Aroma Cucina

Best Risotto Ever

  How can I write a risotto recipe that starts with  “Roast 1 flock of chickens? Reserve juices.”??

 I recently had to roast a lot of chickens, actually an entire flock of them, and as they cooled, there was all this lovely chicken juice in the bottom of the pans.  I put it all in a container, not really sure what I would do with it, but certainly not letting it go to waste.   As far as I’m concerned, the best part of the chicken is the burny, toasty brown stuff that gets left on the roasting pan. It’s pure essence of concentrated chicken.

 

Lunchtime rolled around the other day, and getting Chinese food delivered to Montone is clearly not an option so I needed to figure out something that we could eat. Right about now, I’d kill for some good Chinese dumplings, but instead, we took a vote and decided on risotto instead of pasta. It’s tough when there are only 2 people voting, who is the tiebreaker? Yeah, you’re right, it’s the chef. It’s good to be the chef.

 I decided on a classic risotto Milanese with peas, and then I remembered my magic chicken juice in the fridge. What good luck!

 Best Risotto Ever Recipe

2-3 cups Magic Chicken Juice (diluted 1 part chicken juice: 2 parts water)

½ cup freshly grated parmigiana

½ cup peas

1 good-sized knob of butter (why do they call a hunk of butter a knob? Is it more dignified?? Not if you’re British…)

2 cups Arborio rice

½ teaspoon saffron

1 medium sized glug of white wine

1 minced shallot

 

Your standard risotto technique:

        1)   Toast the rice in a dry pan

        2)   Start adding your liquid, bit by bit.  Adding more as it absorbs. I add the wine near the end.     Add the shallot near the beginning of the cooking process. Just toss it in the pan.

        3)   Butter poach the peas. I take frozen peas (pea season is over, whatcha gonna do?) in a small crockery dish, with that good sized knob of butter, and over very low heat, I let the butter melt and the peas poach. This technique is marvelous; use it whenever you want decadent peas.

        4)   When the rice is done, combine the saffron, cheese and peas…in that order.

        5)   Now eat. Eat it immediately...risotto waits for no man. 

 

If there is a moral to the story it has to be that if something looks good enough to keep, keep it. Figure out what to do with it later. Now I have to wait until the next time there is a flock of chickens needing to be roasted before I can get more of the Magic Chicken Juice.   If roasting a flock of chickens is not in your future, use good home made chicken stock from a roast chicken, and it too will make you happy.

 

 

 

 

Monday, Montone Weather Report: Taboulleh Salad

As part of my ongoing public service weather announcements, I declare it taboulleh season. There are more recipes for taboulleh than there are stars in the sky and just about as many ways to spell it. Here's my recipe for a most refreshing, clean, and maybe even healthy summer salad.

Soak some bulghar wheat (yeah, its spelled 12 different ways as well) in cold water, for perhaps 15 minutes until its soft, then drain and set aside.

Round up every fresh herb you can find, but be sure you have plenty of mint. Chop finely... really fine...no bigger than the grains of the bulgar.

Finely chop some cucumber, radish, spring onions, tomato and whatever else is fresh and crunchy.

Toss everything in a bowl.
Add olive oil, salt and fresh lemon juice to taste.

This was known as 'bouley salad around our house when our son was little and we always packed some in the picnic basket that went to the lake.  All trips to the lake involved swimming and feasting on bouley salad... so let the season begin!

Lentil Liquid

            

Inspired by Shola Olunloyo’s Studio Kitchen blog where he sang the praises of retaining and using the liquid left over from cooking lentils, I gave it a whirl the other night, and he is right.  Blended with a little toasted cumin, and some brown butter, this created an earthy, unctuous sauce that changed a simple, rough cut piece of pork into a satisfying, finger licking treat. Crispy shallots never hurt, either.
Now, if only we can find a more ‘romantic’ name for left over lentil water……

Faro Salad

After eating faro and porcini soup all winter, it was time to break out the faro and make a salad. Faro is one of the most ancient grains, it's clean tasting and crunchy and satisfying. Think of it as a meatier barley. I usually buy the peeled or semi-peeled variety. Here it is served ona bed of arugula.

1 cup of faro, picked through and rinsed
1 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1-2 stalks of celery
1 medium carrot
1 tsp. finely minced onion
1 tsp finely minced parsley
Olive oil, red wine vinegar

Add the faro to boiling stock and cook until tender, but not mushy. It should take about 25 mintues, give or take, so taste the faro at around 20 minutes. You want it firm, but yielding to the touch, probably how my husband would like me to be from time to time....
Finely chop the celery, carrot, parsley and onion. Toss in a bowl with some vinegar and olive oil. The dressing should be a little acidic to balance the faro.
When the faro is cooked, drain and rinse with cool water. Add to the vegetables, add a little salt and pepper, toss and serve.
Tasted like spring to me!

Lentil and chestnut stew

2 cups of lentils, picked through and rinsed
1 big carrot, or 2 smallish carrots, peeled
2 stalks of celery
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
5 med size links of fresh pork sausage (optional)
4 cups of stock,or broth, (leftover duck and porcini consomme, vegetable broth if you want to keep this vegetarian, chicken stock will be a lighter flavor, meat stock will be richer)
1/2 cup of red wine  (if you only have white in the house, use the white)
4-6 whole, raw chestnuts
Dry rosemary, thyme, marjoram, a good healthy pinch of each

Preheat the oven to 375F.
With the chestnut laying on a cutting board, cut an "X" into the skin of the chestnut. Don't do this while holding the chestnut in your hand, this is experience talking.  Lay the chestnuts on a small roasting pan and place in the oven. Every 5 minutes or so, roll them around on the tray. After about 15 minutes, the chestnuts will have opened like a flower at the X mark.  Remove from the oven and let them cool.
Reduce the oven heat to 300.
While the chestnuts are roasting:
Chop up the carrot, celery and onion. I like to chop these up to be the same size as the lentils, but you are the chef, chop them up to please you. But, keep them kind of small so they blend in and  you are not just going to be having one big bite of carrot, ok?
Lightly brown the carrots, celery and onion (or battuto as its called in Italian) in some olive oil.  Use a pot big enough to hold all the ingredients.  I like to use an earthenware, clay or ceramic pot. You can  use these on the stove top....just be careful when you are first heating them up. Heat the clay pot up gradually and never introduce a very cold ingredient all at once. Otherwise, they work like a charm.
OK, as the battuto is getting all soft and warm and brown, slit open the sausages and
crumble the meat onto the battuto, letting everything mingle nicely.
Add the chopped garlic, broth and wine.
Sprinkle some rosemary, thyme, marjoram on top of the lentil stew and let simmer at a low temp while you peel the chestnuts.   
Peel the chestnuts, remove the brown skin and roughly cut into slices.  Add to the stew.

This should all take about 20-25 minutes maximum.  Now, throw the stew into the oven and leave it there for about 3 hours. Don't touch. Don't peek.  Go do some work.
3 hours later, the house smells great and dinner is ready. Make a salad, serve with crusty bread and a light red wine. 

Winter variation: dried porcini would be an excellent addition to this stew, particularly if you want to keep it vegetarian.  Take 1/4 cup of porcini and soak in 3/4 cup of warm water. Add the porcini and the water to the stew in place of the sausage.

What's a pulse?

No, not the little beep-beep you get when you press on your wrist.
A pulse is a the seed of a legume, things such as peas, farro, lentils, orzo, etc.