Nr.3 Daring Cook's Challenge - Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This month I was really on the edge. I just finished cooking and eating my delicious risotto. I love risotto and I make it every now and then, not always with home made stock though, actually never. Making your own stock gives little more work, but the result is worth the hassle. I wanted to make it with butternut squash or pumpkin, but the ones from local shop were from Brazil and since I am trying not to contribute to this worldwide shipping of food I had to pick what ever was local. So I found some Irish mushrooms and carrots. Also, I made some alterations to the recipe myself, as I added the mushrooms and carrots, just after the onion and like this cooked everything together. In my opinion, it allows the flavours to get incorporated much better. Perhaps some Italian chef would have another opinion about it, but he wasn't here, so I did it according to my own beliefs.

Chicken Stock

1 kg of chicken

1 Kg of chicken bones

2 onions, roughly diced

1 medium leek, white part only, roughly diced

2 sticks of celery, roughly diced

2 cloves of garlic

1 cinnamon stick

1 Tsp peppercorns

2 bay leaves

peel of 1/2 lemon

1/4 Tsp allspice

Wash the chicken, place in the pot and bring it to boil. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface. Add all the other ingredients and leave it to simmer very gently uncovered for 1.5 h. Take out the chicken and leave the stock to simmer for another hour. Then pour the stock through a fine sieve and its ready to use.

Risotto

60 ml olive oil

1 small onion

2 handfuls of fresh mushrooms, halved

1 carrot, chopped

400g risotto rice (Arborio)

60 ml white wine

1 l chicken stock

60g parmesan cheese, grated

Heat the oil in the pan and add the onion. Now I added the chopped carrots and halved mushrooms. I let everything to sizzle for some time. Add the rice and let every grain to get nicely covered with juices from the pan. Then add wine and let it bubble until evaporated. Add enough stock just to cover the rice, cook on medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the stock has been absorbed, repeat this final step until stock is finished. When stock is finished then the rice should be ready as well, if not, get some more stock and continue until rice is cooked. For the final step, remove from the heat and mix in grated parmesan cheese.

Head isu!