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<\/p>\nLast weekend, I took a mini-vacation to visit my friends Meg and Greg at Greg’s home in southern Virginia. Our goals for the weekend included a lot of wine, delicious food, and taking cover from the hurricane by staying indoors and watching How I Met Your Mother DVD’s for hours. Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n
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Say “Hi” to Meg and Greg! They are friends from college. I won’t lie. We spent a significant portion of the weekend discussing reasons why the University of Virginia is the greatest school of all time, and reasons Virginia Tech should just give up and admit their defeat.<\/p>\n
So, listen, we made an incredible meal Saturday night. It included goat cheese and herb stuffed chicken thighs, roasted balsamic-rosemary peaches, steamed broccoli, and Greg’s red wine risotto recipe which was to die for. I’ll post the chicken and peach pictures separately. First, check out Greg’s risotto, below.<\/p>\n
You’ll notice two things about this write-up:<\/p>\n
1. I am blatantly copying and pasting Greg’s words verbatim, because I’m lazy and he did an excellent job describing his recipe.<\/p>\n
2. At one point he mentions that Meg helped him chop something. You’ll notice he never mentions anything about me helping with this recipe. Once again, that is because I am lazy and I was content to sip my pinot noir and take the occasional photograph while Greg did all of the work on this one.<\/p>\n
Ingredients: <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>Chicken stock<\/strong>, about 3-4 cups<\/em> First, open up a bottle of red wine.\u00a0 Since we were using a red wine for this risotto (a Pinot Noir, I\u2019m pretty sure), you\u2019ve got to let those tannins mellow before you get into it.\u00a0 Once the tannins are sufficiently mellowed, pour a glass for yourself and any lovely ladies that happen to be in the kitchen with you.\u00a0 Cooking with wine is always more fun when you\u2019re drinking it too, and drinking wine is always more fun when it\u2019s a collaborative endeavor.<\/em><\/p>\n This photo doesn’t actually contain anything related to the risotto, it’s more to prove that we were in fact drinking the rest of the wine.<\/p>\n Next, warm up the stock in a small sauce pot over medium heat.\u00a0 I used about half of a carton of chicken stock (low sodium, please), which looked like about 3-4 cups to me (<\/em>Editors note: usually cartons are 4 cups.)\u00a0 Once the stock gets to bubbling, reduce the heat to a simmer and maintain that throughout the cooking process.\u00a0 While the stock is heating up, get your ingredients prepped and ready to go.\u00a0 I chopped the onion, minced the garlic and shallot, sliced the mushrooms (with an egg slicer), and Meg grated the cheese.<\/em><\/p>\n Mushrooms and shallots, an unbeatable combination.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re all set up, put a large pan over medium heat and add two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil.\u00a0 Add the onion and a pinch of salt and pepper to sweat until the onion is softened, which should take about 10 minutes.\u00a0 After 7-8 minutes, add the garlic, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing is browning (or burning).\u00a0 After the onion and garlic have cooked down, add a cup of Arborio rice and stir it into the pan, so that the rice grains get covered in the fat and begin to fry up.\u00a0 This deepens the flavor of the rice and help to prevent it from clumping together.\u00a0 A couple of minutes of this, stirring constantly, should be fine.<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things get interesting.\u00a0 When adding liquid to risotto, you want to do it bit by bit so that you give the grains of rice time to absorb the liquid and release their starch into the sauce.\u00a0 Start by adding about half of a glass of red wine into the pan.\u00a0 Stir the wine in and give it a minute so that the rice and soak in the flavor (and color).\u00a0 Once the wine looks well incorporated, add a ladle or two of the warm chicken stock and stir in the liquid.\u00a0 You have to stir more or less constantly to get the rice to release its starch and create the desired creamy texture.\u00a0 Continue this process of adding chicken stock by the ladle and giving each infusion of liquid a minute or two to be absorbed; the whole process should take about 15-20 minutes total.\u00a0 Taste often to check the done-ness of the rice and the consistency of the sauce.<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, this photo is out of focus. My apologies. I blame the wine.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in another pan over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of butter.\u00a0 Once the butter has melted and stopped foaming, add the minced shallot and cook down for a few minutes.\u00a0 Then, add the sliced mushroom caps and a big pinch of salt and pepper.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nArborio rice<\/strong>, 1 cup<\/em>
\nRed wine<\/strong>, about half a glass<\/em>
\nGarlic<\/strong>, 2 cloves, minced<\/em>
\nOnion<\/strong>, chopped<\/em>
\nCrimini mushrooms<\/strong>, about 1 cup, sliced<\/em>
\nShallot<\/strong>, finely chopped<\/em>
\nFrozen peas<\/strong>, about 1 cup<\/em>
\nParmesan cheese<\/strong>, grated, a big handful plus more for serving at the table<\/em>
\nButter<\/strong>, unsalted<\/em>
\nExtra virgin olive oil<\/strong><\/em>
\nSalt<\/strong> and pepper<\/strong>
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