March Daring Cooks Challenge - Risotto!

Wow, it's been a long time - I have to apologize for my long silence.  We were hit pretty hard by a series of winter sicknesses, killer DC snowstorms, and a long vacation (okay, the last one wasn't very painful).  Even though I haven't been writing much, I've certainly been cooking, and I have a long backlog of recipes to share with you.  What better way to kick that off than with my first Daring Cooks challenge?

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

 
 
I was very excited to see risotto for my first challenge; this is one of my favorite dishes, but I've not done taken the time to experiment with flavors as much as I'd like.  The challenge required making your own chicken stock (great news - I now have a freezer full of leftover stock) and specified the risotto base, but we were free to choose our own flavors. 

I opened this choice up to John, and he asked for mushrooms.  I used the shredded chicken from making the stock and a mix of risotto and cremini mushrooms, and let me tell you, it was awesome.  I sauteed the mushrooms in butter, then used the same pot to make the risotto.  This created a nice, deep mushroom flavor without overcooking the mushrooms.  The only thing I would change next time is that I felt the dish could use an herb flavor, but I couldn't figure out what herb I would like to add - maybe some thyme?  Let me know if you have ideas on what would work well with these flavors!

Mushroom Chicken Risotto

Ingredients:
8T butter (split use)
12 oz mixed mushrooms, sliced (I used 8 oz shitake and 4 oz cremini)
Risotto base (see below)
2 cups of shredded, cooked chicken

Directions:

1. Melt 2T butter over medium in a stockpot, dutch oven or other medium to large pot
2. Add the mushrooms and saute until they release their liquid, then continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently
3. Follow instructions below to make risotto base
4. When the rice is almost done (as you are adding your last batch of stock), mix back in the mushrooms and the shredded chicken
5. Finish cooking risotto, then stir in remaining 6T butter and 100 ml reserved stock

 

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
2. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
3. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
4. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
5. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
6. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
7. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Risotto Base

Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g
Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
7. Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
8. Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

Comments

[Audax Artifex]

That final risotto looks so luscious and scrumptious. Wonderful you are back after all the winter blues. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia. I think chervil or chives would be good.