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Pathetically happy with myself for a successful first attempt at cooking risotto last night, super basic recipe in anticipation of ruining it but with the exception of being a bit too salty due to the stock cubes I used it was pretty damn good.
So what's the best alternative to salty knorr stock cubes, just buy low salt ones?
Any way to healthify it a bit? Slightly shocked at the amount of parmesan and butter the recipe called for, although given how filling it was you probably don't end up with much butter per portion...
Looking forward to incorporating some saffron, I reckon that will look amazing with some roast cherry tomatoes on top...
Well done for getting cooking!
Use left over risotto to make arancini balls.
Shallots are nice in the base as they melt down.
Roast chicken dinner, carcass for stock then next day risotto.
Kallo stock cubes are less salty than Knorr ones (IMO).
Salmon, Spinach, Sun Dried Tomato and Creme Fraise Risotto a favourite of ours.
RM.
I use Marigold stock power rather than cubes, I find it gives a better, more subtle taste. Of course if you want to fanny about a bit more you can make your own veg or light chicken stock.
My routine is to fill a big flask with boiling water, put a big slug of marigold powder in the first addition of liquid to the risotto then top up bit by bit from the flask. That saves having a pan of stock simmering on the hob.
A splash of white wine before the stock, allowed to boil down, adds flavour, as does a splash at the end of cooking. Forget healthy, it isn't.
Some ideas here How to eat
stock pots are nicer than stock cubes, but it's super easy to make your own stock should you be inclined, it will make a big difference to your risotto, it will also help with a fuller flavour allowing you to use less butter and parmesan (although why would you)
add any vegetable to this, peas are easy, as are mushrooms (a nice robust shiitake one is amazing)
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/feb/23/foodanddrink.shopping1
If you can be arsed to make stock its way better that the salt cubes
https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/vegetable-stock
Second marigold. Substitute some stock with white wine. My recipe usually includes sun dried tomatoes and blue cheese.
Love adding smoked mackerel for a nice oily fish risotto.
One of my favourite dishes to make. One pan, loads of flavours and normally have enough stuff in the cupboards to knock one up.
Taleggio is the king of cheeses for a risotto, smells a bit like dog shit when it's ripe, but it's bloody good.
Thanks folks.
One of my biggest regrets in life is that I'm allergic to fish, although thankfully shellfish are OK.
Like the thermos tip, I forgot to keep stock hot and noticed it taking the heat out of the pan, but rescued it quickly enough.
Really tempted to try and incorporate some slow cooked lamb, nicely falling apart on top of a nice glob of risotto, maybe with peas in it...
If I use powdered stock then I put much less in than recommended otherwise it ends up way too salty, and even then I only use low salt.
Broad beans work really well as does asparagus.
Yes also forgot white wine. For the proper Floyd.
Agree with the smoked mackerel, it's brilliant in risotto, half torn up and stirred in and the rest piled on top. Big fat prawns are good. Waitrose do some lovely "lightly smoked salmon fillets". Half of one of those seared on the skin side but flesh still underdone, is really good sitting on top of a fairly plain risotto.
I find a splash of vermouth in early gives more flavour variation. Second the homemade stock and shallots. Bacon and rosemary is another good combo.
I've always used the green OXO cubes. I made a leek & potato soup yesterday using the Knorr ones and it tasted OK but it was kinda... green.
I've got a mushroom risotto recipe somewhere which I'm not personally a fan of (I'm not overly keen on mushrooms generally) but has gone down a storm whenever I've made it for others. I'll see if I can find it, it's on a scrap of paper somewhere in the kitchen.
I quite enjoy this recipe as I love tomatoes, and it's v easy to make
https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/roasted-tomato-risotto.html
If you must use stock cubes then use the right amount for the liquid you'll have left at the end of the process, not the amount you start with.
EG if you need 500ml of stock and one whole stock cube makes up 500ml stock, but will reduce by half during cooking then use half a stock cube in your intital 500ml water.
But homemade stock is infinity times more betterer. Even if no chicken carcass to make stock, you can buy liquid stock in supermarket or even roasting some vegetables and making stock from that is still better than stock cube.
From best to worst.
1. Homemade chicken stock
2. Store bought chicken stock
3. Homemade vegetable stock
4. Chicken stock cube
Roasted butternut squash is good in risotto, but will put you in a carb coma.
I like a smoked haddock one with leek and peas and parmesan mixed in, and a poached egg on top.
Good post ride one that, as it's not short of calories or salt.
I like a smoked haddock one with leek and peas and parmesan mixed in, and a poached egg on top.
Ooh that sounds good. I've done leek risotto and that works better than I thought it would.
Add more bacon. Generally sound advice for most cooking, except puddings (if you're allowed)
I had a vensison in red wine risotto in Yorkshire years ago, was very tasty. Its was something like this altough im sure the chef didnt use stock cubes or pots.
https://thymeforcookingblog.com/2016/03/venison-mushroom-red-wine-risotto/
rabbit heads were definitly not involved
Mushrooms and peppers and chopped onion. A light stock and start the process by adding a little sparkling wine, then a bit of stock and keep alternating the two fluids.
Joe Wicks butternut squash risotto is superb.
I use low salt stock/bouillon powder. Marigold brand. It’s in a tub. If by any chance hung up on cubes then Kallo low sodium work.
A mushroom risotto cooked with pearl barley instead of rice. Sometimes use tarragon. It’s good. Some supermarkets do mixed ‘woodland’ mushrooms, ie a selection of diff types. Those. Or porcini.
Saffron risotto, basically buttery sweated onions, white wine, rice, then add chicken stock with plenty of saffron. Finish with lots of Parmesan and butter.
Excellent stuff, a strong shout for Marigold powder.
Am a big fan of leek too, definitely trying that.
Dried porcini mushroom, rehydrated in the stock, is a winner.
Also love rocket stirred through risotto, basil on and top, and some roast toms on the side.
Also love rocket stirred through risotto, basil on and top, and some roast toms on the side.
All my favourite ingredients right there!
Happy days!
Makes it look a bit better too, instead of just a plate of risotto!.
Squid ink and calamari.
A trick I worked out for using strong flavours like mushrooms is to fry them separately with garlic & butter and add them to the risotto at the end, so they are like little taste explosions in the comforting, starchy rice.
+1 for tarragon being good with mushrooms.
And don't be afraid to chuck some toasted pine nuts in.
Chicken, leek and butternut squash is a regular with us, also bacon, leek and pea. Another is Smoked haddock, leek and spinach.
Oven baked risottos rule. Google is your friend. I much prefer the flavours, texture and ease of them.
Agree with cooking the additions separately. Just throwing king prawns into risotto boils them and they'll turn out tough. Fried in butter separately then added at the end tastes better.
And second the tallegio, reduce the butter and use this
I'm another fan of adding and reducing a glass of vermouth before the stock goes in. Bacon and pea risotto is my go to easy recipe, but also had success adding roasted squash, crab, sautéed mushrooms, leftover pulled pork or pretty much anything tasty and savoury.
Definitely make too much for the next day and/or arancini
I've tried making too much, but it never gets left over for some reason.
Nothing in the house risotto...
Cook some frozen petit pois in some chicken stock (I actually quite like the Knoor stock pots, think they are okay). Reserve the stock after draining, and purée the peas with butter and lots of basil.
Cook a plain risotto as normal (I use Noilly Prat), stir through the puréed peas once the rice is cooked. Good as it it, or top with anything from frilled halloumi, toasted walnuts, pancetta, scallops, prawns with a big squeeze of lemon, grilled chicken or pork - the list goes on...
It’s a bit of a staple for when we’ve forgotten to shop, but we’ve always got peas, rice, Parmesan, shallots and butter in.
Biryani = a nicer type of risotto.
Do that instead.
Marigold bouillon boiled with the heads and shells of the whole raw prawns you peeled and set to one side. Some onion/shallot softened in butter. Add rice and stir, waiting for translucently and change in sound, then a splash of vermouth/white wine and start adding the stock and stirring. Towards the end you can add frozen peas with the prawns to let them cook through. Finish with a squeeze of lemon.
Bookmarked!!
frilled halloumi
Fresh fennel, fried with the onions at the start is very tasty. If you want to make it a bit healthier you can ditch the butter at the end for some cottage cheese, but make sure you take it off the heat for a few minutes beforehand. Truffle oil is great with a mushroom risotto as is a few chilli flakes.
The best tip I have is get a pressure cooker. You can fry your onions/garlic rice, chuck everything else in and cook it in 12 minutes, without the time consuming process of stirring and gradually adding stock. 400g of rice and a litre of stock plus whatever vegetables and other things you fancy turns out perfectly. Just stir in your parmesan/butter at the end.
With the pressure cooker you can also throw in frozen veg or fish and it will cook in the same time.
Biryani = a nicer type of risotto.
Or, actually nothing like Risotto.
Good stock, pref home made. Not cubes, not those little gel things, not the veg powder either. You can always make a quick veg stock using the trimming of the veg you are going to add, eg asparagus, pea pods, leeks etc.
Lots of butter.
Wine or vermouth before the stock, easy if vermouth or it overpowers
Baking or pressure cooker is not the same, you have to stir.
Don't leave the wine out, or it'll always feel like it's lacking something. You don't have to add your stock a ladleful at a time either, well according to Marco Pierre White anyway, he recommends half and half, I do it that way now and it works fine.
Grating lemon zest in at the beginning is nice, especially with chicken, fish or asparagus, also if you like asparagus cook it in your stock and set aside to add at the end, I sometimes leave a piece in there, gives the stock and so the risotto a lovely gentle asparagus flavour, nice with chicken.
Nothing beats a proper chcken stock but stockpots are much nicer than stock cubes.
Having some tunes on in the kitchen helps.
pressure cooker is not the same, you have to stir
What difference do you find in the end result?
Dried mushrooms. The water you use to rehydrate them makes a delicious base for a stock - just remember to pass through a fine sieve to get the grit out. I echo the comments re using white wine/ butter/ parmesan. Don't skimp.
Italians look away now, I use chicken fat instead of butter or olive oil.
Day 1 Roast chicken and enjoy your roast dinner, when you skim the gravy pour the fat in a jar and store in the fridge. After dinner boil the carcass with just enough water to cover for 2 hours to make real stock. Strain the stock into a container and store in the fridge so the chicken fat will float to top and freeze solid.
Day 2 sieve stock into a large pan add the strained fat to you jam jar in the fridge.
Sweat your onions and celery in the chicken fat rather than butter or olive oil, in a separate pan over a very low heat, for the 20-25 minutes it takes to cook the rice
Toast the rice in chicken fat and make your risotto with the simmering chicken stock.
Popular additions in our house.
Finely diced carrots and peas.
Cubed squash and sage leaves fried til crispy in butter.
Asparagus, cut of the tips and slice the stalks into 5mm pieces, cook in the chicken stock, peel the woody ends and simmer those in the stock until they are tender enough to puree with a hand blender, stir this through to create a lovely green risotto.
Diced beetroot and feta. again simmer the trimmings from the beetroot til tender, puree and stir through the finished rissoto
Spinach and mushrooms fried with garlic.
Diced beetroot and feta. again simmer the trimmings from the beetroot til tender, puree and stir through the finished rissoto
Of the many good tips in the posts above, this caught my eye, an appealing combo!
You don’t have to add your stock a ladleful at a time either, well according to Marco Pierre White anyway, he recommends half and half, I do it that way now and it works fine.
You may not have to, but it's part of the fun.
With a glass of wine on the go a la Keith Floyd, obvs.
You may not have to, but it’s part of the fun.
100% this, I like to cherish and tend to my food as I cook it, so much better than paella which you are specifically prohibido from stirring while it cooks.
Yum yum.
Risotto's one of my specials, I'm surprised when on masterchef they overcook it (or get congratulated on not overcooking it) - to me it's all about stirring and frequent tasting with a jug of hot stock ready to add a bit more and a bit more until it's done. If you do that, what's hard?
Now for the controversy..... I like prawn and chorizo (which i know is not Italian, but it's tasty). And also you can make a nice variation with quinoa or orzo, neither of which are technically risotto but make a nice change.
Don't diss it, branch out.......
I love Orzo, quinoa isnae bad, but neither of them are risotto, or anything like it. Same goes for pearl barley!.
Having made risotto the traditional way, and the pressure cooker way, I can't taste any difference, so it's 12 minutes cooking time for me! Give it a shot, you might be surprised...
My usual go-to is mushroom+thyme, but made a nice one a couple of weeks back with the remains of a roast chicken + peas. Either way I fry up an onion until it's soft, add the main ingredient (mushroom or chicken), cook a bit more, then add a glass of white wine + the rice. And then the stock, a glass at a time. (I always buy a tetra brik of stock, never a cube). I chucked the peas in 5 minutes from the end. Then stir in butter + grated parmesan.
And this:
With a glass of wine on the go a la Keith Floyd, obvs.
Well you wouldn't want to waste the rest of the bottle.
I like prawn and chorizo (which i know is not Italian, but it’s tasty)
That's my Paella recipe! (and since I've never made any claim to being Spanish, authenticity can get stuffed).
We're on a strict one chorizo a month regime, was beginning to cook with it too often..
Well you wouldn’t want to waste the rest of the bottle.
Not so long as I have a second bottle ready chilled to accompany the actual dinner.
That's one of the reasons I don't have risotto very often TBH, I find a nice bottle of white absolutely essential to the experience... so it's not usually one for weeknights.
I like prawn and chorizo
Yeah I use chorizo in mine too as it adds a nice smokey flavour. I guess that, in reality, it is becoming more of a paella though. Not that it's a bad thing as the two are pretty interchangeable really.
I find that sweet potato makes for a good veggie option.
Yeah I use chorizo in mine too as it adds a nice smokey flavour. I guess that, in reality, it is becoming more of a paella though.
Not really as chorizo is not a paella ingredient.
Not really as chorizo is not a paella ingredient.
Well I tried a quick Google and found this at the top of the page
😛
I'm pretty sure Paella is cooked in accordance with what is available locally, seafood, rabbit, whatever, it's not protected like champagne or arbroath smokies is it?.
I've had it in Paella in rural Spain, in what seemed like a few fairly traditional restaurants...
I've not had a traditional/authentic paella that I've liked as much as my own! Not saying it's good, or authentic for that matter, but I still prefer it
That’s one of the reasons I don’t have risotto very often TBH, I find a nice bottle of white absolutely essential to the experience… so it’s not usually one for weeknights.
...which is probably the reason I prefer my own paella to restaurant paella i.e. I've had the pleasure of cooking my own, the combination of half a bottle of red wine whilst inhaling the fumes from the white wine and saffron in my paella pan. It's a heady mix!
another one for Butternut Squash. My children love it. I follow Kate Percy version, and have all her books. Don't why, but the children love her versions of it.
Nigella has a video of Chorizo risotto somewhere online. It uses red vermouth as the first liquid addition and has pink-ish rice by the end.
I’m pretty sure Paella is cooked in accordance with what is available locally, seafood, rabbit, whatever, it’s not protected like champagne or arbroath smokies is it?.
There are a few varieties, but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it. That's not to say you can't stick it in, and I'm not surprised Tesco and other UK supermarkets sell "paella" with it in, but they're not following a Spanish recipe.
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it
Even after I posted up all those recipes with it in!
I have also just Googled 'Proper Spanish Paella Recipe' and got these results...
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it
I'll mention that to the chefs next time I'm in the lovely restaurants we ate it in when in the sierra subbetica, tell him it's not really spanish.... 🙂
I have also just Googled ‘Proper Spanish Paella Recipe’ and got these results…
There's a surprise, English websites including chorizo in paella... 🙂
Here's everyone's favourite fat-tongued English chef who published a recipe for paella with chorizo in it, see what reaction he got: https://www.elmundo.es/television/2017/11/02/59fa0ab6e5fdea6f448b458e.html
Nothing like the shocked amusement when they discovered Tesco had (at one point) sold paella sandwiches, though.
I can't say I care either way, there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo - they're just not known as paella.
I can’t say I care either way, there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo – they’re just not known as paella.
But I.. ohh, sod it, I give up.
But I.. ohh, sod it, I give up.
Pretty stupid argument on a thread about risotto, anyway 😀
but no Spanish paella has chorizo in it.
In the parts of Spain that Mogrim has eaten in. (To qualify the statement as it's a huge country and Madrid Paella differs from Girona paella which differs from Valencia paella and that's just in the East).
Remember rice is for lunch, only tourists eat it in the evening and Valencien paella is the true way according to the people I met there last month!
there are loads of Spanish recipes with rice+chorizo – they’re just not known as paella.
Shall we just call it "arroz con chorizo" and everyone can be happy?
Valencien paella is the true way according to the people I met there last month!
Just double-checked with the Valencian girl sitting behind me, and there's no doubt they're right 🙂