Risorta

We love musical theatre. We started going when we were just kids with our respective parents, all of whom loved a good Broadway show. From my earliest memories, getting dressed in our best clothes and going to the theatre has been a huge pleasure. I've seen wonderful productions on stage - The Pajama Game to Damn Yankees to South Pacific to My Fair Lady to A Chorus Line to The Phantom of the Opera to Mamma Mia - and always look forward to the next. This time, it was Billy Elliott.

Cousin Jan suggested that we all go and she did the legwork months ago to score excellent tickets. This past weekend, five of us piled into our little station wagon and headed for the city.

It was all wonderful - the dancing teacher played to a faretheewell by Faith Prince, a veteran actress who knows how to put it across; the violence of the confrontations between police and strikers rendered into music - marvelous! And, for unforgettable musical theatre moments, the scene of young, skinny Billy dancing side by side with his potential self, fully developed to pure male power and beauty, will stay with me all my life. Thrilled me literally to tears.

Lovely fantasies for the ride home - but real life always intrudes. We were hungry. On my way out the door, I had thrown a big handful of dried mushrooms (shiitake, woodear, porcini, bolete, oyster) into a bowl of water, thinking I'd make something to go with a nice steak afterwards. Unfortunately, I forgot to thaw the steak. A quick search of fridge bins and pantry revealed the makings for a sort of risotto/pilaf kind of thing, and not much else. It was far more than the coal miners' families in the show had, they often went hungry during the strike.

While the chicken broth was coming up to temperature on a medium burner, I sautéed in a knob of butter a chopped onion and rice until the grains turned opaque, then squeezed in about two lemons worth of juice, Added about one third of the chicken broth and coarsely chopped the reconstituted mushrooms, plus three fresh ones, and added them to the pot to simmer, stirring in the other two thirds of the broth in dollops as the rice absorbed them. I hummed a little of "We were born to boogie!" as a goodly hill of grated ParmReg went in and I put the cheese block and a grater on the table for easy additions of more cheese. At the very end, I added broccoli florets, green onions and a couple of ladles full of the now richly brown water in which the mushrooms had soaked all day.

Because I used half white rice and half brown, the brown was still a little chewy at serving time but I actually liked that textural difference. The rich mushroom flavor was leavened by the lemon juice and the very slightly bitter crunch of the broccoli. And who doesn't love ParmReg? It all made for a marvelous matinée and a dance to dinner.

Kickin' Rice

I'm on a bit of a rice kick. I made salmon risotto not long ago. We ordered Chinese take-out for the first time in my life last week and all really I wanted from the long menu was the fried rice. I keep making pots of that killer Massa brown rice to replace other starches on our plates. I even have brown rice for breakfast.

So, My Beloved was not surprised to find that risotto was on the menu yet again. Mushroom risotto this time with carrots and broccoli thrown in and cooked in organic vegetable stock thanks to those enterprising folks over at Imagine.

Risotto is easy. If you have a job or come home late from shopping or perhaps got caught up reading (ahem!) the hair raising ending of the latest thriller, you can have dinner on the table and tasting delicious in about 45 minutes. Here's the deal:

Chop an onion and sauté it in a heavy-bottomed pot in generous butter until it's soft. Add about a dozen sliced mushrooms (you can use all one kind or, even better, some of several kinds) and let them sizzle with the onion until they are nicely browned (this is why the butter should be generous) - you need to watch this and stir frequently.

Throw in a cup of risotto rice (canaroli or arborio - both keep forever in the pantry) and let it cook for about five minutes, stirring every few minutes. Pour in about a half cup of white wine, or use half that amount of fresh lemon juice and stir it around. While that cooks down a tad, chop the carrots and broccoli into bite-size pieces, and grate about a cup of Parmesan cheese.

Heat about three cups of veggie stock in the microwave - it need not be boiling, just nicely warmed. Add the veggie stock about half a cup at a time, stirring with each new addition to make sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Let the stock cook with the rice until it is absorbed before adding another half cup and repeating the process.

When you have added all the stock, it's time to dump in the carrots and broccoli, stirring them in, and let them cook for a few minutes 'til the broccoli is bright green. Add the grated cheese and stir that in evenly. Offer more Parmesan cheese at the table.

You can, of course, add all kinds of little bits of flavor - shredded chicken, meat or fish, different veggies, different flavorings and herbs, meat broths instead of veggie - the possibilities are legion. Even if you're not on a rice kick, you'll love risotto.

Something's Fishy

Chilebrown and I are not having an affair, honest. You might think so since I praise him so often, but no. It just so happens that he and I exchanged food goodies over coffee recently - nothing fishy is going on.

Something fishy is going in, however, into our yaps. One of the swaps we made involved some vacuum-sealed smoked salmon from his friend Angelo up in Petaluma. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with it but I finally hit on a good idea. Risotto.

I've talked about risotto before so if you need the full instructions, go here. All you need to know about this risotto is the ingredients: chopped onion and sliced crimini mushrooms sautéed in butter, arborio rice, lemon juice, chicken stock, flaked smoked salmon, frozen peas, and parmesan cheese.

The fun things I learned this time are that you can substitute pure, tart lemon juice for the wine (I used two small lemon's worth) to enhance the underlying flavor of citrus and that heating the stock in the microwave works like a champ. No need to keep zapping it - once it's warmish, that's good enough. Stirring is still important, however, to keep it from sticking/burning on the bottom of the pot.

The result was a really elegant risotto that didn't photograph well. The peas were still bright green and barely cooked, the smoky salmon was deeply flavorful and the lemon juice added the perfect note to an otherwise pretty rich and fishy dinner.

Thanks to Chilebrown and Angelo, two great guys for a gal to know. And, no, I'm not having an affair with Angelo, either.

Springing Surprises

When My Beloved's daughter Katie came over the other day for her birthday celebration, she sprang a surprise on us - a diamond engagement ring! We were both floored and delighted. We have always approved of her taste in boyfriends but this last one has been the best of all. He did a good job with the proposal, too - romantic setting, fine champagne and a ring he designed himself. We like this guy. Happy news, indeed.

During the celebratory evening, Katie dropped another little idea bomb for me - as we were enjoying the rack of lamb I prepared for her birthday party, she mentioned that she had made risotto with lamb broth. Lamb broth! My imagination was already tasting that risotto.

I collected all the bones from that rack and from the one we couldn't finish that night to make lamb broth, which I did a few days later in preparation for making the risotto. I simply covered the bones with water and simmered them for a couple of hours, removed the bones, and refrigerated the resulting broth to skim the fat the next day.

On Risotto Day, I assembled about eight beautiful fresh green asparagus spears, cut into 1" pieces; a handful of crimini mushrooms; 1/2 onion, chopped; 1/2 cup of white wine; fresh chives and oregano; 3/4 of a cup of arborio rice; 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese; and about 2-1/4 cups of the lamb broth. Arborio, vino, herbo cipolina, cipolla, oregano, crimini, Parmesano Reggiano, agnello - isn't Italian a wonderful language? I love all those vowel sounds.

Anyway, I started by setting the broth to warm on a separate burner, then sautéing the onions in about 2 tablespoons of butter until they were clear, then adding the sliced criminis (stems removed - their stems are tough) to sauté for a few more minutes before adding the rice to cook in the butter with the flavorings until it showed a white center. I poured in the wine and stirred over a medium heat; once the wine was absorbed, I began adding the warm lamb broth a ladle at a time, stirring after each addition.*

As the rice neared the finished state, I added the asparagus, the chopped oregano and continued cooking and stirring until the asparagus were brightly green and just tender, then added the cheese and chives to stir in before serving in shallow bowls. I didn't add any salt as the cheese can be salty but we each sprinkled a little salt and pepper once we had tasted; it needed a little more. Spoons work better than forks for risotto.

This meal seems like the essence of spring - the bright asparagus, the herbs just heading to flowering, the rich, silky rice. It was a lovely surprise, too, to have the lamby undertones to what is usually a chickeny sort of dish. We like all the surprises Katie brings to our lives, especially this fun guy.



*Some recipes say that you must stir constantly but I find that stirring after each addition of broth is plenty - just keep an eye on the pot as you don't want to burn it.

Spring Rice

I go in spurts. When I find a preparation I like, I tend to make it all the time until My Beloved cries "uncle!" and we move on to the next enthusiasm.

It would seem that raclette and risotto are my current jags. This risotto is the best one I've made so far, Lemon Risotto with Green Garlic, Chicken Apple Sausage and Asparagus. Doesn't that sound like a menu from some fancypants restaurant? But, I didn't get this from a famous chef; I assembled it from the contents of my fridge.

I discovered the fun of using lemon juice in risotto in place of the usual wine when I had no white wine in the house but lotsa lemons; I like it better. The Meyer lemons from Momo and Patty's bush are flavoring many of my dishes these days and one of them really improved this risotto.

After sautéeing the sliced green garlic in a knob of butter and adding about 3/4 of a cup of carnaroli rice to coat with buttery garlicky goodness, I added the juice of one (very juicy) lemon, chopped a single chicken apple sausage and added that to the pot, too. Stir, stir. Then came the veggie broth, ladled in and stirred bit by bit until it was all added (about three cups). Just as I was adding the parmesan cheese before serving, the thin asparagus spears, cut into inch-long lengths, went in and were stirred along with the rice until they were bright green and just tender.

The result was so fresh and springlike that we were both nodding and savoring, twinkling at each other over mouths full of flavor.

So far, I've heard no grumbles about "too much risotto" from My Beloved. I guess I can keep this trend going for a few more meals before he waves his white flag and asks for a change of menu.

Lemon Risotto Riff

What do you make with a half cup of salad shrimp left over from having a friend over for lunch? NamasteNancy had graced me with a lunchtime visit for which I made a simple shrimp salad, but I had just a handful of the little darlings left over and no real idea what to do with them besides pop 'em as a snack like pink Cheetos which, while it would have been delicious, seemed somehow like a waste of a luxury ingredient.

Then, as I was watching an episode of "Follow That Food," the wacky Aussie host was talking about carnaroli rice and I remembered that I had some in the cupboard - risotto!

I had only made risotto once before and I had no seafood broth on hand but decided to wing it with chicken broth. I also had no open bottles of white wine, so I subbed in (believe it or not) a little lemonade tartened up with a generous squeezing of fresh lemon juice 'til it was about as acidic as white wine would be. As odd as that sounds, it really added a lemony zest to the rice. I sizzled some onion and garlic in a knob of butter, added the rice and stirred, then the lemonade and began ladling in the chicken broth once the lemonade was absorbed.

Stir, ladle, stir, ladle, yadda until all the chicken broth was gone, then added a nice handful of freshly grated ParmReg, another little knob of butter, some strips of dark green Swiss chard leaves from my garden (still booking from last year!) and, when they were just wilted, stirred in the salad shrimps only long enough to heat through and sprinkled the top with chopped green onion tops.

Creamy, subtly lemony and rich with shrimp, it was a killer risotto and I was kicking myself for not making this for my luncheon guest.

Good Goo

Okay, so, risotto. I've always wondered, what's the appeal? A bowl of gooey rice studded with bits of this and that? Hmmm, I'm from Missouri.

Being a risotto skeptic (though not actually a Missourian), I had never eaten it before, never been tempted to try it in a restaurant as there were always yummier-sounding options on the menu and certainly never been tempted to make it at home, what with all the ladling and stirring described in the recipes.

Just goes to show how wrong I can be.

On a whim, I made risotto for the first time last night and it was not only laughably easy but quite, quite delicious as well. From the various recipes I read, it looked as if you just start with aromatics, rice and wine, and the rest is up to you. So, to the minced garlic and chopped onion that I sizzled in a heavy, large pot in a little olive oil and butter combo, I added a measure of my homemade duxelles before adding a cup of rice for a few minutes of cooking, then about half a cup of white wine.

When the wine was absorbed, I started ladling in the hot chicken stock by half cups until all five cups (to one small cup of rice!) were absorbed, stirring more or less continuously. It sounds far more tedious than it is - in a way, it's nicely contemplative - and it only took about 20 minutes. At the end, I added a big handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and, for just a minute or two, the frozen peas and chopped leftover chicken to warm the meat and gently cook the peas.

That's all there was to it! At the table, with the candles lit and the rest of the bottle of wine at his elbow, My Beloved and I added a bit more cheese to the goo in our bowls, marveling at the creamy texture and rich taste that just a few ingredients, patiently combined, can produce.