Saturday, September 19, 2009

Yummy Parmesan Risotto

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I don’t remember why I first tried to make risotto. I hadn’t heard of it before but it sounded like it could be good. I compared a bunch of recipes and came up with this one after a few questionable attempts. I make this a lot, usually on weeknights. It’s one of my son’s favorite foods, so it’s fun to make it for him. I made this for my parents last night and it turned out wonderful!

This amount will serve about 4 people as a side dish.

Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio rice
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup white wine
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 box chicken stock (4-5 cups)
1 handful grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a medium-sized skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat and add chopped onion, cook onion for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until garlic is slightly brown.

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Add rice to pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.

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Add wine to pan and stir until wine is completely absorbed by the rice. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and reduce heat to medium. Stir rice frequently until stock is completely absorbed. Continue adding chicken stock in ½ to 1 cup increments and stir until absorbed by rice. Continue doing this until rice is soft but slightly al-dente (taste to check), this usually takes about 4 cups of chicken stock, more if you like a softer risotto.

Tip: Sometimes if I am late getting dinner started, I will cheat by covering the pan for a few minutes at a time to cook the rice faster. The risotto still tastes fine if you do this, it’s just not traditionally how you make risotto.

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Turn off heat and sprinkle parmesan cheese over risotto. Serve warm.

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If you have leftovers, risotto is really good the next day if you coat it with a little flour and fry it in olive oil to make a fried rice cake.

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