Risotto Primavera

After years of thinking it was way to hard to make myself, I finally decided to try my hand at making risotto.  There are so many different ways to do it, but I finally landed on a vegetarian recipe so that my beautiful wife could also partake in this meal.  Chose a Risotto Primavera, which essentially boiled down (ha ha....foreshadowing) risotto with a bunch of veggies and cheese mixed into it.  Lots of consideration (I'll say too much) went into figuring out what type of rice I was supposed to use in order to make the risotta.  A quick google search will tell you any type of italian short grain rice will work, but I wanted the best.  I scoured the net for blog posts, discussion boards and recipe sites and finally landed on my rice type.  And then all that work went to waste went I went to the store and settled on Arborio because that's all they had......womp womp.   In hindsight, the rice type probably doesn't make that big of a difference (Sorry to any actual chefs who read this and whole wholeheartedly disagree).  End result was a gooey cheesy rice filled with fresh veggies, a dish that could easily serve as a main.  I'm definitely on board to start making more and more risottos.  I wouldn't be shocked it they become a standard side to some upcoming meals.

Risotto Primavera

• Butter
• Olive Oil
• 3 whole Carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 Yellow Onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup Cauliflower Pieces
• 1/2 cup Broccoli Pieces
• Salt
• 3/2 cups Arborio Rice
• 3/2 cups dry White Wine
• 5 cups Vegetable Broth
• 1/2 cup Frozen Peas
• 4 Green Onions, chopped
• 4 oz Goat Cheese
• 1/2 Parmesan Cheese, grated
• Sprig of Parsley, for show

This recipe starts with the slight cooking of all the vegetables.  The point is to start the veggies cooking, without fully cooking so that when they get added back in they don't just turn to straight mush in the risotto as it finishes.  Started with the cooking onions and carrots in some butter and a bit of oil, and then slowly added the cauliflower and broccoli pieces (And salt for seasoning) once they were about 1/2 way cooked.  Only cooked the full mixture of a couple minutes, just to get the cooking process started, keeping in mind that once they get hot and taken off the heat, they'll continue to cook and then some more once back in the rice.  I underestimated the cooking time of the veggies, so they turned out somewhat crunch, but I always think a little crunchy is better than a little soggy so I was happy.

Using the same pan, vegetables removed and put on a plate, I got some more butter (sensing a theme with risotto...more butter more butter) and oil going in a pan and threw in the rice.  Getting the rice mixed in and cooking until there was just little dots of white in the middle of the rice.  Then comes the wine, 1/2 cup into the rice, just to loosen things up a little.  After a bit of simmering, I started putting in the vegetable broth one cup at a time and let the mixture boil down (foreshadowing complete).  Kept reducing the broth, adding more, reducing again, until the 5 cups of broth were gone.  I should note here that during my research, I discovered for risotto you should add hot broth, what for I didn't figure out, but I made sure my broth was warming in a sauce pan before adding in.  After adding another 2 half cups of wine and letting reduce down, I added in my green onions, frozen peas and cheese and let it all set in, letting the rice really take shape.  I then added back in the cooked veggies, mixed it all together and let it sit for a couple minutes while I sat debating whether pouring a glass of wine late at night would be a good or bad thing.  Proactive Mark prevailed with a leading argument of work in the morning.

All in all, the dish was really simple to make, the hardest part being simply the waiting game, as getting the 5 cups of broth to absorb into the rice took a solid 45-50 minutes.  Should probably stop making such large portions when I do these blogs I guess.

Beef Rouladen with Shredded Cabbage and Roasted Potatoes

After a short (read: way too long) hiatus, I've finally returned to making some fancy weekend foods and sharing the results with the world.  To my loyal fan(s) out there, apologies for the delay.  This week I kicked off the blogging by preparing a neat German dish of Beef Rouladen.  Having never had or even seen this dish before, one might find themselves asking; why?  Well, short and simple, it popped up on a reddit feed a couple weeks ago, and looked cool while also looking super simple to make.  And I do like simple things that end up looking like they require a lot of work.  All in all, it was a fairly straight forward dish, and I think turned out looking fairly tasty.

Beef Rouladen
-2 slices of beef -Dijon Mustand-Bacon-Paprika-Sliced Onion-Sliced Dill Pickle-1 tbsp Vegetable Oil-2 tbsp Butter-1/4 Cup Flour-3 Cups Chicken Broth-Salt and Pepper

As I mentioned earlier, the beauty of this meal is in how easy it was to prepare.  For the meat, I simply laid the slices of beef out and seasoned with enough salt and pepper.  How much is enough you ask?  I have no idea.  I always seem to put enough that I know I put salt and pepper, without it looking like it's more seasoning than meat.  I then spread on the Dijon Mustard across the beef, and then layered on 2 strips of bacon along the meat making sure that the bacon ends just about a half inch before either side of the meat so that when I rolled the beef it didn't awkwardly stick out.  Next, I spread the sliced onions and dill pickle across the meat, making sure to leave only one slice of dill pickle at the beginning, middle and end.  Didn't want to overload with dill pickle, as I've heard dill can really over power a dish.  I then wrapped and tied the meat into a roll, and proceeded to sear the meat in a hot pot with vegetable oil, just to brown the outside.  Once browned, I then removed the meat and replaced with butter and flour in order to get a nice roux going.  I added in the broth and cranked up the heat to get a good simmer going  and let the gravy reduce just a bit.  I then popped the meat back into the gravy to let it cook for about 50-60 minutes.  

Roasted Potatoes

-2 cups diced potatoes

-Cinnamon

-Brown Sugar

-Avocado Oil

My favorite way to have potatoes.... smothered in sugar. haha.  Really easy recipe here, I simply turned the over up to 450F, tossed the potatoes into a roasting pan with some oil, sugar and cinnamon, and let the oven do it's thing for about an hour or so, or until the potatoes are cooked.  I did mix them around every 10-15 in order to make sure all the potatoes got coated in the sugar/spice mixture, but other than that, these potatoes are virtually hands off cooking.  And super tasty.

For the plating of the dish, I went "all out".  In the sense that I bought a fancy bowl to present it in.  That's right, no more simple plates for this blog.  I laid down a layer of the sauteed green cabbage (Yes, I know I didn't describe the cooking of the cabbage above.... nor will I.  Apparently this recipe stays a secret), and then placed to of the meat pieces front facing and smothered with the gravy it was cooked in.  I didn't know what to do with the potatoes, and I basically just dumped a bunch of them behind the meat.  Probably should have thought it out a little more, but I think the dish turned out looking half way decent.