Kitchen Experiments : Risotto

Risotto had been a long-standing item in my 'To try' list - ever since I read about it in Vir Sanghvi's delicious book 'Rude Food'. And since I tasted the most divine mushroom risotto at Spaghetti Kitchen (Phoenix Mills, Mumbai) 2 years ago. (Its another thing that the second time I sampled SK's risotto a few month's back, it was nowhere near my first delightful experience!)

Like all classic dishes, this one seemed too simple to be true - but in its simplicity lay the danger of going wrong.In a complex dish with lots of ingredients, its relatively easy to cloak your mistakes - but in a dish which has one primary flavour/ingredient, a mistake is almost impossible to hide.

To add to this, the process of making a risotto seems riddled with pitfalls - there is no clear indication as to how long is the rice to be cooked (al dente is so relative!), at what stage does one safely assume that the stock has been absorbed by the rice - and most exapseratingly - how does one know that the rice looks 'wet and slightly dark because of its own starch' and not 'wet and slightly dark becuase of too much stock'?!!

After the Great Veggie Meatball Debacle, I was wary about trying anyhting new and exotic - but a pressing need to either use up or throw away some white wine (and ditto some fancy imported stock cubes)meant that I calmed my quaking heart and stepped into the kitchen to make risotto.I used some fat and short rice we'd got from the grocers (didnt want to splurge on Arborio/Carnaroli/other expensive imported rice, especially after the GVMD). Basically any rice which becomes sticky when cooked rather than each grain standing separate (like Basmati and other long-grained varieties) will do. Purists might turn their noses at anything less than Arborio, and yes, the quality of the risotto will vary according to the rice used (since the rice is the hero of this dish) but for a first-timer, any short-grained sticky rice type will do.

I also used bare essentials for the rest of the ingredients - I skipped the mushrooms and the chicken/seafood and used whatever white wine I had on hand, just so that I wouldnt feel bad in case the dish flopped.

And as luck would have it - it turned out well! Of course there's room (lots of it!) for improvement, but this was good enough to encourage me to try it again, this time with better ingredients. :)

I used the recipe (its actually more a process than a recipe) given in 'Rude Food' and since its a generic process, I dont have any qualms sharing it with you all here:

1. Make lots of stock - either from scratch (tough!) or use stock cubes/stock concentrate. This is the main flavouring for the risotto, so I would recomed using good quality cubes/concentrate, made entirely of natural ingredients. I used an imported Knorr chicken broth cube. A vegetable stock might be too feeble unless boosted by adding flavoursome mushrooms in the ristto.

2. If you're adding seafood/chicken/mushrooms to the risotto (I didnt) lightly saute them (till half-cooked) in olive oil and keep them aside.

3. Gently fry finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil or olive oil-and-butter. Add some dried mixed herbs.

4. Add raw, unwashed (yes!) rice straight from the packet(a good fistful/ 3/4ths of a cup per person) and saute with the onion and garlic for about3-4 minutes.

5. Add a splash of white wine (no particular type), enough to just cover the rice in the pan. Wait till the rice has absorbed the wine.

6. Add the hot stock, one ladle at a time and keep stirring the rice till the ladleful of stock is absorbed.

7. Repeat step 6 till the rice is cooked but not mushy. (Wikipedia says about 17 minutes after adding the first ladleful - but that is for those expensive rice varieties) If using mushrooms/chicken/seafood, add it to the rice midway through the cooking process.

8. The final risotto should be sticky, not runny (not like the Maharashtrian mau-bhaat!) with a gooey consistency.

Take it off the flame, add some butter/grated Parmesan and mix through. Serve piping hot.