Creamy Fall Vegetable Risotto

Arborio. Arboreal. Something creamy, warm and smoked, for my belly today (and yours?).

What have we there? Broccoli, fennel, mushroom, orange pepper, and onion, surrounded by perfectly al dente little bites of rice. Onion grass from the back yard (aka, foraged chives). And some decadently creamy cashew stock, with smoked black pepper and roasted garlic.

I was concerned the creaminess of the stock would interfere with the rice performing its magic, but no worries. Perfecto. And easy.

Creamy Fall Vegetable Risotto
serves 6 (or 3 hungry me's)

2.5 cups arborio rice
3 tablespoons canola or olive oil

5 cups water
2 tablespoons mushroom stock concentrate, or another strongly flavored vegetable stock
6 cloves roasted garlic
2/3 cup raw cashews
Smoked black peppercorns, to taste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 cups mushrooms, sliced
Small fistful of fresh onion grass, minced
Fresh thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons
Fresh sage, 3 leaves, minced (optional)
1 small head broccoli, tough stems removed, cut to florets
1 onion, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 small head fennel, sliced to rings

Salt, at the end, only if it needs it.

Roast your mushrooms, fennel, garlic (wrapped in foil, with a tsp of oil) and broccoli in the oven at 430f. Use the same roasting pan, toss them with a little oil, and remove them to a plate as they finish cooking (broccoli at 8 minutes or so, mushrooms at 10, fennel then or at 12, garlic at 18-20).

Throw the first 6 ingredients into your blender and puree until very smooth. Remove to a small saucepan and heat over medium low, keeping it warm.

In a large risotto or saute pan, heat your oil over medium-high heat. Add your onion and pepper, and cook 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Lower heat to medium-low.

Add your rice and stir to coat with the oil. Toss for 4-5 minutes, until each granule has a translucent "halo" around its edges. Now it is time to add the stock.

2/3 of a cup at a time, dears - stirring constantly. Cashews contain protein, so beware of rice trying to become one with the bottom of your pan. 20-22 minutes ought to get you through most if not all of your stock and see your rice to near perfection - if you need a little more water at the end, don't hesitate to use it.

Add a little more thyme or sage, if you'd like. Taste for salt.

Go at it while its still warm. Cheers!

Single Serve

I don't usually post pics of what gets delivered/stored for my clients to nosh later because blech, tupperware, but I totally enjoyed this little ditty:

Fennel and Tomato Risotto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Porto, awesome sprouts, awesomer olive.

Amazingly, this meal comes in at about 1200 calories. Looks more expensive than that to me!

Obligatory Risotto Post

Hey, I love risotto. But man, is it everywhere. Don't know what to put on your upscale menu to feed the veggies? Try risotto. Unsure what to do with farmer's market produce? Try risotto. There's brunch risotto, spring risotto, orzo risotto, risotto with bacon, risotto cakes, yeesh. Here's mine: Brown Rice Risotto.

Tasty and fibrous! As with any risotto, you can toss just about any green, legume, or veggie in there and it will taste amazing. Here, we used peas, pea shoots, and asparagus, and a touch of parm. Blanching the veggies for a couple of minutes before tossing them into your rice mixture allows you to worry more about cooking the rice, less about cooking the veggies.

Brown rice, as I'm sure you know, is a much crankier grain than it's paler counterpart. So, we're going to parboil the stuff before slowly sauteing it in the typical stock bath, to ensure that the entire evening isn't taken up by your wooden spoon and a pile of fiesty rice.

You'll need:

2 cups short grain brown rice
2-3 cups well flavored vegetable or mushroom stock
1/2 cup shelled peas, fresh
1 cup pea shoots
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 pound asparagus, woody ends trimmed, sliced into fourths
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh herbs of your choice: tarragon and chives used here

First, boil 2 quarts of water in a large stock pot, toss in your brown rice, and cover, keeping it at a simmer for about 30 minutes. Drain.

Get your stock ready in a separate saucepan. Keep it heated on low.

Boil water in a small pot and blanch your fresh veggies for a few minutes, until all the greens are bright. Rinse in a colander under cold water, set aside.

Melt your butter in a large saute pan and toss in your rice. Press it into the bottom of the pan and turn up the heat to medium-high. When you get a bit of brown on the rice pancake, turn the heat back to low and scrape the rice up, mixing it together. Add your wine (if using) and 1 ladle of stock, stir to incorporate. From here on out, it's a familiar drill - add stock, slowly watch it get absorbed, add more. When the rice is almost al dente, toss your fresh vegetables (not your greens!) in, and mix. After 2-3 minutes, add your cheese and any greens, plus your fresh herbs, stir well, and cover, removing from heat. Let it steam for about 5 minutes, then taste, adding salt and pepper as needed.

The process takes about 20-30 minutes from tossing your rice into the saute pan to finishing it with a dash of cheese, despite boiling it to soften first, but yay whole grains!