Risotto......how?

[TattooedGrrrl]

I have a packet of arborio rice. Then what? Ideas please!

Loads of things, are you vegetarian?

no i'm not

To make a basic risotto, you coat the rice in olive oil in the pan and then make about 1 pint of stock and a cup of white wine. Add the stock and the wine a bit at a time and let it boil off. You need to keep stirring the rice. The easiest thing to do then is to add some grated parmesan cheese at the end and stir unti melted and there you have it.

gently fry/sweat veg (onions, celery, whatever else takes your fancy)in a large pan. Bring stock to boil in another pan. Add rice and meat to the veg(chicken and chorizo is a good combo, but we generally have 'fridge' risotto made from leftovers), fry for a couple of minutes, then add one ladle of hot stock - stir. Keep stirring over a low heat for the next 20 mins whilst adding stock one ladle at a time when the last one has been absorbed. When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off, add a lump of butter and/or some grated parmesan, stick the lid on and leave it for 10 minutes.

Stir and eat.

(or look up a proper recipe somewhere )

thanks guys- chicken and chorizo sounds good.

I coat the rice with a chunk of butter and stir in a chopped onion first.

You can add all sorts.
Grated butternut squash
Pancetta cubes and parmesan
mushroom and smoked bacon
Asparagus
Beetroot (best as a small starter portion)
sunblush tomatoes and basil

loads more.

Try googling and you will find loads of ideas

Pea and prawn is nice too.

I love mixed seafood. Monkfish, red mullet - you name it.

Oh yes, even just those preprepared seafood packets that are fairly cheap, add a good squeeze of lemon and some parsley. mmm

I love chorizo and stilton - yum

Fry off the rice in a load of butter with chopped onion and garlic. Add half a bottle of white wine until its evaporated, then add the stock, ladle by ladle until the rice is cooked. Make sure each ladle is completely soaked in before adding the next one. Add in cooked chorizo towards the end and a few chunks of stilton. When cooked add a few chunks of butter and leave with the lid on for a few minutes. Makes it really creamy (albeit not the healthiest thing in the world )

Roast butternut squash with sage is our favourite. Followed by porcini [cries because can't do proper risotto on WeightWatchers]

Roast butternut squash mashed up and stirred in to make it orange and some cream cheese is delicious...it's about the only thing the whole family will eat, reliably. Not authentic, probably, but yummy. I quite often do mushrooma and pancetta for adults-only.

Risotto is great - very soothing to make, and although it needs constant stirring it doesn't need much else so I can chop everything in advance then stir and fling ingredients in with a baby on my left hip...

ooh i have some squash, it sounds nice. I bet the kids would eat that too.