Sometimes, you have a glass of wine while you’re cooking. Sometimes, you have three. Sometimes, you have a recipe that you are cooking from, but then you have three glasses of wine, and you’re not following the recipe anymore. You’re just throwing things in at random, thinking you’re being creative.
This has happened to me more than once. In college, my roommate and I bought a bottle of wine to use in a pumpkin risotto recipe we wanted to try. As dictated by the recipe, we put a small amount of wine in the risotto; we drank the rest. And it was the best damn risotto I’ve ever tasted.
The tragedy of this story is that I can never recreate that recipe. Sure, we used a lot of ingredients listed in that recipe, but we made up our own ratios, and we threw a lot of other things in there too. Now, every year when the weather starts to cool down and the leaves start to turn orange and red, I think about how delicious our drunken pumpkin risotto was. So, here’s the plan. I’m going to get some ingredients together that look like they might be good in risotto, have three glasses of wine, and see what happens. I’ll list my “recipe” below. For best results, I encourage you to have three glasses of wine before you try this, and by all means, throw in whatever else looks good to you.
Ok, so here’s the product of my experiment. It wasn’t the same as that one time, but it was pretty damn delicious. Definitely worth getting drunk with and getting to know better.
For 6 servings:
3/4 lb. chicken sausage (Central Market makes a variety of fresh chicken sausage daily, and I used their basil parmesan links)
10-12 oz package of frozen butternut squash (if you want to use fresh, go right ahead, but I'm telling you right now it's the hardest thing to cut ever)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 quart chicken stock
8 oz package sliced mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
small pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan (more for serving)
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the casing from the chicken sausage, and saute, breaking the chicken into crumbles with your spatula, until there is no visible pink left on the chicken. Remove from heat, and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken stock and water, bring to a simmer, and then reduce the heat to low. In a large, heavy-bottom skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, minced garlic, and sliced mushrooms, and saute about 6 minutes, until the onion softens, stirring to make sure no pieces stick to the pan and burn. Add the arborio rice, stirring 3-4 minutes more. Pour in the cup of wine, stirring until the wine has completely absorbed. Add a cup of the broth, stirring until completely absorbed. Repeat this process until only a cup of the broth remains. Before adding the last cup, stir in the butternut squash, frozen peas, chicken sausage, spices, salt and pepper to taste, and parmesan. Then, add the last cup of broth, and stir until completely absorbed.
Allow the risotto to sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Top each serving with a sprinkle of parmesan.
For 6 servings:
3/4 lb. chicken sausage (Central Market makes a variety of fresh chicken sausage daily, and I used their basil parmesan links)
10-12 oz package of frozen butternut squash (if you want to use fresh, go right ahead, but I'm telling you right now it's the hardest thing to cut ever)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 quart chicken stock
8 oz package sliced mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
small pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan (more for serving)
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the casing from the chicken sausage, and saute, breaking the chicken into crumbles with your spatula, until there is no visible pink left on the chicken. Remove from heat, and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken stock and water, bring to a simmer, and then reduce the heat to low. In a large, heavy-bottom skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, minced garlic, and sliced mushrooms, and saute about 6 minutes, until the onion softens, stirring to make sure no pieces stick to the pan and burn. Add the arborio rice, stirring 3-4 minutes more. Pour in the cup of wine, stirring until the wine has completely absorbed. Add a cup of the broth, stirring until completely absorbed. Repeat this process until only a cup of the broth remains. Before adding the last cup, stir in the butternut squash, frozen peas, chicken sausage, spices, salt and pepper to taste, and parmesan. Then, add the last cup of broth, and stir until completely absorbed.
Allow the risotto to sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Top each serving with a sprinkle of parmesan.
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