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The best tip I have is get a pressure cooker. You can fry your onions/garlic rice, chuck everything else in and cook it in 12 minutes, without the time consuming process of stirring and gradually adding stock. 400g of rice and a litre of stock plus whatever vegetables and other things you fancy turns out perfectly. Just stir in your parmesan/butter at the end.
With the pressure cooker you can also throw in frozen veg or fish and it will cook in the same time.
Biryani = a nicer type of risotto.
Or, actually nothing like Risotto.
Good stock, pref home made. Not cubes, not those little gel things, not the veg powder either. You can always make a quick veg stock using the trimming of the veg you are going to add, eg asparagus, pea pods, leeks etc.
Lots of butter.
Wine or vermouth before the stock, easy if vermouth or it overpowers
Baking or pressure cooker is not the same, you have to stir.
Don't leave the wine out, or it'll always feel like it's lacking something. You don't have to add your stock a ladleful at a time either, well according to Marco Pierre White anyway, he recommends half and half, I do it that way now and it works fine.
Grating lemon zest in at the beginning is nice, especially with chicken, fish or asparagus, also if you like asparagus cook it in your stock and set aside to add at the end, I sometimes leave a piece in there, gives the stock and so the risotto a lovely gentle asparagus flavour, nice with chicken.
Nothing beats a proper chcken stock but stockpots are much nicer than stock cubes.
Having some tunes on in the kitchen helps.
pressure cooker is not the same, you have to stir
What difference do you find in the end result?
Dried mushrooms. The water you use to rehydrate them makes a delicious base for a stock - just remember to pass through a fine sieve to get the grit out. I echo the comments re using white wine/ butter/ parmesan. Don't skimp.
Italians look away now, I use chicken fat instead of butter or olive oil.
Day 1 Roast chicken and enjoy your roast dinner, when you skim the gravy pour the fat in a jar and store in the fridge. After dinner boil the carcass with just enough water to cover for 2 hours to make real stock. Strain the stock into a container and store in the fridge so the chicken fat will float to top and freeze solid.
Day 2 sieve stock into a large pan add the strained fat to you jam jar in the fridge.
Sweat your onions and celery in the chicken fat rather than butter or olive oil, in a separate pan over a very low heat, for the 20-25 minutes it takes to cook the rice
Toast the rice in chicken fat and make your risotto with the simmering chicken stock.
Popular additions in our house.
Finely diced carrots and peas.
Cubed squash and sage leaves fried til crispy in butter.
Asparagus, cut of the tips and slice the stalks into 5mm pieces, cook in the chicken stock, peel the woody ends and simmer those in the stock until they are tender enough to puree with a hand blender, stir this through to create a lovely green risotto.
Diced beetroot and feta. again simmer the trimmings from the beetroot til tender, puree and stir through the finished rissoto
Spinach and mushrooms fried with garlic.
Diced beetroot and feta. again simmer the trimmings from the beetroot til tender, puree and stir through the finished rissoto
Of the many good tips in the posts above, this caught my eye, an appealing combo!
You don’t have to add your stock a ladleful at a time either, well according to Marco Pierre White anyway, he recommends half and half, I do it that way now and it works fine.
You may not have to, but it's part of the fun.
With a glass of wine on the go a la Keith Floyd, obvs.
You may not have to, but it’s part of the fun.
100% this, I like to cherish and tend to my food as I cook it, so much better than paella which you are specifically prohibido from stirring while it cooks.
Yum yum.
Risotto's one of my specials, I'm surprised when on masterchef they overcook it (or get congratulated on not overcooking it) - to me it's all about stirring and frequent tasting with a jug of hot stock ready to add a bit more and a bit more until it's done. If you do that, what's hard?
Now for the controversy..... I like prawn and chorizo (which i know is not Italian, but it's tasty). And also you can make a nice variation with quinoa or orzo, neither of which are technically risotto but make a nice change.
Don't diss it, branch out.......
I love Orzo, quinoa isnae bad, but neither of them are risotto, or anything like it. Same goes for pearl barley!.
Having made risotto the traditional way, and the pressure cooker way, I can't taste any difference, so it's 12 minutes cooking time for me! Give it a shot, you might be surprised...
My usual go-to is mushroom+thyme, but made a nice one a couple of weeks back with the remains of a roast chicken + peas. Either way I fry up an onion until it's soft, add the main ingredient (mushroom or chicken), cook a bit more, then add a glass of white wine + the rice. And then the stock, a glass at a time. (I always buy a tetra brik of stock, never a cube). I chucked the peas in 5 minutes from the end. Then stir in butter + grated parmesan.
And this:
With a glass of wine on the go a la Keith Floyd, obvs.
Well you wouldn't want to waste the rest of the bottle.
I like prawn and chorizo (which i know is not Italian, but it’s tasty)
That's my Paella recipe! (and since I've never made any claim to being Spanish, authenticity can get stuffed).
We're on a strict one chorizo a month regime, was beginning to cook with it too often..
Well you wouldn’t want to waste the rest of the bottle.
Not so long as I have a second bottle ready chilled to accompany the actual dinner.
That's one of the reasons I don't have risotto very often TBH, I find a nice bottle of white absolutely essential to the experience... so it's not usually one for weeknights.
I like prawn and chorizo
Yeah I use chorizo in mine too as it adds a nice smokey flavour. I guess that, in reality, it is becoming more of a paella though. Not that it's a bad thing as the two are pretty interchangeable really.
I find that sweet potato makes for a good veggie option.
Yeah I use chorizo in mine too as it adds a nice smokey flavour. I guess that, in reality, it is becoming more of a paella though.
Not really as chorizo is not a paella ingredient.
Not really as chorizo is not a paella ingredient.
Well I tried a quick Google and found this at the top of the page
😛
I'm pretty sure Paella is cooked in accordance with what is available locally, seafood, rabbit, whatever, it's not protected like champagne or arbroath smokies is it?.
I've had it in Paella in rural Spain, in what seemed like a few fairly traditional restaurants...
I've not had a traditional/authentic paella that I've liked as much as my own! Not saying it's good, or authentic for that matter, but I still prefer it
That’s one of the reasons I don’t have risotto very often TBH, I find a nice bottle of white absolutely essential to the experience… so it’s not usually one for weeknights.
...which is probably the reason I prefer my own paella to restaurant paella i.e. I've had the pleasure of cooking my own, the combination of half a bottle of red wine whilst inhaling the fumes from the white wine and saffron in my paella pan. It's a heady mix!
another one for Butternut Squash. My children love it. I follow Kate Percy version, and have all her books. Don't why, but the children love her versions of it.
Nigella has a video of Chorizo risotto somewhere online. It uses red vermouth as the first liquid addition and has pink-ish rice by the end.
I’m pretty sure Paella is cooked in accordance with what is available locally, seafood, rabbit, whatever, it’s not protected like champagne or arbroath smokies is it?.
There are a few varieties, but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it. That's not to say you can't stick it in, and I'm not surprised Tesco and other UK supermarkets sell "paella" with it in, but they're not following a Spanish recipe.
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it
Even after I posted up all those recipes with it in!
I have also just Googled 'Proper Spanish Paella Recipe' and got these results...
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it
I'll mention that to the chefs next time I'm in the lovely restaurants we ate it in when in the sierra subbetica, tell him it's not really spanish.... 🙂
I have also just Googled ‘Proper Spanish Paella Recipe’ and got these results…
There's a surprise, English websites including chorizo in paella... 🙂
Here's everyone's favourite fat-tongued English chef who published a recipe for paella with chorizo in it, see what reaction he got: https://www.elmundo.es/television/2017/11/02/59fa0ab6e5fdea6f448b458e.html
Nothing like the shocked amusement when they discovered Tesco had (at one point) sold paella sandwiches, though.
I can't say I care either way, there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo - they're just not known as paella.
I can’t say I care either way, there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo – they’re just not known as paella.
But I.. ohh, sod it, I give up.
But I.. ohh, sod it, I give up.
Pretty stupid argument on a thread about risotto, anyway 😀
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it.
In the parts of Spain that Mogrim has eaten in. (To qualify the statement as it's a huge country and Madrid Paella differs from Girona paella which differs from Valencia paella and that's just in the East).
Remember rice is for lunch, only tourists eat it in the evening and Valencien paella is the true way according to the people I met there last month!
there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo – they’re just not known as paella.
Shall we just call it "arroz con chorizo" and everyone can be happy?
Valencien paella is the true way according to the people I met there last month!
Just double-checked with the Valencian girl sitting behind me, and there's no doubt they're right 🙂