Wonderful piece! I'm not a risotto boy...but immediately, on the way back from tennis, bought the necessary bulbs, (and crucially, a 3kg bag of organic chicken bones from butcher for a quid! pulled out the Arborio languishing at the back of the cupboard and almost, I wish, rolled up my old fave Golden Virginie, ...the stock took me two hours (later, half went in the hateful 2nd maw of the freezer) Meatime, freshly showered, I pampered the fat, tinkly, risotto grains with finely-mandolined (watch your thumb!) softnened onion and fennel (sadly, no garlic allowed on my pathetic tum), sprinkle of Pimentón, a thimble of Pinot Grigio left-over from Grace's bottle (I rarely drink white), and then cleaving to Bennett's superb advice of long slow ladling and swelling (the aforementioned G came in, raised an eyebrow 'Do you actually know how to do risotto?') until I reached (after much crunching of o oil crisps and sipping Portuguese pale yellow Vermouth on the rocks) the sweet soft pillowy creaminess prescribed ...the stock starting to create a kind of reluctant overflow- border around the edges of the rice mounds. And the result, (dusted with grainy parmi, stock-dribble, zest ridden parsley, G had to admit, was simply out of this fucking world and raised us into a kind of cloud of nutty, lemony, warm subtle sensuousness probably only available in the Lombardy Alps... Congrats and thank-you to C-L B!
I made a speedy mushroom risotto, through nessecity this evening (onions sauteed earlier) in about 20 mins. I agree it's a 'no'. A decent risotto needs 45 mins minimum & a good friend & a glass or three of wine.
Beautiful writing. If you haven't already, you should watch, I think it's called best restaurants in the world of something! With Angela hartnett in Venice. They visit a restaurant which she deams to make the best risotto in the world. The tactic here is actually to put the heat high and ferocious and cook it quickly in fish stock. I've tried this many a time and I personally prefer the result!
Wonderful piece! I'm not a risotto boy...but immediately, on the way back from tennis, bought the necessary bulbs, (and crucially, a 3kg bag of organic chicken bones from butcher for a quid! pulled out the Arborio languishing at the back of the cupboard and almost, I wish, rolled up my old fave Golden Virginie, ...the stock took me two hours (later, half went in the hateful 2nd maw of the freezer) Meatime, freshly showered, I pampered the fat, tinkly, risotto grains with finely-mandolined (watch your thumb!) softnened onion and fennel (sadly, no garlic allowed on my pathetic tum), sprinkle of Pimentón, a thimble of Pinot Grigio left-over from Grace's bottle (I rarely drink white), and then cleaving to Bennett's superb advice of long slow ladling and swelling (the aforementioned G came in, raised an eyebrow 'Do you actually know how to do risotto?') until I reached (after much crunching of o oil crisps and sipping Portuguese pale yellow Vermouth on the rocks) the sweet soft pillowy creaminess prescribed ...the stock starting to create a kind of reluctant overflow- border around the edges of the rice mounds. And the result, (dusted with grainy parmi, stock-dribble, zest ridden parsley, G had to admit, was simply out of this fucking world and raised us into a kind of cloud of nutty, lemony, warm subtle sensuousness probably only available in the Lombardy Alps... Congrats and thank-you to C-L B!
I made a speedy mushroom risotto, through nessecity this evening (onions sauteed earlier) in about 20 mins. I agree it's a 'no'. A decent risotto needs 45 mins minimum & a good friend & a glass or three of wine.
Beautiful writing. If you haven't already, you should watch, I think it's called best restaurants in the world of something! With Angela hartnett in Venice. They visit a restaurant which she deams to make the best risotto in the world. The tactic here is actually to put the heat high and ferocious and cook it quickly in fish stock. I've tried this many a time and I personally prefer the result!
❤️❤️❤️