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Creamy mushroom risotto

May 17, 2011 by Hannah

Dinner plate with salmon, corn and mushroom risotto

Mushrooms are probably my favorite food. Salmon makes the Top 10. Fresh corn is pretty high up on the list too. All that to say…. this was a good day.

I’ll post about how to make the Apricot Salmon With a Kick later in the week, but I want to talk about the mushroom risotto today. I had always wanted to make risotto, but I never got around to it until I saw this recipe from Rachael Ray. She calls it “Wild Mushroom Risotto,” but I don’t even know what porcini mushrooms are, so I just used plain ol’cheapo ‘shrooms. It turned out delicious, so I guess I have no idea what I’m missing with the porcini mushrooms.

Ingredients

I changed around a few minor things from her recipe. Here’s my version.

  • 1 8-oz. carton mushrooms, chopped into chunks
  • 1 quart beef broth
  • 1 quart water
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs butter
  • 1/4 cup onion, chopped small
  • 2 cups Arborio rice (or any short-grain rice, if you can’t find Arborio)
  • 1/2 cooking sherry
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/2-3/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • Salt & pepper to taste
I actually had most of this on hand already. I only had to buy the mushrooms – and they were on sale!

Directions

You can’t toss it on the stove and walk away for 20 minutes, but I learned that risotto is a lot more low-maintenance than I was originally led to believe.

  1. Place mushrooms, broth and water in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer.
  2. Melt the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium or medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add the rice and sauté for a couple of minutes more, stirring frequently.
  3. Add the sherry and let the liquid evaporate. Add several ladles of the beef broth and reduce heat to medium, medium-low. Simmer and stir frequently until the liquid is mostly absorbed.
  4. Remove the mushrooms from the broth and add them to the rice. Add several more ladles of broth to the rice, and continue stirring until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Continue this pattern of adding broth and letting it absorb, until the rice is cooked to al dente (almost completely soft).
  5. Stir in thyme and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste (I would go lighter on the salt since the broth is already salted). The actual cooking process (not counting prep) should take 20-30 minutes, but like I mentioned, you don’t have to totally babysit the thing. You can have other things going at the same time. When you’re finished, the risotto should be a creamy consistency from all the starches releasing. Note: You might not use all the broth, so don’t worry if it seems done and you have some broth left over.

We had the leftovers with lunch the next day, and it kept really well in the refrigerator. I’m not a huge fan of being able to taste a lot of thyme in my food, but this dish was SO GOOD. I’m pretty sure I had to stop Stephen from getting thirds (“Don’t you want some tomorrow with lunch?”).

Apricot Salmon With a Kick to come in a later post.

Sautéing the rice as the sherry evaporates:

Sauteing the arborio rice for risotto

Broth with mushrooms:

Beef broth with mushrooms

With the first round of broth:

Cooking risotto with beef broth

After adding the mushrooms and the second round of broth:

Making mushroom risotto

I lost count with the broth…

The risotto is getting close to being done

After mixing in the thyme and parmesan:

Mushroom risotto with thyme and parmesan cheese

All done!

Finished mushroom risotto

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

Sushi rolls

May 5, 2011 by Hannah

Sushi roll on blue cutting board

I know, I know. It isn’t officially “sushi.” There is no raw fish, nor is it entirely authentic. I don’t care. It’s delicious, and I can eat it without cleaning out my wallet. Don’t get me wrong – I loooooove “real” sushi. But a girl can only afford to eat so much “real” sushi before thinking real hard about her retirement fund.

So anyway…

Sushi rolls. The type that you can make at home with just a few basic tools. All you need is a little bamboo sushi mat for rolling, some sheets of dried seaweed, and some rice. The rest of it is entirely up to you. I’ll include what I used this time.

Ingredients

Sorry… there is no way I can include measurements. It all depends on how much sushi you want to make, so you can just estimate how much you want to use for your particular roll.

  • Several sheets of dried seaweed. This is the “wrapper” on the outside. (Yes, it’s edible.) I bought a pack of 20 from World Market for a few dollars.
  • Short-grain white rice (you can buy official “sushi rice,” but any short-grain white rice will do. Short-grain rice is more sticky than longer-grain varieties.
  • Fake crab meat cut into thin slices (it comes in packages, it’s fully cooked, and it’s usually made out of other types of fish. It looks similar to crab meat, but it’s a lot cheaper.) You can also use cooked shrimp instead if you like.
  • Avocado, cut into thin slices
  • Carrot, shaved into thin strings with a vegetable peeler
  • Cucumber, shaved into thin strings with a vegetable peeler
  • Cream cheese, cut into really thin strips from a block of cream cheese
  • Ground cayenne pepper
These are just suggested ingredients – use whatever you want!

Directions

The most time-consuming part is (a) cooking the rice, and (b) slicing the vegetables.
  1. Cook the rice the the recommended amount of time. Let it cool before using it for sushi, or else the heat will distort the seaweed wrapper.
  2. Slice everything into strings.
  3. Spread rice onto a seaweed wrapper, staying away from the edges so it doesn’t ooze out.
  4. Make a little indentation in the rice, and line up all the “innards.” I sprinkled a little cayenne pepper on it too, for some extra kick.
  5. Gently roll everything up using the mat. Press it gently, but don’t squeeze too hard or it will come out the sides.
  6. Slice with a damp knife. Using chopsticks. Dip in soy sauce and/or wasabi paste. Sigh with contentment.
vegetables sliced up on cutting board
Sushi before rolling
4 sushi rolls on a plate
Close-up of sushi roll
Dipping sushi in soy sauce with chopsticks

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments »

Wordless Wednesday: Tea

May 4, 2011 by Hannah

I ♥ tea.

Tiramisu Treviso rooibos tea

"Tiramisu Treviso" rooibos tea

Azteca Fire herbal tea

"Azteca Fire" herbal tea

Posted in Everything else | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Chocolate peanut butter shake with no ice cream

April 15, 2011 by Hannah

Frozen drink chocolate peanut butter milkshake in a glass

I don’t keep ice cream in our home. I will eat it. I’m fine with eating ice cream in isolated instances at another place, but there is just no sense in keeping ice cream here. I will eat it. All of it. Bad idea. ANYWAY…. that means that I never have the essential milkshake ingredient. I was really feeling a milkshake tonight, though, so I did what I do best: I scrounged.

Ingredients

Oh man. Did I measure? Of course not. Just dump it in the blender. But I’ll give you my best guess. 🙂

  • 20ish cubes of ice
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 heaping Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3-4 Tbs sugar (or a few good squirts of honey might be good instead)
  • milk (pour it into the blender last, until it goes about halfway up the mound of ice and peanut butter)
The great thing about milkshakes is that they’re incredibly forgiving. You don’t have to be exact. You can throw a bunch of random stuff in there and there’s a pretty good chance it will turn out delicious. And if not, throw something else into the mix and it will probably balance out the problem.
Have I mentioned that chocolate and peanut butter were made for each other?

Directions

Well, it doesn’t get much easier than this.

  1. Dump all ingredients into the blender.
  2. Blend.
  3. Wash the blender (I had to include another step in there somehow).
It was a total experiment, and I thought it was delicious! I proudly handed Stephen a glass of it, and after taking a sip, he announces: “That’s DECENT!” (Apparently that’s a huge compliment in some parts of Mississippi, according to his friend. I didn’t take it as such. He said he was just teasing. And then he jumped up and down and fake squealed in excitement. I’m not sure which reaction I prefer.).
But seriously, folks. Despite the surrounding drama, we both thought it was delicious, and certainly healthier than ice cream.
Disclaimer: Stephen is no drama queen. And I’m not a delicate flower whose emotional stability teeters on the edge of milkshake approval. He was totally kidding. And he really did love it. We’re just weird like that.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments »

Split pea soup – Or, the ugly duckling

April 9, 2011 by Hannah

Homemade split pea soup in white dish

It’s not much to look at. If you’ve never had it, you can probably imagine a lot of things you’d rather eat. But to those of us who have tasted good split pea soup, it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Back when I was looking for a split pea soup recipe, it seemed like they all involved some random piece of meaty bone that you boil with the soup and then discard. I’m not a huge fan of spending money on something I’m just going to throw out, so this recipe was the solution.

I can’t remember where I got this recipe. Off the internet somewhere a while back? Who knows. I made plenty of changes anyway. 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 medium carrots, chopped (I never peel my carrots if I’m putting them in soup. It’s a waste of time. It’s not like they have a “shell” or anything; the only reason we peel them is because they’re not pretty.)
  • 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 16-oz bag dried split peas (sift through the bag and check to make sure there are no tiny rocks mixed in!)
  • 8 cups chicken broth (I use fat-free low-sodium)
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt-free seasoning blend (I used a random “savory” mixture I had on hand. You probably have one of those too, but if not, splash together some thyme, basil, etc…)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • A few good shakes of Cholula hot sauce (This sauce is one of my staples. I grew up on it. Stephen is now addicted. You can use another hot sauce if you don’t have Cholula, though.)

You may be tempted to avoid the red pepper and hot sauce. Don’t. My friend Andrea is very sensitive to spicy foods, and she didn’t think it was spicy at all. It just adds extra flavor, I promise!

Directions

It’s actually very easy, especially if you’re lazy like me and mash the soup with a potato masher instead of puréeing it in a food processor or blender (hey, it’s fewer dishes to wash!).

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sautée the onion, carrot, celery and garlic until onion is translucent. Stir occasionally – it should just take about 5 minutes.
  2. Stir in the split peas. After about 30 seconds, stir in the broth, seasonings and salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer (lid still on!) for 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
  3. Mash with a potato masher. If you want a perfectly velvety soup, you can purée it in a food processor or blender, but mashing it actually does a pretty good job otherwise.

We ate it with homemade biscuits. Perfect.

Soup vegetables in pot - carrots, onions, celery, garlic, olive oil

Ready to add the peas:

Sauteed vegetables in pot

 

Herbs in soup ready to start cooking

 

Split pea soup after mashing

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

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