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.