juice
Get everything ready and chopped before you start cooking. This is really helpful since you can't leave the risotto long without stirring it and it gets a bit crazy if you're worried about chopping and things while you cook. You'll need 3 pans: One really big one that everything ends up in, one saute/frying pan (I use my nonstick omlette pan of joy) for the mushrooms, and one pot for keeping your stock warm.
Put your stock on the heat. You don't need to boil it, it just needs to be hot when it goes into the risotto. I usually make my stock from cubes before I start anything else and just leave it on low heat and forget about it til I need it.
In your big pot, melt about a tablespoon of butter with about as much olive oil and saute your onions until they're translucent. Add the rice to this and keep it moving. When it's all coated in butter and mixed with the onion, turn up the heat and add the white wine. Don't let anything catch on the bottom of the pan. Let the rice absorb the wine for about 2-3 minutes while the alcohol cooks off. It will start to smell quite nice. When most of the liquid is gone, turn the heat down to about medium-lowish (the risotto won't work well if it cooks too fast) add about 2 ladles full of stock and keep stirring until it's mostly absorbed. Keep this up until you get halfway through the stock.
Meanwhile, in the saute pan, melt another tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of olive oil and add the marjoram or oregano. Add your chopped mushrooms and coat them in the butter and spice Let them cook down a bit before adding the chopped garlic. This will keep the garlic from frying. A lot of liquid will come out of the mushrooms while they're cooking. You can either let it cook off or use it, it doesn't much matter. When the mushrooms are well cooked, add them along with all their cooking juices to the risotto (at the point when you're about halfway through adding the stock).
Now everything's in the same pot, keep the risotto moving and continue to add the stock a little at a time until it's absorbed. You may not need all the stock, but the final product should be a bit soupier than you want it. As a guide, it will take around 30-45 minutes from the time you put the rice in the pan to the time you've finished adding stock. Turn off the heat and add about 30-50 grams of butter (depending on how much you like), a handful of grated parmesan cheese, and a bit of lemon juice. Stir it all together, season with black pepper, and cover it up. Walk away, clean up, make you salad, whatever. Just let the risotto sit for at least 5 minutes before you eat it. It can sit a pretty long time without getting cold, so don't worry about that.
When you serve it, you can eat it as is or add some more parmesan to the top, olive oil, black pepper, whatever you like. It's excellent comfort food and well worth the time it takes to cook.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Friday, 28 December 2007
Despite being expensive, Christmas tastes fab
I'm still getting used to the new oven, so as usual, I feel i could have cooked the beef slightly less, but it wasn't overcooked, and I even managed to make half decent gravy. We're not big on gravy in this house, but it was more like balsamic reduction than anything, so it was good.
But let's start at the beginning. Christmas eve I made us each a huge serving of Fifteen's Christmas Salad from Cook with Jamie, and holy crap was it tasty. It had everything in perfect measure: salty, sweet, milky, juicy, tangy, spicy, sour. I'll definitely be making that again. There was plenty of it all to make little starter salads for 4-6 people, so it would be good for something dinner party-ish.
Later I made some salmon with clementine, nutmeg and cinnamon. It ended up cooked perfectly and we had some warm crusty Mediterranean bread (courtesy of Tesco's bakers, I can't afford to be totally classy all the time) with rosemary dipping oil.
Christmas day, Scott made pancakes which were really good, especially for a first try. Even the first few he burnt were yummy. There was some bacon with that and mimosas as well.
I started cooking around the time the Queen started addressing everyone, as she does. The day before, I ran all over Edinburgh fully believing there was not a sprig of Rosemary left in the city. Luckily, I found some in the little shop where I got my radicchio after trying about 4 other places. I threw loads of it in with my carrots and parsnips as well as some of the bacon we didn't use from breakfast and roasted it all up. For the beef, which was rubbed with pepper and dry mustard, I chopped up an onion and put it in the bottom of a pyrex dish that was just big enough for the meat. I poured a bunch of balsamic vinegar mixed with a bit of sugar over the onions and sat the beef on top. I wasn't sure if this would work out. I didn't want the beef to end up sitting in the vinegar and I wasn't sure how much the onions would soften, but it seemed to be ok in the end. Anyway, on top of the meat went three huge sprigs of rosemary and on top of that went a whole load of the fat the butcher gave me to render and drip down while the meat cooked. Mmmm. Nothing like a packet full of fat to get the kitchen smelling like heaven.
When it was all done, I took all the vinegary meaty juice in the bottom of the dish, put a bit of flour and red wine in, and I had my gravy plus carmelized onions for the meat. I did some nice buttery nutmeggy spinach and cooked up the yorkshire puddings and then we ate a big pile of Christmas dinner goodness. I was pretty happy for not screwing anything up. Plus my onion trick worked.
Dessert was the best hot chocolate I've ever made at home, which Scott got me from Whittard's, and some stollen I got from the christmas market. Next year, I'll make that clementine cake if it kills me.
But let's start at the beginning. Christmas eve I made us each a huge serving of Fifteen's Christmas Salad from Cook with Jamie, and holy crap was it tasty. It had everything in perfect measure: salty, sweet, milky, juicy, tangy, spicy, sour. I'll definitely be making that again. There was plenty of it all to make little starter salads for 4-6 people, so it would be good for something dinner party-ish.
Later I made some salmon with clementine, nutmeg and cinnamon. It ended up cooked perfectly and we had some warm crusty Mediterranean bread (courtesy of Tesco's bakers, I can't afford to be totally classy all the time) with rosemary dipping oil.
Christmas day, Scott made pancakes which were really good, especially for a first try. Even the first few he burnt were yummy. There was some bacon with that and mimosas as well.
I started cooking around the time the Queen started addressing everyone, as she does. The day before, I ran all over Edinburgh fully believing there was not a sprig of Rosemary left in the city. Luckily, I found some in the little shop where I got my radicchio after trying about 4 other places. I threw loads of it in with my carrots and parsnips as well as some of the bacon we didn't use from breakfast and roasted it all up. For the beef, which was rubbed with pepper and dry mustard, I chopped up an onion and put it in the bottom of a pyrex dish that was just big enough for the meat. I poured a bunch of balsamic vinegar mixed with a bit of sugar over the onions and sat the beef on top. I wasn't sure if this would work out. I didn't want the beef to end up sitting in the vinegar and I wasn't sure how much the onions would soften, but it seemed to be ok in the end. Anyway, on top of the meat went three huge sprigs of rosemary and on top of that went a whole load of the fat the butcher gave me to render and drip down while the meat cooked. Mmmm. Nothing like a packet full of fat to get the kitchen smelling like heaven.
When it was all done, I took all the vinegary meaty juice in the bottom of the dish, put a bit of flour and red wine in, and I had my gravy plus carmelized onions for the meat. I did some nice buttery nutmeggy spinach and cooked up the yorkshire puddings and then we ate a big pile of Christmas dinner goodness. I was pretty happy for not screwing anything up. Plus my onion trick worked.
Dessert was the best hot chocolate I've ever made at home, which Scott got me from Whittard's, and some stollen I got from the christmas market. Next year, I'll make that clementine cake if it kills me.
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Australian Meat
I just tried Springbok and Kangaroo today. For lunch, we went to Walkabout, which is an Australian themed pub chain. We've never been before because it's always crowded with people watching the football or the rugby or whatever sporting event happens to be winning the hearts of boys with beer at the moment. I think I liked the kangaroo better, but I had that in steak form so it was nice and rare in the middle. I tried springbok in burger form, so it wasn't too pink. They're both a lot like red meat only leaner and with a slightly different taste. It all tasted even better since I was starving my head off. Working retail the weekend before christmas=no break=hunger.
I was in Aberdeen for the past three nights. We got a full Christmas dinner nearly a week early. It was fantastic. I tried this stuff called skirlie, which is Scottish oatmeal stuffing. It was kind of like white pudding only smushed up. It's quite onion-y and spicy and crunchy but soft at the same time. Delicious. Plus we got clootie dumpling! Yum.
I also had a pretty awesome baked potato for lunch one afternoon that had haggis and cheddar melted on top. I drank a lot of Blizzard this weekend. Of all the beer I've had this month, Blizzard has got to be the best. It's a seasonal brew from Atlas. It's nice and spicy. I like a good wintry beer.
Gearing up for Christmas cooking now. Tesco was completely out of rosemary. What a disgrace. I should really plant my mini herb garden so I don't have these problems.
I was in Aberdeen for the past three nights. We got a full Christmas dinner nearly a week early. It was fantastic. I tried this stuff called skirlie, which is Scottish oatmeal stuffing. It was kind of like white pudding only smushed up. It's quite onion-y and spicy and crunchy but soft at the same time. Delicious. Plus we got clootie dumpling! Yum.
I also had a pretty awesome baked potato for lunch one afternoon that had haggis and cheddar melted on top. I drank a lot of Blizzard this weekend. Of all the beer I've had this month, Blizzard has got to be the best. It's a seasonal brew from Atlas. It's nice and spicy. I like a good wintry beer.
Gearing up for Christmas cooking now. Tesco was completely out of rosemary. What a disgrace. I should really plant my mini herb garden so I don't have these problems.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
My favorite salad
I created this when I was living with the divine Ms. Melissa in the summer before my senior year at WAC. I went to the Chestertown Farmer's Market every weekend I could because one of the farmers always had piles and piles of fresh rocket. I LOVE rocket. Whenever I was in Frederick I was unable to find it anywhere except occasionally in small wilted bunches int he herb section of Giant. What a disappointment.
Anyway, I would also get nice butternut squashes from the market. Usually I bought more rocket than I knew what to do with, and thus, a salad was born:
A bunch of rocket
a butternut squash
dried cranberries
walnuts
goat cheese
rosemary and crushed red pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Cut up the squash into bite-size chunks. You can leave the skin on if you want. I always used to, but Scott won't touch the stuff unless it's off. Now you can either roast it or saute it to cook. If you roast it (which takes a bit longer) toss it in some olive oil and the rosemary and red pepper, put it in a dish, and it should take about 20-30-sh minutes at 400ºF or 220ºC depending on your oven. If you saute it, which is what I usually do, heat the oil in the pan with the rosemary and red pepper, toss the squash in the oil, and just stir it and keep an eye on it while you prep the rest of the salad.
Wash and dry the rocket and split it between plates. You could make this as a side dish or a full meal. I usually do the latter. How much of each ingredient you need really just depends on how many people are eating. Top the rocket with broken up walnuts, a handful of dried cranberries, and a few good chunks of goat cheese. When the squash is cooked (just taste a piece to find out), spoon it on top of the salads and drizzle some balsamic vinegar over everything. The hot squash melts the goat cheese which mixes with the vinegar and makes a sort of nice creamy dressing.
I make this salad ALL the time. It's cheap, it's almost completely healthy, and it's ridiculously tasty enough to make you believe otherwise.
Anyway, I would also get nice butternut squashes from the market. Usually I bought more rocket than I knew what to do with, and thus, a salad was born:
A bunch of rocket
a butternut squash
dried cranberries
walnuts
goat cheese
rosemary and crushed red pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Cut up the squash into bite-size chunks. You can leave the skin on if you want. I always used to, but Scott won't touch the stuff unless it's off. Now you can either roast it or saute it to cook. If you roast it (which takes a bit longer) toss it in some olive oil and the rosemary and red pepper, put it in a dish, and it should take about 20-30-sh minutes at 400ºF or 220ºC depending on your oven. If you saute it, which is what I usually do, heat the oil in the pan with the rosemary and red pepper, toss the squash in the oil, and just stir it and keep an eye on it while you prep the rest of the salad.
Wash and dry the rocket and split it between plates. You could make this as a side dish or a full meal. I usually do the latter. How much of each ingredient you need really just depends on how many people are eating. Top the rocket with broken up walnuts, a handful of dried cranberries, and a few good chunks of goat cheese. When the squash is cooked (just taste a piece to find out), spoon it on top of the salads and drizzle some balsamic vinegar over everything. The hot squash melts the goat cheese which mixes with the vinegar and makes a sort of nice creamy dressing.
I make this salad ALL the time. It's cheap, it's almost completely healthy, and it's ridiculously tasty enough to make you believe otherwise.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bonbons
My last foray into the Christmas Cookie business for the season was probably the easiest. My mom's been making these peanut butter chocolate things for ages. They're really simple:
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup softened butter
4.5 cups powdered sugar (I'd go with 4 cups)
3 cups rice krispies
12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup milk
Mix the butter and peanut butter together. Mix the sugar and the cereal together. Blend both mixtures with your hands and form 1/2 inch balls of crunchy peanut butterness. Put them in the fridge for an hour or so until they firm up.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and mix the milk in until it's smooth, then dip the peanut butter balls in the chocolate, whack them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment, and put them back int he fridge to harden. Pour a glass of milk and eat some. YUM.
So, yeah, fairly hard to screw up. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of mixing one bar of cheap-o tesco plain chocolate with a bar of Green & Black's cook's chocolate. The cheap mixed with the awesome made for a weird texture of melted chocolate. The mixture kind of broke and the cocoa butter from the cheap stuff separated from the rest. It looks a little weird, but it still tastes fine, so it's not a huge deal. I just wish I would have had two bars of G&B's. It's expensive, but good chocolate is worth it.
One of these days, I'll start taking pictures of my food to post here. These things aren't exactly the fanciest looking things though, so I'm not fussed at the moment.
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup softened butter
4.5 cups powdered sugar (I'd go with 4 cups)
3 cups rice krispies
12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup milk
Mix the butter and peanut butter together. Mix the sugar and the cereal together. Blend both mixtures with your hands and form 1/2 inch balls of crunchy peanut butterness. Put them in the fridge for an hour or so until they firm up.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and mix the milk in until it's smooth, then dip the peanut butter balls in the chocolate, whack them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment, and put them back int he fridge to harden. Pour a glass of milk and eat some. YUM.
So, yeah, fairly hard to screw up. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of mixing one bar of cheap-o tesco plain chocolate with a bar of Green & Black's cook's chocolate. The cheap mixed with the awesome made for a weird texture of melted chocolate. The mixture kind of broke and the cocoa butter from the cheap stuff separated from the rest. It looks a little weird, but it still tastes fine, so it's not a huge deal. I just wish I would have had two bars of G&B's. It's expensive, but good chocolate is worth it.
One of these days, I'll start taking pictures of my food to post here. These things aren't exactly the fanciest looking things though, so I'm not fussed at the moment.
Monday, 17 December 2007
Now I'm falling through the air...
I realize I just posted, but I heard the Christmas Irn Bru advert on the TV int he other room. I don't even like Irn Bru, but their ad campaigns have been pretty stellar lately. (The happy goths for summer? Classic.)
Most of the UK has seen this already, or at least most of Scotland, but for all my American friends, be entertained:
Most of the UK has seen this already, or at least most of Scotland, but for all my American friends, be entertained:
Christmas is expensive
I took my weekly Tesco trip today, except this time I was buying the first half of the pile of Christmas food I'll need for next week. This will be the first year I'm making any kind of Christmas meal, so naturally I want it to be excellent, especially because I'm pulling Scott away from his mom's cooking for it.
No matter how hard I tried to keep the price down, it's already threatening to be around £60 for this week alone, which is much more than we usually spend. But when I think of what it's for, I ignore the whimpering cries of my bank account. Here's what we're having:
Christmas Eve:
Starting with Fifteen Christmas Salad (from Cook with Jamie (more on my love of Jamie Oliver in the future of this blog, I'm sure)) and moving on to pan roasted salmon with lemon oil and dill and some crusty bread. The salad involves buffalo mozzerella, clementines, mint and prosciutto among other things. I'm really excited about it because I've been wanting to make it since I first got the book last Christmas. I'm also pretty happy that it necesitates me going back to Waitrose to find the treviso or radicchio it calls for, because they don't have it at Tesco. For dessert, we'll have christmas cookies and mince pies. Mmmm. Mince pies.
Christmas Day:
Scott is making me pancakes and bacon for breakfast, because no matter how hard I try, I always screw up pancakes. I can make a mean French toast any time, but pancakes always fail. Naturally, there will be mimosas with this. I was too cheap for real champagne though, so I went with semi-decent Cava. There'll be orange juice in it anyway, so it doesn't matter when you're a poor student.
For lunch/dinner, it'll be rosemary roast beef with balsamic caramelized onions, roasted carrots and parsnips, spinach with nutmeg and butter, and Yorkshire puddings. YUM. For dessert, I really wanted to try Nigella's Clementine Cake, but I would need a food processor, which I don't have, so that may not happen this year. I'm hoping Scott's mum will give us a dumpling pudding thing to bring back here though, because that would be perfect for dessert.
It goes without saying that there will be plenty of mulled wine and whisky going on during all of this. And a load of leftovers on Boxing Day.
Anyway, I shall report on all of these recipes once they're in my stomach. Fortunately, I don't mind dumping all my money into food even when my budget fights me. I guess this is my first real taste of the holiday money-crunch. Isn't adulthood wonderful?
No matter how hard I tried to keep the price down, it's already threatening to be around £60 for this week alone, which is much more than we usually spend. But when I think of what it's for, I ignore the whimpering cries of my bank account. Here's what we're having:
Christmas Eve:
Starting with Fifteen Christmas Salad (from Cook with Jamie (more on my love of Jamie Oliver in the future of this blog, I'm sure)) and moving on to pan roasted salmon with lemon oil and dill and some crusty bread. The salad involves buffalo mozzerella, clementines, mint and prosciutto among other things. I'm really excited about it because I've been wanting to make it since I first got the book last Christmas. I'm also pretty happy that it necesitates me going back to Waitrose to find the treviso or radicchio it calls for, because they don't have it at Tesco. For dessert, we'll have christmas cookies and mince pies. Mmmm. Mince pies.
Christmas Day:
Scott is making me pancakes and bacon for breakfast, because no matter how hard I try, I always screw up pancakes. I can make a mean French toast any time, but pancakes always fail. Naturally, there will be mimosas with this. I was too cheap for real champagne though, so I went with semi-decent Cava. There'll be orange juice in it anyway, so it doesn't matter when you're a poor student.
For lunch/dinner, it'll be rosemary roast beef with balsamic caramelized onions, roasted carrots and parsnips, spinach with nutmeg and butter, and Yorkshire puddings. YUM. For dessert, I really wanted to try Nigella's Clementine Cake, but I would need a food processor, which I don't have, so that may not happen this year. I'm hoping Scott's mum will give us a dumpling pudding thing to bring back here though, because that would be perfect for dessert.
It goes without saying that there will be plenty of mulled wine and whisky going on during all of this. And a load of leftovers on Boxing Day.
Anyway, I shall report on all of these recipes once they're in my stomach. Fortunately, I don't mind dumping all my money into food even when my budget fights me. I guess this is my first real taste of the holiday money-crunch. Isn't adulthood wonderful?
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