Well, actually Quick and Tasty might be a better title, but never mind. After so reading so much about the sacred moves needed to make good risotto and worrying whether I was making it right, I saw Andy Schlosser and David Joachim make a risotto quickly and without much reverence. Not that they did anything bad or disgusting, far from it. What they did do was make it simply and easily. My worries disappeared.
I came home tonight wanting to make a shrimp and asparagus risotto because I had a hankering for risotto and I am getting sick of plain asparagus, roasted or steamed. But no shrimp, no asparagus. My wife had gone shopping and we had pork cutlets and some yellow squash from our farm share, so a little improvisation seemed in order.
Plus, I have no Arborio rice or homemade stock. Fine. I often make risotto with sushi rice, which I always have on hand. It is short grained and full of starch and Mario Batali hasn’t shown up with the risotto police. I put the teakettle on to boil and diced a half onion, a yellow squash, 3 cloves of garlic and cut 2 cutlets into strips.
Saute the cutlets in the pan with some pepper and oregano, take em out when they are 3/4 done. Saute the onion, when clear, add the minced garlic, then the squash. Add 1 1/2 cups of rice and saute for a couple of minutes. The water had boiled so I added a TBS of chicken stock to a cup, mixed in hot water, and I was ready. Add some hot water and a quarter of the stock. Cook until nearly gone. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Around then my wife arrived at home and pulled out some asparagus from last night’s dinner. I added the pork to a separate pan and finished it with the rest of the stock. Diced the asparagus into the nearly done rice. Added a pat of butter and stirred in some fresh grated Parmesan cheese and gave it a stir and a brief rest.
It was delicious. My wife had thirds. Maybe over the weekend I’ll get some shrimp and use the homemade shrimp stock I have frozen in the basement freezer and some fresh asparagus. But I’m not buying any Arborio rice.
