My friend Josh messaged me the other day to ask what he should make for dinner. He said that he had been inspired by my efforts and wanted to make a real meal for dinner instead of just having pita and hummus (a great snack, to be sure, but not the same as a full meal). He gave me a run-down of what he had in the house and based on the chicken stock, wild rice, and mushrooms he had in his pantry, I suggested a risotto. It was a lengthy process, but he was very happy with the results, so I asked him to write a guest post about his experience. Please enjoy Josh’s post below; hopefully it will inspire you to get into the kitchen as well!
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| Thanks for posting, Josh! |
Hello World.
I’ve never written a blog post before, so I was a little skeptical when Danielle suggested I contribute to her site. This entry might turn out to be a mess, but I assure you that it won’t be nearly as bad as the mess I made in the kitchen!
I am quite culpable of eating far too much food not of my own creation. Reading this blog has been steadily increasing my guilt factor over the last few days, so I finally decided to cook something.
So, Danielle suggested a risotto and I found this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-and-shiitake-mushroom-wild-rice-risotto/detail.aspx) online for Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushroom Wild Rice Risotto and gave it a whirl. The recipe calls for 40 minutes of prep time and 60 minutes of cooking time, but you have to be pretty on your game to be that quick. I have no counter space and am a slow chef, so it was about two and half hours after I started that I finally got to eat.
This recipe has some distinct stages, so you’ll want to read over the recipe before you begin to make sure you have everything rolling.
I’ve never cooked with butternut squash before, so I learned that peeling is important; if I didn’t have a peeler, this would have been miserable. Don’t just peel the outer coating, though. You want to peel until you get to the deeper orange of the squash “meat.” And you’ll need to clear out the seeds and gunk from the center. One squash was plenty for me (even with a third of the squash falling in the trash bin…).
I made some minor substitutions for economy, availability, and by accident. I bought fresh shitakes without realizing the recipe called for dried, but that seemed to work fine. Perhaps dried have a sharper taste. Maple syrup became pancake syrup because I couldn’t justify $9 for an ingredient I needed a tablespoon of. And the supermarket (not really so super) didn’t have any short grain rice, so I went with a medium grain. I also went with the parmesan over the gorgonzola, but to each their own. I imagine the gorgonzola would make for a richer of a risotto, which I kind of wanted later, but I’m wary about gorgonzola… If you can swing the Parmigiano-Reggiano, great, but I used a plain jane block of parmesan.
I’ve had a few bad experiences cooking rice recently, so I was really worried about the rice cooking fully. After I spilled some of the vegetable stock, I was worried about not having enough liquid to soak into the rice, so I added some more white wine (I doubt you can go wrong there). When you’re adding the liquid into the rice mixture (this is done in stages), I’d recommend a ladle. This lets you transfer enough liquid without pouring liquid down the side of your saucer (yes, I’m speaking from experience…sizzzzzzle).
I ended up with a ton of risotto, so I invited a friend over to eat it with me. That being said, I could probably have fed six more. The risotto is quite filling, so the portion you need for a meal is much less than I realized.
Ultimately, the dish came out better than I expected, especially the consistency. The wild rice added some tougher texture to give the dish more textural dimension than a normal risotto. I cut the amount of wild rice by two and it still worked well enough. I feel that the dish might need one more flavor to bring it home. I’m thinking it needs truffle, so if I did it again, I’d sprinkle in some truffle oil Yeah, I know it’s not real truffle (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/dining/16truf.html), but I’m not Jean Georges!
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| Work in Progress |
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| The End Result! |
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If you or any of your friends have started cooking more as a result of this blog, please let me know – I’d love to make this a regular feature!
