Risotto

Well it seems that I was a bit overconfident in my last post; I havn't been cooking at all. Sure there's been plenty to write about but I can't seem to muster the energy to post photos.

Last week my school break ended and in my second class I learned to make basic risotto.

Risotto is often made with a short grain rice from Italy called Arborio. After sautéing onions in your choice of fat the rice is added and brown slightly. Warm flavourful liquid is added; thus you should have an additional pot on the heat to keep the liquid warm. Maintain a simmer and continue to stir the rice. Once the liquid has nearly all gone add more and continue to stir. At this point you might add different ingredients and flavourings. Cooking the rice slowly and maintaining the heat will coax the starch from the rice. Risotto is served al denté, thus other foods must be timed to finish with it and not vice versa. Risotto is also a very slack dish; there's lots of liquid, its creamy almost like rice porridge.

For traditional risotto, the sort I made in class, parmesan cheese and butter are added at the end; make sure to do this off the heat since the sauce may break due to the quick addition of a large amount of fat. Make sure to add salt and pepper to taste. The ratio of liquid to rice is something like 5 to 1 but this really depends on the evaporation. Two factors influence evaporation: area of cooking vassal and heat; be mindful, you can not rush risotto.