Risotto like a Pro!

The head chef was gone for two weeks and so we had the head chef from Pearl come over and work with us for two weeks. I got this job in hopes of learning as much as I can. When our usual head chef is here, I hardly ever get to do much of anything. I can try something out and if I mess up once, I don't get to do it again. But that's really like the only way I can learn is by making mistakes. I can come home and just try to make anything but at work I get so nervous because I don't want to mess up. So our head chef is on vacation for 2 weeks and I finally learned something. I learned more in the past 2 weeks than I've learned in the 4-5 months that i've been there. I don't know, I'm just ranting. I'm not sure what to do about it. 

But anyways, one day I go into work and I get to work on the line. I'm learning all these things- like how to make sea bass, dover sole, fingerling potatoes, mussels, different sauces, etc etc. It was really fun and one night I went home and looked up what risotto was. I knew it was rice but not sure what it takes to make it. 

What I know about Risotto:

-short grained rice (Arborio rice)
-an Italian staple
-has a creamy texture
-takes a little while to make (~45 min)
-requires a lot of attention and stirring
-At first the rice has a little white spot in the middle but by the end,
it shouldn't have that spot anymore.
and there are so many different kinds!

At Josef's we make: 

Wasabi risotto

and

Champagne risotto

maybe different kinds but those are the two that I know of.

I saw how to make it and I wanted to try it.

I looked up how to make risotto and I saw that 

1 cup of rice = 4 cups liquid

I decided to make my risotto with chicken broth which is pretty popular and easy.

First I put a little bit of oil and butter (a drop or 2 of each) in a sautee pan with finely chopped onion and garlic.

I let the onions cook until they were slightly translucent and then I added the 1 cup of rice. The website or blog I was looking at said to let the rice toast up a little bit before you add the liquid so I cooked the rice with the onions until the onions were fully translucent. Then I added 1 cup of the chicken broth and started stirring and stirring and stirring. The rice absorbs the liquid and that is what starts to make the rice tender. Once you can tell that the rice has absorbed the first cup, you then add your 2nd cup and then repeat with the 3rd cup and then once that's all absorbed the 4th and final cup is added. 

To shorten it up:

Add broth

stir

stir 

and stir some more

when broth is all absorbed

 add 2nd cup

then repeat these steps x3

During this process I added a little salt (broth is salty in itself) 

 black pepper 

with a little bit of cayenne pepper (just a sprinkle) 

and some garlic powder

When I first started making the risotto it only took up about 1/4 of the frying pans depth. As you keep adding the broth or liquid of your choice, the risotto absorbs and absorbs and absorbs. So of course it's volume keeps expanding and there is only so much room in the pan. Thank God I used the pan that I did because by the end the risotto was almost over flowing and I had to make sure it didn't spill out. My pan was about 10 inches round and maybe an inch or two in depth. 

With every cup of liquid you add, the rice gets softer and softer and looks gooey and hearty. Like regular long rice, you can see each individual grain but risotto bonds together to actually make a savory sauce and a solid meal whether you eat it with something and the risotto is the side or just by itself.

It's savory and delicious and when you're eating it nice and hot and it's freezing cold outside, it definitely hits the spot. Michael had some the next day when he got home from work and he said it was delicious and he must not have hated it because he ate the rest of it. It's a comfort food and I think it would put a smile on someones face if they had a cold or just weren't feeling too well. It's like a bowl of chicken noodle soup on a cold day but..

10 TIMES BETTER! 

I've obviously been on a risotto kick because yesterday I really wanted to try making coconut risotto. 

No recipe or anything. 

So I put some butter in the pan (1-2 TBS) and let it melt. Then I added a half cup of rice and let that cook for a few minutes. I then added some cream of coconut, a couple spoonfuls. Then I let that cook down and stirred it up and I had a pint of heavy cream so I added a little at a time. Add some, stir x3, then add some more, 

stirstirstir. 

Well you get the point.

 I added the whole damn pint of heavy cream plus a little more cream of coconut. I also added some sweetened coconut flakes. 

The rice was still kind of hard.

So I added some 2% milk. About a cup.

Then I sprinkled some cinnamon.

Then I started adding water. 

By the time I had to go to work, I had been working on this risotto for about an hour and when I left the risotto was still a little chewy. But the thing about it was, it tasted really good. 

It tasted like rice crispy treats - No joke. 

It wasn't overbearingly sweet but it's so weird that it tasted like marshmallow fluff. 

I'm not sure what I did wrong and I would love some feedback on this.

This is the coconut risotto and it looks a lot different than the pictures of the chicken risotto.

I don't know--

 -if I should've added more cream than just a splash and then stir

-if I should've used coconut milk instead of cream of coconut 

-if it just needed to cook longer

-if I should've toasted the rice longer in the beginning

I'm just not sure but if anyone has any pointers, 

I'd appreciate it because I really enjoy making risotto. 

I was just called and told I don't have to work tonight so if by some miracle these dishes wash themselves or maybe I wash them, 

I really wanna give it another shot.

I'll let you know how it goes. 

Live. Laugh. Love. 

& Eat.