When Italy meets Asia: My March Daring Cook Challenge
I love Risotto. All of them, any flavors. Love it. Love it. This very simple dish can make a very fancy meal. Yes you should try it.
So, I was very happy to see that the March Daring Cook, has chosen Risotto for this March Challenge.
It was a clean, easy, quick dish perfect for our Sunday lunch meal and since some asian blood orange salmon ( sauce made with hot sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce and blood orange juice) I thought that the Lemon-parmesan risotto would be perfect with my Blood Orange Salmon. And it was! Bon appetit!
Here is the recipe and the Darink Cook notes!
According to Jamie Oliver ‘”You want it to be smooth, creamy and oozy, not thick and stodgy.”
Variations allowed: You MUST make your own stock and the risotto base. The base consists of wine, rice, oil, stock cheese and butter. Omit the cheese if using seafood or doing something sweet. You can flavour the risotto however you like. Once you have the basic recipe down, you can flavour it in numerous ways. There are suggestions below. Of course if you can’t eat chicken stock, make a stock you can eat. There are plenty of recipes on the web.
Preparation time:
Stock: 20 minutes prep time, 3 hours cooking.
Pumpkin Risotto: 10 minutes prep time, 20-30 minutes cooking. ,
Lemon Risotto: 10 minutes prep time, 20-30 minutes cooking.
Equipment required:
• 5 Litre stock pot, or other large pan
• knife
• chopping board
• tablespoon
• teaspoon
• sieve
• ladle
• hand blender (optional)
• wooden spoon or other stirring implement
• grater
• saucepans
• measuring cups
• scales
Chicken Stock
Ingredients:
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek – white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn’t matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. Tuscan herbs
Directions:
Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be.
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don’t need for later use.
Risotto Base
Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g
Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L
Directions:
Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don’t actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.
Ingredients:
1 lemon, peel only, finely diced.
unsalted butter 3.5 oz 100g chilled and cut into small cubes
Italian cheeses mix, grated 2 oz 60g
Directions:
Make the base until the end of step 8.
Stir through the lemon
Add the final 100ml of stock and butter and stir until both are completely absorbed. Stir through the parmesan, stick the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes.
This one has a very strong taste, it is best served as a base with something else. Enjoy!
Audax Artifex
What a lovely flavour combination and I bet it tasted wondrous. Well done on this challenge love your posting and the photos are very informative. Salmon and citrus sounds perfect. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
ap269
Good job on the challenge!