Risotto

For the rice dish that we were instructed to make I decided to make risotto. We had most of the ingredients already in my house so it was an easy decision. I used Carnaroli rice for the dish. First I collected all of my ingredients including: onion, garlic (which was to be roasted), a little lemon zest, parmesan cheese, button mushrooms, asparagus, chicken stock, and the rice.

I heated the chicken stock adding a bay leaf and marjoram for some extra flavor and popped the garlic in the oven at 350 to roast. After dicing the onion and slicing the mushrooms and asparagus, I added a little fat to the pan and began to sweat the onions without browning. Once the onions became translucent I added the mushrooms and let them also saute. Then I added the rice and browned it. Once fragrant I added about half a cup of sherry and let it cook down a little before I began adding stock.

Meanwhile, I took some paremsan and made a parmesan crisps for each serving in the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack. I also made a salad consisting of mixed greens, gorgonzola cheese, homeade candied pecans, cucumber and a homeade raspberry vinaigrette. To make the candied pecans I toasted them in a small nonstick saute pan; added a small pad of butter, some brown sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon and cooled them on waxed paper. The whole process took about seven minutes.

When the rice was just about done I added the asparagus. I added it with about 6 minutes or so left before the rice would be done giving the hot stock time to cook the asparagus. Finally I added the cheese, lemon zest, and garlic and it was done!! I plated it in black bowls with a little chicken stock, parmesan crisp and a blanched piece of asparagus.