Risotto every homecook's worst nightmare..... NOT

About a couple of years ago I was taught by a family friend how to make risotto. I had seen a lot of different variations of risotto and thought it seemed like an interesting versatile dish that you can basically add anything you like in it. This first risotto was just a plain risotto with onion, wine, parmagiano reggiano but on top was some Osso Bucco that I also learned how to make. Recently because it was halloween, my family was too busy to bother carving the pumpkin my mom had bought so instead of wasting it and throwing it in the compost like a good Canadian... I decided to use it and make risotto. I had seen a video of Gordon Ramsay making pumpkin risotto and it looked amazing. The thing that made me want to make it was when he poured this beautiful creamy looking pumpkin puree out of his blender.. As soon as I saw that I was like dang I want to make it!

  There are a few risotto basics and I guess cooking basics about risotto  I'd like to share.

1. Cooking wine. There is quite a controversy between some cooks who say use wine you would only drink and some cooks that say just use whatever. I'm part of the crowd that says use whatever. Whenever I go to the LCBO I typically try to look for affordable wines. I was not really a wine fanatic because I liked the smell more than the taste of the wine. However after going to a couple wineries and learning how to actually like wine... I can now say I like wine just a tad. Having said that we do go to LCBO and look for wines that are below the $10 range for cooking. I really would rather drink a more expensive wine than use it for cooking. When you are cooking the wine you are changing the temperature which to some wine aficionados you should never do because wine should be drank at certain temperatures... blah blah blah. So basically buy a couple of cheap bottles of wine leave it in your cold room or under your sink or wherever you want and use it to bring your dish to a "completely different level" as Gordon Ramsay would say.

2. Arborio Rice. When you are looking to cook risotto go to the local Metro or Highland Farms and look for ARBORIO RICE or ITALIAN STYLE RICE. Either one will do. You can't use like chinese rice or basmati rice because with the arborio rice it has a lot of starch which adds to the creaminess of the risotto. Again buy a couple bags of arborio rice and leave it in your storage.

3. Cooking oil. Typically for cooking I use a combination of grapeseed oil and light tasting olive oil. Again some people argue you should never use extra virgin olive oil for cooking and the other group says use it. Personally I used to cook with extra virgin olive oil but it is such a tasty olive oil and much pricier than light tasting olive oil so I switched to light tasting olive oil. I use grapeseed oil because its a neutral flavoured oil and I think its actually good for you... not too sure.

4. Parmagiano Reggiano and Parmesan Cheese. One cheese is extra tasty and is actually real. The other cheese some stores don't refrigerate... which to me means that parmesan cheese isn't really cheese. With risotto you can use either. I like using a microplane and shaving parmagiano reggiano into the risotto. I feel it has a better taste.

5. Chicken Stock Cubed or real stock. I like using both. I always make my own chicken stock after having a left over roasted chicken carcass. I find its quite tasty and can be used for adding to soups, sauces, or risotto. But for convenience factor I also do use cubed stock. Because Marco Pierre White started working for Knorr as their celebrity spokesperson for their stock cube I have been using that one. I find it is quite tasty but I like Marco Pierre White. He's a legit chef and has taught a majority of the great chefs today like Gordon Ramsay.  This is how his Knorr Chicken Stock pot looks like when you go to Metro or any other grocery store. I typically add one of these stock pots to my real chicken stock pot to add more flavour and enhance the chicken flavour within the stock.

-------------------- Now to the Risotto
This is the basic steps to starting a risotto
A drizzle of olive oil to coat the bottom of a sautee pan
1/2 onion diced
2 cups of white wine (CHEAP!)
About 8-10 cups of chicken stock heated
1 or 1/2 bag of arborio rice depending on how many people you are cooking for

In a sautee pan on high heat add your olive oil in. Let it start to smoke a little. Do not forget to turn on your fan over your burners!

Add your onions and stir around in the olive oil. You are trying to sweat the onion which means you do not want to caramelize the onion you want it to become transparent so that when the risotto is done it still has a bit of a crunch but isn't bitter.

When the onions have sweated add in your arborio rice. Stir it around in the onions and olive oil until you can scrape the bottom of the pan with your wooden spoon and the feeling is quite dry and awkward... ( I have no other way to describe the feeling) Make sure your rice is slightly transparent and you can see a bit of a beed inside each of the rice.

Add in your white wine. This is one of my favourite sounds when making risotto when you hear the pan just absorb that wine into the rice and sizzle!

Stir in that wine until the rice has absorbed it.

Add a laddle at atime of the chicken stock and stir it in. You have to constantly stir the risotto. It is a dish that requires a lot of love. It will be around 20 minutes of constant  stirring but the result is amazing! You never want to have a pan of risotto without any liquid in it. Keep doing this until your risotto is cooked to your liking . I like it when there is a bit of a bite. When I taste a bite I then add in my grated parmagiano reggiano and stir it in. Some people add some butter in here at this point but I try to avoid it to make my risotto a tad healthier.  So this point I add my grated parmagiano reggiano and then I season with salt & pepper.

This is the really basic version of risotto. Once you master those basic steps you can go and try adding different flavours like when you are cooking your onions you can add some diced pancetta to add a nice bite and smokiness to the dish or like I did is add pureed pumpkin and roasted pumpkin to it.

Here are some pictures of my pumpkin risotto that I made:

This is my pureed pumpkin. Basically cooked diced pumpkin until it is soft and then add some water and puree it!

Sauteeing some diced pumpkin to add more texture to the risotto with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon

The finished product!

Roasted pumpkin, shaved parmagiano reggiano, and baby arugula

I just diced the huge pumpkin, deseeded it and then diced it and shaved off the outer skin and diced it to the size I want. Half of it I cooked and pureed it into the beautiful orange pumpkin puree and the other half I sauteed in butter and brown sugar. Delicious I recommend you to try it out! You can also use the same principles and apply them to Butternut squash!

I hope my tips help you out! Let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below!

Happy Cooking!

KMW