I don’t eat too much rice or pasta in Ramadan because it leaves me feeling too full before eating other things, but if I’m going to make rice, it’s a special dish. That’s why I love risotto, the Italian rice dish made with arborio rice.
It can seem intimidating to cook because it’s often cooked with cream and Parmesancheese, but hopefully I can show you the steps to make it perfect- light and fluffy and creamy and delicious- exactly how it should be. Once you master it this way, you’ll want to keep your pantry stocked with arborio for any last-minute meal side dish you crave that can be made into a wonderful risotto of your own style.
For this one made with cut asparagus (it cooks faster) and green peas, it really came out of my usual cooking style: either something classic from my family culinary recipe box or out of what I ended up finding in my refrigerator and thought would go well together.
In this case, it was a little bit of both.
What I had in my fridge was what reminded me of dishes I’ve made in the past based on either my mother’s or my aunts’ cooking styles- so it was a little bit of both here. Regardless of where and how it was derived, it’s just superb in taste.
You can also use some chicken stock or broth to add flavor and nutrients to the rice.
The key to cooking the arborio rice is to let it steam cook at the end, once it’s off the stove. I have played around with many ways of making it. If you want to skip the addition of Parmesan cheese, then you don’t have to even open the lid once it’s cooking; if you add the Parmesan then you’ll have to stir it in (towards the end) just to make sure it’s mixed in thoroughly.
It’s such a fantastic one-pot rice dish that if you’re interested in having just this for dinner or any other meal, I am pretty sure it could be quite satisfying and filling that way, too.
If you’ve never had Risotto, now’s the time to try it. Yes, it’s most popular as an Italian style rice, but anyone can make it. Actually, I think it’s even easier to make than some of the other types of rice, the only difference being that you should spend a lot of time stirring it while it cooks.
It’s so easy to make and some people enjoy it as a meal all its own, otherwise it makes a wonderful side dish for any season. If you don’t like mushrooms you can even make it with other veggies like chopped asparagus. Want it vegetarian? Make it with Saffron Road’s Classic Culinary Vegetable Broth instead. Either way, it’s delicioso!
2 tablespoons butter (salted is fine if you pull back on the salt later in the recipe. Taste as you cook!)
3 cloves garlic, minced (be sure it is either organic or at least not bleached white on the bottom. There should be some hair/roots on the bottom of garlic to ensure it has not been bleached)
Wash mushrooms thoroughly by placing in a bowl with fresh cool water. Swish the mushrooms around and rub the tops with your thumbs to remove any dirt. Lift the mushrooms out of the water as opposed to pouring the water out. Brush off any excess dirt with a towel and dry them completely so they will brown properly when cooking.
In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat the butter over medium flame. When it froths, add the olive oil, mushrooms and garlic, cook until all of the liquid from the mushrooms evaporate completely and they begin to brown.
Add the rice and cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring the whole time. Add the half and half, broth, salt, pepper and parsley. Cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring continuously. Cover with a lid to finish cooking, about an additional 5-10 minutes on low.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese upon serving.
I’ve been making Basmati rice for a long time and feel like I’ve perfected it from the lesson of first making some serious mistakes.
The first time I made it is a time I look back on and now laugh a bit. I had never seen rice other than white grain or wheat bran rice, and even then I usually made pasta instead of rice.
Basmati was something new that I was exposed to from I found a plethora of it in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean grocery stores in the ethnic neighborhoods around Columbus, Ohio. It was the closest place to travel: 45 minutes outside of my college town of Athens, Ohio where I could find international foods and something I wanted to make because of my exposure to new friends at university who were making some of the most delicious dishes I’d ever tasted: Pakistani Biryani with chicken or goat meat; Gulf Style Kebsa were my two absolute favorites. So I wanted to learn to make them myself and fill my own kitchen with the lovely aroma that only Basmati does.
Just opening up a bag to the noticeably different aroma made me interested in making it.
The mistake I made was that the first time I cooked it, I never rinsed it. Apparently, bags like the one above were a little different than the plastic packets or bags of rice that I was used to that were already rinsed. The ones in the burlap bags made no such claims so after I learned what I should have done, it was back to soak, swoosh, rinse. Repeat. Soak, swoosh, rinse. Repeat. And so on…not a big deal but something I had to learn.
I also learned a tried and true method from friends that makes it come out perfect every time and it seems to be way more forgiving than any other rice I have ever cooked, so it’s another reason I almost always buy Basmati.
First, cover the suggested amount of rice in a bowl with cool water. It doesn’t matter the amount, just enough to cover and allow you to swoosh it around. This also helps to remove some of the starch once you rinse it.
Once you’re done swooshing it around (with clean hands, of course) you’ll be able to see any impurities come to the surface. This bowl seems to look pretty clean, although there’s a lot of starch in there as you can tell from the cloudy surface.
You can drain the water out, but repeat the process several times. You can rinse it by putting the rice in a colander with small holes so that the grains don’t fall through. I like the bowl method the best.
Now here’s where I don’t have photos to show so you’ll just take my word for it in terms of cooking.
I like to add onions to my ‘plain’ Basmatirice, but you can certainly skip this method. I use a medium-large deep bottom sauce pan, depending upon how large the amount you want to make. I sauté the onions in butter or ghee then add the rice that has been fully drained of any water. I sauté the rice for just a minute or so, just to blend it in with the butter or oil and the onions. It almost smells like popcorn when it’s cooking, it’s so aromatic.
I then add water just to cover the rice (exact measurements in the recipe below), although when I first learned how to make it I learned how to eyeball it by systematically putting one inch of water only above the rice.
Once the water covers the rice, heat and bring it to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to low and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. If your lid isn’t tight, put foil between the lid and the pot or even a cotton cloth, but make sure any cloth does not come near any flames or heat. Cook for exactly 20 minutes.
The other important thing to remember is to never, ever, never peek into the pot to see if it’s done before the time is up. When you do that, you waste valuable steam which really does affect how the rice cooks and how fluffy it turns out.
The effect you want is a fluffy, well-cooked rice that separates nicely with a fork.
Although I always eat mine with a spoon.
What about you? Do you cook Basmatirice often? How do you do it? Have you ever tasted it at all?
