Lemony Zucchini Risotto

K came up to visit this weekend. We had an awesome time hanging out at the park all day at a bluegrass festival. We stayed until our ears were full, and then we decided to come home and fill our tummies. I found this online, but it's from Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook.

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 45 to 60 minutes

Risotto can be almost meager or incredibly luxurious; this one manages to be both, as the grated zucchini mostly melts away, leaving behind a creamy richness that doesn’t depend on tons of rice or mounds of cheese. Parboiling the brown rice as directed in Step 1 helps the rice absorb water quickly and evenly.

• Salt
• 1 cup short-grain brown rice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• Black pepper
• 1⁄2 cup dry white wine or water
• 3 to 5 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
• 4 small or 2 large zucchini (about 1 1⁄2 pounds), grated
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, optional
• 1 tablespoon butter or additional olive oil, optional
• 1⁄2 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish, optional

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt it. Stir in the brown rice, adjust the heat so that the water bubbles steadily, and cook, without stirring, for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain well.
2. Put the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is glossy and coated with oil, just a couple of minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add the wine. Stir and let the liquid bubble away.
3. Begin to add the stock, about 1⁄2 cup at a time, stirring after each addition and every minute or so. When the stock is just about evaporated, add more. The mixture should be neither soupy nor dry. Keep the heat medium to medium-high and stir frequently.
4. After about 15 minutes of adding stock, stir in the zucchini and cook, stirring, until it releases its liquid and the mixture again becomes dry. Begin tasting the rice about 5 minutes later; you want it to be tender but with still a tiny bit of crunch. It could take as long as 45 minutes to reach this stage. When it does, stir in the lemon zest and juice, and the Parmesan, butter, and basil if you’re using them. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve immediately, garnished with additional basil if you like.

Lemony Zucchini Risotto with Fried Eggs. When the risotto is almost done, put a medium skillet over medium heat for about a minute. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter and swirl it around the pan. When the oil is hot, crack 4 eggs into the skillet. When the whites become opaque, a minute later, turn the heat to low and sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper. Cook until the yolks are set as you like them and the whites are completely firm; cut through the uncooked parts, if necessary, to encourage the still-liquid white to spread over the surface of the pan. Put 1 fried egg on top of each serving of risotto.

RESULTS: We both thought the flavor of this was spot on. Lemon + basil + Parmesan + shallots = yummy. (We used a shallot instead of an onion because we halved the recipe, and that's what I had on hand anyway.) The egg was also great. However, we found it took considerably longer than 60 minutes to make. After an hour and a half, we decided that it was good enough and ate it a bit closer to crunchy than al dente. From that, we have a couple notes: The first is to really par boil the rice for longer at the beginning (we did use the brown rice. This wouldn't be a problem if you used arborio rice). We only did it for 10 minutes, so try 15 or maybe even 20. The second is that if you do need to use more liquid than the recipe calls for, just use more water, not more stock. It gets more salty the more stock you add, and we found that even with an extra cup of stock (and trust me, I put in more than just one cup of extra liquid) it crossed the line from good salty to too salty. Otherwise, a great recipe! 

Savory Rice Bowl

Ingredients:
    * 1 cup short-grain brown rice
    * 6 cups water
    * Regular or low-sodium soy sauce, for serving
    * Toasted sesame oil, for serving
    * Sesame and seaweed rice condiment (available at Asian markets), for serving
    * Finely chopped scallions, for serving
    * Finely chopped kimchi, for serving
    * Finely shredded nori, for serving

Directions:

1. Rinse the brown rice, if desired.
2. Combine the rice with 5 cups of water in a large saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low; stir, cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Ideally, the rice should have a porridgelike consistency.
3. Uncover; if you still see a fair amount of liquid in the saucepan, cook for 15 to 30 minutes. Alternatively, if the rice seems dry, add as much of the remaining 1 cup of water as needed; cook for 15 to 30 minutes (on low or medium-low heat) to achieve a porridgelike consistency.
4. To serve, divide the rice among individual bowls. Top with dashes of the soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, and with sprinkles of the sesame-seaweed condiment, scallions, kimchi and nori.

RESULTS: OK, so, my apologies. I found this recipe in the Washington Post food section, but it's actually, uh, from Gweneth Paltrow's cookbook. I KNOW! Ridiculous. And I'm not actually sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, all you're really doing it cooking brown rice until it's mush. I mean, if you notice, all the other ingredients, other than rice and water, are toppings. And it took a really really long time to make, and I'm not usually very patient when it comes to meals. I'm ok with something taking a long time if that's more or less active time, but just having a pot simmer on the stove for two hours, with nothing to do? Blech. On the other hand, the long cooking time made the rice actually really refreshing. It tasted cleaner. I ate it with some seaweed leftover from homemade sushi (nori), but the next time I make it, I plan on also using some homemade pickles slices.

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto

I finally got to the market early enough today to find asparagus. Thusly, this from Alice. Good ol' Alice...

4 servings

Snap off the ends of 1 lb asparagus. Cut spears on the diagonal into 1/4-inch pieces. Remove the zest from 1 lemon and juice. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Ass 1 small onion, diced fine. Cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add 1.5 cups risotto rice. Cook the rice, stirring occasionally, until translucent,* about 4 minutes. Do not let brown.

Meanwhile, bring 5 cups chicken broth to a boil.

Stir the lemon zest into the rice, then pour in 1/2 cup dry white wine. Cook, stirring, until all the wine is absorbed. Add 1 cup of broth and cook at a vigorous simmer, stirring occasionally. When rice starts to get thick, pour in another 1/2 cup of broth and add a little salt, depending on the saltiness of the broth. Keep adding broth, 1/2 at a time, every time the rice thickens. Do not let the rice dry out. After 12 minutes, stir in the asparagus. Cook until the rice is tender but still has a firm core, about 20-30 minutes in all.

When rice is about done, stir in half the lemon juice and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Stir vigorously to develop the creamy starch. Taste for salt and lemon juice and adjust as needed. Turn off the heat, let the risotto sit uncovered for 2 minutes, then serve. Add a splash of broth if the rice becomes too thick.

RESULTS: ok, first of all, whenever I see a recipe that calls for a heavy-bottomed pan, I get "Fat-bottomed girls" by Queen stuck in my head. And now you will, too, ha, HA!

I like making risotto because I think my culinary Achilles heel is that I lack patience. Risotto sort of seems to demand patience to get the best texture. Today I was making this at the same time I was making some Cheese Straws, so my attention was split, which may explain why the risotto turned out so great today. It was neither mushy, nor was it crunchy in the middle. It was perfect. Woo-hoo! Oh, I also liked the flavor a lot. Things I changed: left out the cheese, didn't have a lemon so I used lemon juice at the end, no wine, and I only added the butter at the end, I used olive oil at the beginning. Also, the farmer's market had onions, but they were the young onions with green stalks still attached. I wanted to use the greens, so I added those, chopped up, when I added the asparagus at the end. I might have also gotten by with adding it later, but not earlier.

*I think this must be a typo, rice turns opaque, not translucent. It starts translucent. Or am I misunderstanding the terms?

Easy Fried Rice

Here's another one of those simple recipes, perfect for an easy post-election dinner (and using the Chinese take out rice from the election-viewing party the night before!). This is from the Washington Post's series, "Cooking for One" which is convenient, because that's what I'm doing. As you may guess, it's also a kitchen-sink recipe. Once you know the basics, you can substitute whatever you happen to have in the kitchen at the time. For instance, while it calls for red bell pepper and cauliflower, I used thawed uncooked shrimp, and frozen peas. Don't stress...just eyeball the amounts. And I didn't have any scallions, but I did have some leftover fresh parsley courtesy of last week's hummus recipe for some additional aromatic support.

Summary:
This preparation uses half the amount of rice typically called for in fried-rice recipes. The cauliflower and red bell pepper may be replaced by mushrooms, broccoli, summer squash or zucchini, but in that case the stir-fry time might need to be adjusted. This stir-fry is best accomplished in a wok, but you can also do it in a large nonstick saute pan; it will take a little longer and won't go as smoothly. (Bethie's note: I just got this terrific non-stick wok from Ikea. It's awesome and waaaay too big for my tiny stove. Get the more expensive one from Ikea, not the cheapo one)

1 serving (Beth again....ahhhh, I think 1 serving is appropriate if that serving happens to be for a giant. So much for the "cooking for one" idea)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable or peanut oil (or canola. Heart-health, people)
1 medium clove garlic, cut into thin slices
1 1-inch piece ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 scallions, white and light-green parts, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup cold, cooked brown or white rice
1 cup cauliflower florets, cut into small pieces
1/2 medium red bell pepper, stemmed and seeded, then cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 1/2 cup)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce (I used a lot more then just 1 teaspoon...)
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Heat a 14-inch, flat-bottomed wok over high heat for several minutes, until a bead of water dropped in vaporizes within a couple of seconds.

Swirl in the oil to coat the sides and bottom, then add the garlic, ginger and scallions, and use a heat-proof spatula to stir-fry for about 20 seconds. Add the rice, breaking it up with your fingers as you toss it into the wok. Use the spatula to keep the rice moving for 2 to 3 minutes, scooping and tossing and pressing the rice against the bottom and sides of the wok to sear it.

Add the cauliflower and red bell pepper; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until they slightly soften.

Make a well in the mixture to expose the bottom of the wok. Break the egg into a small bowl, then pour into the center of the wok; immediately break it up with the spatula, then stir-fry to incorporate it throughout the rice and vegetables. Cook for about a minute or until the egg is almost cooked through (but still a little wet).

Add the soy sauce and pepper to taste; stir-fry for 30 seconds or so. Serve immediately.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072200523.html?sid=ST2008072202527&s_pos=

Recipe Source:
From Food editor Joe Yonan; loosely based on a recipe in "The Breath of a Wok," by Grace Young (Simon & Schuster, 2004).


Results:
So, this is the 2nd time I've made this recipe, and it's just the best comfort food out there.
Note on take-out rice, from the WashPost: According to the Food and Drug Administration, a bacterium common in rice makes it particularly important that, once cooked, the rice be consumed or refrigerated within two hours and used within three days. Japanese cookbook author Elizabeth Andoh recommends freezing cooked rice for up to a month in resealable plastic food storage bags. To defrost the rice, place the opened bag on a microwave-safe plate; heat on high for 60 to 90 seconds or until the rice has thawed.

One final word on the Washington Post website: the first time I made this recipe, I was trying to locate it on the website by trying to find a way to search through all of the Cooking for One series. I wanted both the recipe and the accompanied article. I did not succeed because they hadn't grouped all the recipes with the articles and hadn't group all of the Cooking for One recipes together. It was a particularly dull day, so I emailed the helpful Help people for the Food section to explain my problem. Well, wouldn't you know it, but 20 minutes later, they not only emailed me the articles I was looking for, BUT ALSO said they would perform the exact task that I had been lamenting on it absence. So here, in all it's shining glory, is the link to all dozen or so of the articles and recipes written under the column of Cooking for One: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2008/09/12/LI2008091202786.html

Forget voting, this makes me feel special.