Brown Rice side dish (veggie friendly)

So with the South Beach diet I have started experimenting with different foods, such as brown rice. This brown rice side dish I made last night was probably the best offering I've had so far and part of it was a mistake. I was originally cooking the criminis as a side for the pork chops but I felt the brown rice was lacking some oomph so I added the mushrooms which gave it a good depth of flavor. You could use stock instead of water here too, but Bittman and Ruhlman have convinced me to stop using the box stock from the store.

But here's the problem, the only thing I really measured out when I made this last night was the brown rice, everything else is an approximate of what I did. You have to play with the water to get it right, if you've cooked risotto before you'll be fine. I cooked this in a 5.5 quart dutch oven, hopefully it will work for you.

2 TBLSP butter
1 medium onion diced
5 cloves of garlic, diced
1.5 cups of brown rice
Boiling water
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms quartered
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Boil water and add dried mushrooms to rehydrate.

Place dutch oven over medium heat add butter and melt. Add two-thirds of the diced onion and cook until clear, 5-7 minutes, and then add rehydrated dried mushrooms. Add garlic, cook for another minute or two and then add brown rice. Store to coat with butter, onions and garlic for two to four minutes. Add enough water to cover everything and stir.

Cook until some of the water is absorbed and then add some more, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover for 10-20 minutes checking at least twice to give a stir. This is the hardest part, but if anything be cautious and check more frequently, it will take longer to cook but you won't have to worry about it sticking or having too much liquid.

In a cast iron pan over medium high heat add a little olive oil and then add remaining onion. After a minute or so add the quartered crimini mushrooms and some black pepper. Cook until they have a nice color and add salt, set aside over low heat to keep warm.

After rice is cooked (you need to taste it), add Parmesan and stir to combine. Add mushrooms and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed (I add a little salt and pepper throughout the entire cooking process, not just at the end).

Risotto Milanese

I was in the mood for some risotto last week, but didn't have a whole lot in the house so I decided to just make a Milanese, pretty basic and quite tasty.

4 TBLSP unsalted buttler
2 medium shallots diced
4 cloves of garlic diced
2 cups Aboria rice
1 cut dry white wine
5 cups of chicken stock
heavy pinch of saffron threads
1 cup of freshly grates Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium heat, add shallots and garlic and cook until clear. While that is cooking add the chicken stock to a sauce pan and warm, add saffron threads and keep at a bare simmer.

After garlic and shallots are clear add rice and cook for a minute or two. Add wine and cook until the rice has absorbed most of the moisture. Add saffron-infused stock a ladle or two at a time, adding more as the previous amount cooks off.

This is what makes risotto tough, you have to watch it, stir it and constantly be adding more liquid. It's labor intensive but worth it. After 20 to 30 minutes you should have added all the stock and when you try the risotto it should be done. If it isn't, add more water, bit by bit, until it is done.

After it's done remove from heat, add cheese, salt and pepper to taste. As you can see from the cpitrue you get this beautiful creamy dish that has a bright yellow color.

Risotto carbonara, kind of but not really

So last night I decided to make the risotto carbonara, or at least what I though would be risotto carbonara. I'm a big fan of pasta carbonara and have been experimenting with risotto so I decided to try something different. I didn't follow a recipe, the one I found online called for cream and putting cream in risotto is a sin. I figured I could do a basic carbonara, without the eggs because the starch in the risotto should fill in for the binding that the eggs provide, and be good to go. The end result was good, but not quite what I expected. Here's what I did.

Ingredients:

7 slices of bacon (chopped into half inch pieces)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Tblsp of olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 Tblsp of diced garlic
5 cups of chicken stock
1.5 cups of risotto (aborio rice)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Romano cheese

Chop the bacon and place in large saute pan over medium high heat with olive oil, render fat and cook until crispy. Remove bacon and place on a plate with paper towel.

Cut the chicken breasts into cubes and cook in the bacon fat until done. Remove and place on paper towel to drain.

Toss onion into the pan with the remaining fat and cook until just about brown and throw in the garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Pour the rice into the pan with the onions and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes stirring constantly. Place the chicken and bacon into the mixture and stir. Pour enough of the chicken stock to cover the mixture. Keep at a boil and stir almost constantly until a good portion of the stock is absorbed by the rice.

Turn down the heat and cover. You're going to want to cook it for about 15 minutes but you will want to check it and stir a few times before it'll be done. Stirring the rice is very important so it doesn't stick together and so it becomes creamy.

Before sering add a significant amount of cheese to each serving.

Now the end result isn't carbonara. It was really good, but it wasn't carbonara. The bacon and the chicken turned out really well and everything was very creamy. I don't know what I should do to make it more carbonara. Add the cheese while cooking? But for now I think I'll call it my bacon and chicken risotto.