Our favorite cooked rice is risotto. It takes time to prepare. And, you need to pay attention.
I don’t remember where I got the recipe. It called for 1 cup Arborio rice, 2 cups warm stock, and ½ cup Parmesan cheese.
This worked okay but never as good as the risotto in Italian restaurants.
Recently, I was looking through one of my favorite cookbooks, The Classic Italian Cook Book by Marcella Hazan, published in 1972 by Harper’s Magazine Press. I found several risotto recipes and discovered why mine wasn’t as good as I wanted.
Hazan’s recipe is 5 cups broth and 1½ cups Arborio rice.
After seeing this, I made the dish using 1 cup rice and nearly 4 cups chicken stock. What a difference! When I looked on the back of the rice package, I found a good recipe. It is 1 cup rice to 4 cups stock.
If I’d looked years ago, we would have had better risotto. My “new” recipe is below:
Lew’s Risotto
3½ to 4 cups hot stock, chicken or beef (homemade or purchased salt free)
2-3 tablespoons finely diced scallions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup raw Arborio rice
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Heat stock to slow simmer. Add olive oil and butter to large saucepan on medium high heat. When hot, add scallions and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add rice and stir well to coat. Sauté until hot, then begin adding stock, about ½ cup at a time. Stir often to prevent sticking. When liquid is gone, add another ½ cup. Repeat. Just as the last of the liquid is used, add Parmesan and stir well. Serve at once.
To reheat leftovers, put rice in a small, cold saucepan with a little stock. Set heat on low. As rice begins to warm, add small amount grated Parmesan to “revive” cheese flavor.
Enjoy and stay safe!
If you have any questions or suggestions for this column, please contact me either through this newspaper atbuckscountyherald.com or directly at guthrielatason@verizon.net.
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