risotto #10 - comfort me with apples

ok, seriously, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE WEATHER?!
first it's all springy and gorgeous.
then the cherry blossoms are pulverized by frost, my parents have a foot of snow, and half of new jersey, it seems, has to be evacuated because of flooding.

then the wind starts blowing like a freaking hurricane, rattling the windows and terrifying my cat, and i was stubborn enough to wear a skirt to work anyway.

definitely the sort of monday that deserves warm, simple and delicious comforting foods. for lunch i made a toasted baguette with fresh mozzarella and pancetta crumbs, with a mug full of my sweet potato soup for extra warmth.

and i already knew what to have for dessert, since i had nearly a full loaf of chocolate chip brioche beckoning me from the kitchen table--bread pudding, obviously. and possibly some hot chocolate.

it was dinner that was causing me vexation. i thought if i had some nice beef, thai basil and some bird chiles i could whip up the warmest and tastiest stir fry i know, stolen from a cooking teacher at l'academie de cuisine in bethesda, maryland. but alas, i had none of those things.

i thought i could bake up some pitas and do a nigel-slater-style lamb-filled flatbread, but a quick recipe search of king arthur flour suggested that i would be better off making a sponge before work and baking it when i got home than starting from scratch at the late hour of 7.00pm.

finally, stuck in a late-afternoon daydream, i happened upon this recipe for apple risotto from kitchen unplugged. and suddenly i remembered that this apple risotto has been on my list of risottos to try for nearly a month, put on hold only because of the interference of passover and the cruelties of the calendar. my enthusiasm began to grow--until i remembered that i had no apples and no chicken stock at home. i tried to console myself with another kind of risotto, maybe a mushroom risotto (i did have mushroom stock and a pile of porcini), and remind myself that i've sworn off grocery shopping until i move.

no good. there was nothing for it but to stop at the grocery store on the way home and procure apples, stock, shallots and cheese.

at least it was a quick trip.

i came home and assembled my ingredients before me, but it didn't seem quite savory or comforting enough. i needed warmth of a more rib-sticking variety but still complementary to my planned dessert of bread pudding. my eyes fell upon the chicken breast leftover from sunday's chicken and miso soup. and the half-knob of young, sharp gouda. and suddenly i remembered a recipe from the new spanish table which used gouda instead of parmesan in risotto while my tongue reminded me of how incredibly good the apple-gouda combination tastes.

my path, at last, was set. i poached the chicken in a pot of slightly salty water for about 20 minutes while i prepped the risotto components and poured it all, you guessed it, right into my rice cooker. i shaved a solid 1/4 cup of risotto using my new and most miraculous microplane grater and smelled the sweet smell of browned shallots in the kitchen air.

confession time: the cheese melted most wonderfully and made up for the fact that i slightly overcooked the chicken. but the end result, as delightful as it was--and trust me, it really was delightful--could have used a little more zest.

puu's "comfort me with apples" risotto
(inspired by kitchen unplugged's apple risotto, williams-sonoma's poached chicken and carmelized onion risotto, and the new spanish table's gouda risotto and prepared according to beth hensperger's rice cooker technique)

1/2 cup arborio risotto rice
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 shallot, finely diced
2 T olive oil
1 small apple, diced
2 T heavy cream
1/4 cup grated gouda cheese
2 T butter
1 chicken breast, poached and diced

coat the apples with the heavy cream. set aside.
turn the rice cooker on.

coat the rice cooker bowl with oil and brown the shallots, about 3 minutes. add the rice and saute until each grain is nearly translucent, with a white dot in the center. add white wine, if desired (i didn't) and pour in the stock, resetting the rice cooker for the porridge cycle. about half to two-thirds of the way through the porridge cycle, pour in the apples and cream and let the cycle finish. add the chicken and let it rewarm while the rice relaxes. stir in the butter, gouda, and salt or pepper to taste.

puu's WTSIM...Bread brioche cherry pudding
(adapted from the buttercup bakery cookbook)

2 cups of brioche chunks
2 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
sugar to taste
chocolate chips for topping (optional)

preheat the oven to 350.

mix the sugar into the eggs. scald the milk and cream together and temper with the egg-sugar mixture before pouring it all over the bread crumbs (which you have hopefully placed in a 2-quart casserole dish, otherwise there will now be a huge mess of crumbs and eggy liquid all over your kitchen counter). add cherries and chocolate chips and mix it all together so that the cherries and chocolate are evenly distributed.

bake for 45-50 minutes, or until done.

risotto #9 - sweet corn with black trumpets and a drizzle of white truffle oil

came home tonight and remembered the boatload of mushrooms i have hiding in the bottom drawer, so i pulled a risotto off of my “to-do” list and poured it all into the rice cooker.

yes, again. the risotto police might as well keep me in perpetual lockup.

this time, i took my inspiration from the bag full of black trumpet mushrooms i scored at the last farmers’ market and used an emeril recipe for sweet corn risotto with black trumpets and white truffle oil.

surprisingly, i really liked the addition of the corn. i used frozen white corn kernels, and they were very sweet and had a nice crunch. but i was disappointed by the risotto as a whole. it didn’t taste like much. i expected a lot more from a mushroom like a black trumpet--the last time i cooked with a black trumpet, it was a stir-fry, and the flavor was so strong i could barely eat it. this time, all i could taste was the corn and the sprinkle of white pepper i threw on. i couldn’t even taste the truffle oil, much less the rice or the trumpets. i’m curious if this is because i used vegetable stock, which in my experience doesn’t add the kind of flavor that a chicken stock would impart. but the recipe called for veggie stock, and since i had some on hand, i poured it right in.

i'm not sure how i'd do this differently, because i didn't really enjoy it enough to care.

Sweet Corn, Black Trumpet and Truffle Risotto
(from emeril lagasse via the food network website)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 ears of sweet corn, scrapped from the cob
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
12 turns fresh ground black pepper
1 lb. risotto
6 cups vegetable stock
1 lb. black trumpet mushrooms
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
¼ cup heavy cream
½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Drizzle of white truffle oil
1 black truffle

Over medium heat, in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Heat the oil for 1 minute. Add the onions, corn, salt, white pepper, and black pepper. Saute for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the risotto. Saute for 2 minutes. Stir the stock into the risotto. Bring the liquid up to a simmer, about 6 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and garlic. Simmer the risotto for 18 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining butter, cream, grated cheese and truffle oil. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and serve. Garnish with shaved truffles.

risotto #7 - duck with blood orange

happy, happy birthday to me.

i suppose i should feel guilty about it, but while everyone congratulated me on my quarter-life crisis and expressed their hope that i would be doing something fun and exciting to mark the occasion, i slogged through the long, weary wednesday by dreaming of something much more modest: a clean kitchen. a fire in my fireplace. a stack of cookbooks to peruse. my cat, taking up the entire couch. a favorite movie queued up in the DVD player.

a bowl of warm, sweet risotto. my most favorite risotto. a risotto worth saving my last blood orange of the year for, a blood orange risotto garnished with slices of roasted duck breast and a segmented orange.

i tend to save this recipe all year in eager anticipation of the all-too-brief availability of the ruby-fleshed citrus. and then, of course, i don't want to overdo a good thing, so i usually only get to taste the fruits of this particular labor once or at best twice during the season. it seemed fitting, then, to save the recipe as my reward at the end of a long, snowy birthday.

my one caveat is that i once again broke all risotto protocol and succumbed to the siren song of the rice cooker. the idea of being able to put everything into a pot and let it sort itself out while i settled myself in for the evening was just too much for me to resist!

i skipped dessert and sipped at a glass of pomegranate juice while i basked in the warm glow of the fire and the animated banter on my small screen.

risotto with duck and blood oranges
(adapted from the williams-sonoma risotto cookbook and beth hensperger's rice cooker cookbook)

2 T olive oil
1 T minced shallots
grated zest of 1 blood orange
1/2 cup arborio rice
2 cups fresh chicken stock
1 duck breast fillet, skin on, and cross-hatched with a sharp knife

first, coat the bottom of the rice cooker bowl with olive oil, and turn the cooker on. as the olive oil heats up, sweat the shallots until they start to stink up the kitchen and release their juice. add zest. stir in the rice until each grain is coated and translucent, with a small white dot in the center (about 3-5 minutes). pour in stock, and reset rice cooker for the porridge cycle. (mine has one--otherwise, reset the cooking cycle and set a timer for about 20 minutes)

check on the rice intermittently, because letting the porridge cycle complete leaves you with clumpy, goopy, soupy rice instead of tender-to-the-bite risotto. while the cooker does its thing, sear the duck breast in a skillet until the fat renders. transfer to a 400F pre-heated oven and roast for approximately 10 minutes. let the duck rest, then slice on a diagonal and remove the skin.

spoon the risotto into a bowl and garnish with the blood orange segments and the sliced duck breast.

(makes enough for just 1)

risotto #6 - rice cooker risotto with porcini, proscuitto and mozzarella

call the risotto police, 911. i have committed a crime...

came home tonight tired but still in the mood for risotto, so i decided to try once again the technique of cooking risotto with the aid of a rice cooker. mikey always tells me that this is anathema, and for a while i waffled, first disagreeing, then agreeing most heartily. tonight i found the in-between happy place where one can cook risotto properly, if one has the time, or can throw it all into the bowl and let the machine do the work. the key to my success--the first real one i can claim with the rice cooker--was cutting off the porridge cycle early instead of relying either on the complete cycle or the regular cook cycle (both of these result in cloying, thick and sticky rice soup instead of a proper risotto texture).

clearly i am not yet finished with my quest to empty the fridge. tonight’s effort used another half-quart of mikey’s stock, the rest of the fresh mozzarella, and another layer of the parma-style virginia ham masquerading as proscuitto. the porcini were a last minute inspiration for an extra flavor and some texture, and i used the mozzarella instead of parmesan, inspired by a recipe from one of my books of risottos.

risotto #5 - comfort food weekend (monday)

i decided to save my risotto for tonight since i had the luxury of a 3-day weekend and risotto is my ultimate comfort food. oh, how i love risotto. i’m sure i ate it as a child, because i’ve seen my mother cook it, but it was not until an evening on my own in rome in the campo di fiore that i really experienced the bliss that is a well-prepared dish of risotto.

it was warm outside, even warm enough to eat out, at the small, deli-like (in lighting, at least) trattoria on the edge of the campo near where the city buses stop. the waitstaff thought i was hysterical, on my own with my dog-eared paperback novel and little map of the city. i remember that i wasn’t in the mood for pasta, or meat, and that i noticed a dish of rice and mushrooms. but first i devoured a plate of parma ham and fresh mozzarella, all wrapped up with each other, while i waited for the risotto to arrive.

most people, i think, go on vacation and come back dreaming of local pastries, or gelato, or the special teas or wines or home-made pastas or baguettes or croissants or macaroons or a myriad of other things that one can seemingly experience properly only while traveling. for me, my life-changing meal was this plate of risotto--which was, incidentally, an enormous bowl that was much too much food for poor little me. and yet i was so taken with it that i could think of little else for the rest of my trip. i even went back to the same trattoria on another evening just to experience it--the creaminess, the bite, the texture of the rice--all over again.

it was nearly two years after my return that i first ventured into a kitchen to attempt the feat on my own. silly me, i thought it would be simple, the matter of less than an hour, surely, on a quiet friday night. but the risotto had the last laugh. it quite kicked my ass. there was too much of it, it was undercooked, underspiced, i had no cooking wine, and i hated onions and so declined to saute them with the aromatics. i bravely left it in the fridge for nearly a week, convinced that i would find the stomach for it, but i was forced to admit defeat when it started growing little burrs of greenish fuzz.

however, two years again since my first failed attempt, i am pleased to report that risotto served as my comfort food, my indulgence, as the cap of a 3-day weekend. with porcini mushrooms, parma ham, and fresh mozzarella, if you please.

risotto with porcini mushrooms
(adapted from williams-sonoma's italian cookbook)
8 cups chicken stock
½ cup porcini mushrooms, dried
½ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ lb. wild mushrooms, fresh, stems removed. shiitake, portobello, oyster
½ lb. white mushrooms
3 cups arborio / carnaorli rice
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
bring stock to a simmer, remove from heat.

add dried porcini. let soak for 20 minutes.
drain mushrooms through cheesecloth, reserving the stock.
return stock to saucepan and simmer over medium heat.
maintain at a gentle simmer, low heat.
chop dried porcini.

heat olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
add fresh mushrooms and cook until softened (about 5 minutes).
add porcini and 1/2 C of the simmering stock and cook until thickened (about 5 minutes).
using a slotted spoon, transfer the mushrooms to a bowl. set aside.

add the rice to the same pan.
stir over medium heat until each grain is translucent with a white dot in the center (about 3 minutes).
add the wine. stir until completely absorbed.

add the stock 1 ladleful at a time, stirring frequently. wait until stock is absorbed before adding next ladleful. reserve 1/4 C of stock for the end.

after about 18 minutes, add the mushrooms and extra ladleful of stock.
cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are heated (2-3 minutes).

remove from heat and stir in the butter and reserved 1/4 C of stock.

risotto #3 - chicken confit

another saturday, another risotto. i wish i could have tried the confit with duck fat, but the olive oil was light and unintrusive, and it blended really well with the risotto. the texture of the rice was a bit different--presumably because i used olive oil instead of butter--and the rice actually reheated well! the one off note was the carrot. in future, i should only add carrot if i have fresh ones from the market, so as to borrow their sweetness and easy texture.

weekend cooking roundup

hit up whole foods friday night for some basic necessities to go with what i already had in the fridge to make a weekend wonderland of meals. started off friday night with a butterflied stuffed pork loin. usually i like to do it with curried apples and cherries, but i forgot to get the apples (i mean, i realized as i was leaving, but didn’t have the heart to go back through the line), so i made it with cranberries sauteed in curry powder and a dash of fresh-squeezed orange. i fear i overcooked it a bit, but my modified couscous salad recipe was an excellent side dish.



i wanted to use up the navel oranges that have been sitting in the crisper bin of my fridge, so in addition to using them to sprinkle over the cranberries and couscous, i made the orange marmalade cake out of my new kitchen diaries book. the marmalade was excellent, but i detest the candied peels that are hidden in the jell, and i think the cake is a touch too sweet. but it was a lovely dessert with some chocolate madelines (enhanced by zest from one of the oranges)



the madelines were perfect. much better than the last batch i made, where i used the splenda and accidentally used twice as much as necessary. they were hard and sweet and foul. but not these. these were lovely. and i ate at the table like a civilized person. the cake and the madelines finished baking just as i finished my pork. rounded out the night with the end of pride and prejudice. perfect.

saturday i took it easy all day, even though i had some baking i had originally planned to do. i did whip up some pizza dough, and had wanted to make a chocolate cherry bread (so that i could do a bread pudding for dessert tonight, sunday), but that was before i realized that i’d need to cool the candied cherries for 8 hours. so i worked most of the afternoon and then started off with some of the dessert--juicing blood oranges for a second go at the sorbet, and starting to simmer the ragu for the risotto. it smelled (and tasted) so devine--and the risotto was much easier to cook this way, although i had serious doubts at first (even in spite of the devine-ness of the smell of the simmering ragu). very gradually, the risotto began to absorb the stock and ragu until it was cooked to perfection. i regret to say that i didn’t quite get to enjoy dinner the way i had planned--i got painfully, violently ill just as i finished the risotto. my only thought is that maybe the cheese? it was a bit old, and i imagine that it may have smelled off. or perhaps the chicken i used for the ragu...i had a lot leftover, and i think this type of risotto might actually reheat well, but i am afraid.



i used the last egg, and a few drops of milk leftover from lunch (macaroni and cheese, but it was too liquid-y and had too much cayenne, which even then didn’t stop me from eating every bite over the course of the afternoon), and some of the cream to make a single chocolate pot de creme. it was basically a heated chocolate pudding. i added some extra chocolate, which was a mistake because the chocolate was too strong. and i think i should have added a dash of vanilla. but after the sick, it was basically all i had for dinner!

tuffled egg risotto

so, as beautiful as it looks and as delicious as it sounds, i was not a fan of the truffled egg risotto. the texture with the eggs was definitely interesting and i was fascinated by the idea of making a little paste with the egg yolk and the truffle oil (i used the good stuff from fauchon, and i totally noticed a difference in taste from the chemical stuff i got from whole foods), but it was still too rich, and it left a bizarre taste in my mouth.

i should mention that i made the risotto in the rice cooker, but i really think that didn’t affect what was going on here...the texture is NOT as authentic and al dente as a proper pot of risotto is, but the convenience was lovely and it was still more-or-less edible...the problem was definitely the truffles and the eggs. i think it’s quite possible that i don’t like truffle oil! i hated it when i made the macaroni with it; i could barely eat the macaroni. and despite the considerably higher quality of tonight’s ingredients (i used not only the fauchon truffle oil but the italian olive oil that mikey brought back) and a nicely flavored mushroom stock instead of chicken, i could still barely eat it. i ended up throwing the majority of it away, cringing with every movement. i HATE throwing food away.

other things that got thrown out today--the blood orange sorbet i made a few weeks ago. it was too bitter, for starters, and i got too eager with the lime juice. i didn’t put enough sugar in, and i’m convinced that the texture was off because the incredible sorbet i got at etc etc for ron’s birthday was in the italian style--that is, with some milk or cream, almost like a sherbet. i’m tempted to try it again, this time adapting a sherbet recipe instead of the sorbet recipe. i got a fresh lot of oranges today and i still have others in the fridge. i think i’ll be glad i did, what with the deep freeze in california and all that.

made chocolate grapes for dessert. incredible. but next time i want to use red grapes.

tried another loaf of bread today--it was a bread kind of day--the proscuitto-stuffed bread. i had, again, really good ingredients (including the italian olive oil), but i think i didn’t put in enough proscuitto. the bread has a nice crumb, and brie spread over it like butter, and i love the idea of making a creamy mushroom soup for lunch tomorrow and dipping this bread into it. i just wish i could taste the proscuitto!

finally made a log of cookie dough today. KA chocolate chip, which is definitely my standard as far as chocolate chip recipes go. tomorrow i might do some brownie bites.

break fast

a bit late, i fear, but i wanted to put something into my journal about how much fun i had cooking after i got home from shul on yom kippur. i literally spent the entire afternoon hunched over the stove/oven, trying some new things and making good on old failures.

for example, saturday night i successfully made risotto for the SECOND time. this time i made it with red wine and beef, and it was quite tasty (although, as usual, it could do with more salt). i’m, like, afraid of salt. i also, at long last, gave the cannoli ice cream another go--i even walked all the way down to vaccarro’s in union station for cannoli shells--and even though my ice cream mixer pooped out halfway through, it was still completely delicious. i made the wise decision to omit the anise seeds this time.

sunday i fooled around with leftover asian stuff from the freezer--some of the wontons, one of my spring rolls, and made some donburri with a batch of honey mushrooms from the farmers market.

but back to monday. i spent the afternoon experimenting with my first pot of chicken stock. there is a lot of room for improvement, alas, but at least i’ve finally tried it. i had a difficult time skimming it properly, and now that i’ve had it in the frige and freezer, i’ve noticed a layer of fat that’s congealed on the top. ew. i’ve been cooking with it anyway.

the high point of monday HAD to be my new coq au vin recipe from the braises and stews book. much better than my stovetop martha stewart recipe, and completely made by the farm fresh stuff i threw in: baby carrots and potatoes, with the leftover brunelli di montalcino from saturday’s risotto. easy and to-die-for delicious. i even got to use some of the fresh chicken stock. the carrots in particular were heavenly, esepcially the way they blended into the baby yukon gold potatoes.



i also gave the challah another try, this time mixing all of the ingredients in the CORRECT order, and i used my mixer instead of the bread machine. this, i think, was a wise choice. i’ll definitely try a regular challah in the bread machine, but next time i try a special one, i will do it properly with the mixer. it took forever to rise, nearly twice as long as the recipe predicted in some cases, but was sweet and delicious and made, a week later, some of the yummiest french toast ever. i also used it all week with some pear-berry jam from, of course, the farmers market.