Risotto: The Second Coming

All day, I complained about how tired I was. I slumped. I hunched. I slunk around corners, rubbing my eyes and checking the clock. I drank caffeinated coffee, caffeinated tea, and (horrors!) Mountain Dew.



So what on earth would possess me, on a day as energy-less as today, to make risotto?

There is no shortage of quick and easy carbs in my pantry: spaghetti, cous cous, Success Rice (yes, I sometimes use Success Rice). But despite the availability of all those, I chose to make risotto.

It's basically the polar opposite of Success Rice. And those of you who were there for my Risotto Disaster a few months ago know my history with this starchy little devil.

Read on to see if I destroyed it...or coaxed deliciousness out of every grain....

CARAMELIZED ONION RISOTTO & ITALIAN SAUSAGE WITH TOMATOES AND BROCCOLI

***As a preface: I am completely aware of my recent obsession with all of the above ingredients. But let me defend myself: first of all, hot Italian sausage is one of the top five most delicious foods in the world (you heard it here first, people). Second, eating broccoli alongside anything makes me feel less guilty for whatever I'm eating (i.e., sausage). A culinary Hail Mary, if you will. And caramelized onions...well, there's just not a whole lot I can even say about them. How amazing they taste in or on just about everything really just says it all.***

INGREDIENTS

1/2 large white onion
1 c. dry Arborio rice
one 32-oz. container chicken broth
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
3 hot Italian sausages
1 head broccoli
1 can Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper
1 tsp. sugar
grated parmesan for garnish (optional)

STEP ONE:

Thinly slice the onion and chop the broccoli into smallish florets.

Remove the sausage from the casing and brown it over medium-high heat until almost cooked through (i.e., just a tiny bit pink inside). Remove from the pan and set aside, leaving the drippings in the pan. Add a T. of butter to the pan drippings (don't freak out, just put it in the pan, you'll thank me later).

Add the onion to the pan and cook over medium heat (add a little salt and pepper) until the onion is caramelized. Throw in a pinch of sugar at the end to help it get brown. When they're done, set aside and keep warm.



STEP TWO:

Make the risotto. You're supposed to use hot stock for this, but I never do. I just add it cold or room temperature, and this time around, it came out fine. First, saute the rice grains in a T. of butter and a T. of oil until they're coated and beginning to turn translucent.

NOTE: This is where you would normally add about a 1/2 c. of dry white wine, but I didn't have any, so I just skipped it.

Then slowly add the broth, about a 1/2 cupful at a time, and stir the rice until the batch of stock is almost absorbed. Then add mroe. Then stir more. Continue to do this (and trust me when I say you need to seriously stand there and stir it - you do not want to be scrubbing glued-on risotto off your pots). You'll know it's done when the grains are al dente (like pasta), and there is enough liquid in the mixture to allow the risotto to slightly run on the plate when you serve it. If you can't serve it immediately, put a ld on it, and stir in a tad more liquid when you reheat it. When it's done, fold in the caramelized onions, add the lemon juice, and season to taste.







STEP THREE:

Pour the can of diced tomatoes and all the juices into a large saucepan. Bring it up to medium-high heat, and add the browned sausage and the broccoli florets. Cook, covered, for 5-7 minutes, until the broccoli is just tender.




STEP FOUR:

Place some risotto in a shallow serving bowl, and ladle some of the sausage-broccoli-tomato mixture on top. Sprinkle with a little parmesan if desired.




ROSS: When I first saw this, it looked like ingredients that would not go together very well, but I'm impressed at how well it's all working together. The risotto is cooked perfectly, and that's the key to the dish. Even though I wanted to use my sausages for sausage sandwiches [pouty frown]...

MY VOTE ON MY DISH: I give it 7 stars. Most of those stars are for getting the risotto right this time (wonders!). It was not sticky, gluey, and unpalatable, like last time. It was al dente, but still creamy and flavorful. I'm forgoing the other three stars due to ingredient overuse (sausage) and lack of creativity (i.e., pouring some stuff over a bowl of carbs). Although I must say, on a cold night, there aren't too many things more satisfying than a bowl of fresh risotto, spicy sausage, and homey tomato sauce. It was a tasty Winter treat - and, despite the risotto-stirring ball-and-chain, very easy to make.

Thanks for reading! Heads up for a blog-on-the-road brunch post soon, and a salmon post (this goes out to you, Andrea :-). Later, friends.

A New Year's Two-For-One Special

I love when I turn on my camera (in today's case, to document the first wave of the impending blizzard, which is without a doubt a sign of the apocalypse) and find photos of a meal that I captured, then forgot about. It's exciting - except of course, when I made it so many days or weeks ago that I have no idea what went into it in the first place. So, enjoy my haphazard recreation of roast beef (the cut is anyone's guess, but you can bet it was a cheap one) with a mustardy brown sauce, broccoli, and sweet potato mash.

On the other hand, there's nothing like a January blizzard in Chicago to make you crave - and defiantly cook - summer grill food. In tonight's case, BBQ and caramelized onion turkey burgers. Or, as I affectionately call them, Turkey Burgers That Don't Totally Suck. I mean, am I the only one who sees a turkey burger on a restaurant menu and has to fight the urge to rip the menu to shreds with my steak knife? Most are dry, flavorless, and uninspired. Hopefully, my BBQ burger, featuring SmokeDaddy BBQ sauce, will give you a hankering for a patty of something other than ground chuck (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I'll just get the forgotten roast beef out of the way first, since I can't accurately list the ingredients, their approximate measurements, or how long I cooked things.

ROAST BEEF WITH BROWN SAUCE, BROCCOLI, AND SWEET POTATO MASH
GUESSTIMATE AT INGREDIENTS

1 large piece of beef, an economical (tough) cut
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, steak rub or other dry herb mixture
olive oil and butter

Dijon mustard
brown sugar
red wine
balsamic vinegar
beef stock?
fruit preserves or chutney?

1 head broccoli, cut into pieces

1 very large sweet potato
milk, butter, salt, nutmeg

Heat butter and oil in a large nonstick skillet until foam subsides.



Season the beef on all sides with salt, pepper, and any other dry seasonings you want. (Steak rubs work well for this sort of thing.)



Sear the roast on high heat on all sides until a brown crust forms.




Make a sauce using red wine, vinegar, stock, fruit preserves,brown sugar, and mustard. I'm not kidding when I say you can just put a couple spoonfuls of each of these in a pot, heat them up and whisk them, and you will have a sauce that's pretty tasty. I don't blame you if you don't trust me, though.

Pour the sauce over the beef. Cook at 325 for about 3-4 hours. (This, by the way, is not what I did. I remember eating this beef, if not cooking it, and it was really tough. That's why, if you buy cheap, tougher cuts of meat, you should have the time on hand to roast or braise them for a long time. Trust me on this. This is why poor Italian grandmas never left the kitchen - they were braising the gristly parts of the skinny cow until it tasted just as delicious as the fatty, expensive parts.)



Boil broccoli in a pot of salted water until just tender, about 3-4 minutes. Do not overcook.



Add milk, butter, and nutmeg to the hot sweet potato and mix until semi-smooth and creamy.






Here's what Ross had to say about the meal (I made the wise decision to save this in my Stickies application):

"It's a 'meat and potatoes' meal for a meat and potatoes football team: broccoli - all about a tough defense. You got your gold potatoes and your black steak. Well, not black. Black and gold, like the Stillers! The sauce was what dreams are made of."

It would help to mention that we (apparently) were watching a Steelers game during dinner.

He went on to say, "The best part was one of the edge pieces. The middle wasn't that great, but I can chew through anything with my remarkably sharp incisors." What a guy.

Like I said before, just make sure you cook the beef for long enough, on a gentle enough temperature, to make it really tender. The easy weeknight way to do this would be to put it in a crockpot and leave it on low while you're at work. Crockpots, I might add, are completely underrated. 10 minutes of prep in the morning while you have your coffee, and you get to come home to a delicious hunk of meat in its own gravy.

Moving on to a different variation on the age-old hunk of meat: my BBQ Turkey Burgers That Miraculously Do Not Suck At All. Or: Further Proof That BBQ Sauce is Infallible.



INGREDIENTS

1 lb. ground turkey (get the kind with a little bit of fat - I usually buy 90% lean for burgers)
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper
ground cayenne pepper, a few dashes
Pam spray
sliced pepper Jack cheese
whole wheat burger buns

1 large yellow onion
2 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
a couple pinches sugar

BBQ sauce (I used SmokeDaddy)
mayo (unless you hate mayo)

1 head fresh broccoli

5-6 carrots, the cute kind with the green parts still attached. Why? Because I think they're better.
squeeze of honey (I used some homemade pear honey my aunt made, but the kind in the bear is just fine)
1 T. butter

STEP ONE

Thinly slice the onions. In a nonstick skillet, heat 2 T. olive oil. Cook the onions, with a little salt and pepper, over medium heat, stirring and flipping every now and again, but not too much, until they are deeply brown. When they're about 2-3 minutes from being done, throw in the pinch of sugar to help them caramelize. Set aside and keep warm.







STEP TWO

In a large bowl, mix the ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper (to taste) until combined. Shape into patties and set aside.



STEP THREE

Heat a grill pan or a nonstick skillet, with a light spray of Pam, over medium-high heat. Cook the burgers about 4-5 minutes on each side. When they're about 2 minutes form being done, place a slice of cheese on top of each and cook until burgers are cooked through (this is not the time for medium-rare burgers), and cheese is melted.





STEP FOUR

Boil some salted water and cook broccoli until it's just tender. Meanwhile, thinly slice the carrots on the bias. In a separate nonstick pan, heat 1 T. butter over medium-high heat. Saute the carrots, seasoned with a little salt, for a few minutes, then add a few tablespoons honey. Continue to cook in the honey and butter until carrots are just tender, about 5-6 minutes.







STEP FIVE

Spread some mayo (if you're going for it) and some BBQ sauce on a bun. Place a burger on top, and top with some of the caramelized onions. Serve with the carrots and broccoli. Enjoy!



I'll give this the official Fearless Cook rundown.

From Ross: "The carrots are amazing. Best carrots I've ever had. Can I have another burger?"

MY VOTE ON MY DISH: Hmmm...I give myself 8 stars. I have made turkey burgers before, but not like this. They were juicy, flavorful, and I actually didn't feel like a cow eating it - there was nothing about them that was suspect. I, too, agree that the carrots were magical. I've never been a huge fan of cooked carrots (I love them raw), but I will definitely be making them this way again. I felt like I was eating an indulgent, carby side dish, but really I was just having another veggie! If I had to change one thing, I might actually ditch the cheese (and no, I have not been abducted by aliens). Despite my cheese obsession, I have to say it didn't really add anything to the burgers. The BBQ sauce and onions were such powerful flavors that the little old slice of cheese just couldn't make himself heard.

Overall, it was a great dinner. Almost makes me forget about the snow...



Almost.

Cheers to 2009! Hope it's off to a great start. Thanks for reading!

It's beginning to look a lot like party dip

Snow outside my apartment window can only mean one thing...holiday party season has arrived!

Champagne cocktails galore, roasted nuts in every bowl, and spinach dip as far as the eye can see...and don't even get me started on the plethora of holiday cookies. Ahhh...it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Unless, of course, you're saddled with more potluck Evites than you can count and have the cooking skills of an eight year old.

Well, lucky for you, you read this blog! I have a few go-to things I tote to parties (thus, the season of schlepping through the snow begins...sigh) that are always crowd-pleasers.

I even tested a new recipe for a party this weekend, and it got rave reviews (and was completely demolished by the end of the night - always a good sign).

My old standby is a recipe my BBF Alisha gave me back in college. Hence, I have always called it Alisha's Taco Dip. Not only is it the crack cocaine of dip (seriously, people will just stand around the hors d'ouevres table and nosh ravenously), it's super fast and easy and requires ingredients you could probably grab at a 7-11 in a pinch.



ALISHA'S TACO DIP

1 package cream cheese
1 16-oz. container sour cream
1 package taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
shredded Mexican blend cheese

These are the basic ingredients - you can add any number of things to it - pimientos, jalapenos, black olives, tomatoes - whatever you want.

Just mix all the ingredients together except the cheese, spread in a casserole dish, cover with a layer of the cheese, and bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips.

The recipe that was such a hit recently is a Cheese Dip Pine Cone - very seasonal. I found a recipe in a magazine that inspired it, and just modified it to fit my tastes. The basic idea is that you shape cheese dip into an oval, and stick toasted sliced almonds in it to resemble a pine cone (a few girls at the party asked if it was supposed to be a Christmas porcupine...hmmmm).



CHEESE PINE CONE

2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 8-oz. container sour cream (I used light)
1 small jar pimientos
8 oz. havarti dill, grated
4 oz. chihuahua or other salty cheese, grated
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
squeeze of lemon juice
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of black pepper
sliced almonds, toasted
rosemary sprigs for the "greenery" garnish

I added the pimientos and parsley for a red and green effect (very Christmas-y), and they really added a lot to the flavor.

Mix all the ingredients except the almonds and the rosemary together in a large mixing bowl. Spread the mixture into an oval shape (I used a spatula to this and it worked well) on a tray. Cover and refrigerate from a minimum of 2 hours to overnight.

Toast the almonds in a single layer in the oven or in a pan. Cool. Starting at the top of the oval, stick them in one by one in a pine-cone-ish formation. Add the rosemary sprigs at the bottom.

Serve with crackers (I used whole wheat crackers and rosemary/olive oil Triscuits, and they were both great with it). It would also be great with crudites or french bread.



My last go-to party recipe is my Grandma's banana pudding. It's one of those throwback desserts that nobody thinks about, but one bite in, people are just standing around, practically shanking each other with plastic sporks to get at another plateful. And, like the Taco Dip, it's one of the easiest things you'll ever make.



BEULAH'S BANANA PUDDING

1 tub Cool Whip, thawed (do NOT use actual whipped cream in this, e.g., Reddi Wip - it won't work)
1 package instant vanilla pudding (you'll need milk, preferably whole, to make it)
1 box Nilla Wafers
5-6 bananas, perfectly ripe

Make the pudding and let it chill for about 15 minutes in the fridge until it's set.
In a large bowl, whisk in about 1/2 of the tub of Cool Whip until it's smooth.

In a 9 X 9" casserole dish or bowl, place Nilla Wafers side by side in the bottom to create a sort of crust.

Cut the bananas into round slices (about 3/4" inch thick). Place a layer of banana slices on top of the layer of Wafers.

Pour 1/2 of the pudding/Cool Whip mixture over the top, smoothing with a spatula.

Put another layer of Nilla Wafers and bananas on top. Pour the rest of the pudding on top. Using a spatula, spread the remaining Cool Whip over top of the pudding layer. Place a layer of Nilla Wafers (in a pattern, if you want) on top. Refrigerate for an hour before serving, or refigerate overnight to serve the next day.

So, friends, put on Mariah Carey's timeless Christmas album, spend some time in the kitchen with good food, good pals, and bad champagne, and enjoy the holiday season!

Thanks for reading! Happy Merry Christmahannukwanzakah!

The Ecstasy of St. Michael Chiarello

I know what you're thinking:

Why is she opening this blog posting with a photo of Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Teresa"? Well, friends, because I found some lost images of a Butternut Squash lasagna on my camera this morning, and the memory of biting into the savory, melty, noodly deliciousness immediately conjured up this mental image.



Art historians claim St. Teresa was in the throes of an intimate encounter with the Holy Spirit, but I think she may have just snuck a bite of my Butternut Squash Lasagna...

My recipe was inspired by a recipe I found while browsing through one of Michael Chiarello's cookbooks. I did my best to commit the main ingredients to memory so I could create something similar at home.


BUTTERNUT SQUASH LASAGNA

For the squash filling:

1 large butternut squash
1-2 cups milk
some butter
olive oil
parmesan cheese
nutmeg
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper

For the bechamel sauce:

butter
flour
3-4 cups milk

Other:

1 package dry lasagna noodles
sliced fresh mozzarella

When I made this, I did it over the course of two days, not to complicate my life, but to simplify it.

I always tell everyone that lasagna isn't hard to make, it's just time consuming. So to avoid having dinner at 10 PM, I broke this process up into two nights, which I'd recommend unless you have a few hours in the kitchen to work before dinnertime.

STEP 1:

Halve the squash lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place it on a baking pan and rub with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for about an hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees, until the squash flesh is soft enough to be mashed with a fork. Let cool enough to handle easily.

STEP 2:

Spoon out the flesh of the squash into a large mixing bowl. Add some milk (start with about a cup), throw in some salt and pepper, parmesan (about a cup), and a little nutmeg and cayenne pepper (a couple pinches of each). Add milk as needed until the consistency of the mixture is spreadable.


***This is where I took my 24 hour hiatus. At this point, either just continue making the rest, or cover and refrigerate the squash mixture.***

STEP 3:

Boil salted water with a little olive oil in it and cook lasagna noodles until they're al dente. Drain them and pour cold water (maybe add some ice cubes) over the top so they're cool enough to handle.


STEP 4:

Make the bechamel sauce by melting about a 1/3 stick of butter in a saucepan and whisking in about 3/4 c. of flour to make a roux. Cook that for about a minute, then whisk in about 3 cups of milk and some salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 5-6 minutes, whisking constantly, until it's thickened (coats the back of a spoon). Remove from heat or keep on a very low warming temp.



STEP 5:

Rub a little olive oil in the bottom of a casserole dish (to prevent sticking). Drain each noodle as much as possible before putting it in the bottom of the dish, and create a layer of noodles three noodles across in the bottom of the dish.

STEP 6:

Spread a layer of the squash mixture over the noodles (this is sort of difficult, as the noodles want to slide around and the mixture wants to glop up in clumps, but just use your hands and be patient until you get a semi-even layer over the noodles. It doesn't have to perfect.

STEP 7:

Sprinkle about a handful of grated parmesan over the squash layer, then pour on about 1/3 of the bechamel sauce. Repeat the noodles, squash, parmesan, and bechamel layering two more times.



STEP 8:

Put the final three noodles on top. Slice the ball of fresh mozzarella into 1/2 inch slices and layer on top of the noodles. Sprinkle with another handful of parmesan.



STEP 9:

Bake at 375 for about 35-40 minutes, until the edges are bubbly and the cheese on top is melted and beginning to brown, like cheese on a pizza.

STEP 10:

I always try to let my lasagnas "rest" before I serve them. Otherwise, the layers won't meld properly, and each piece will just be a floppy, metly pile of gooey cheese and noodles - which is fine if you don't care how it looks, but I prefer to have it in pieces that are somewhat recognizable as squares. If you want, top the whole thing with a little fresh chopped sage, basil, or parsley.

Here's a photo of the finished thing (not mine, but a pic from the interwebs):


The great thing about this is that it makes a lot, and the leftovers just keep getting better and better the longer they sit.

Since I didn't do this meal with my judging format in mind, I don't have any pithy criticisms to share, but I can tell you that, in retrospect, there are things I would add for the next time I make this dish (and I can't WAIT to make it again): I would add fresh chopped sage to the squash mixture, and probably some element of crunch, such as toasted pine nuts. The dish was good, but there's just really nothing about it to bite into - octogenarians with denture issues would be just fine having this for dinner. If I were to make it a meat dish, I would use a little crumbled spicy Italian sausage in one of the layers.

I suggest serving this with a crisp green salad and an acidic vinaigrette to cut the richness of it, and it's great with a really dry white wine.

Thanks for reading!

Keep an eye out soon for Holiday Party Dips!