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Sunday, March 14, 2010

March Daring Cooks:Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

The MUST in this challenge were to make your own stock and risotto base. After than your creative imagination could take control.

I decided to toast some spices and add those into the stock recipe. I didn't have a whole chicken in my freezer at this time so I just used chicken wings. I made a smaller amount because I only had about 1-lb of the wings and didn't want to purchase extra food just for this challenge. My "stock" turned into more of a broth, but it was still tasty.

Preparation time:
Stock: 20 minutes prep time, 3 hours cooking.


Equipment required:
• 5 Litre stock pot, or other large pan
• knife
• chopping board
• tablespoon
• teaspoon
• sieve
• ladle
• hand blender (optional)
• wooden spoon or other stirring implement
• grater
• saucepans
• measuring cups
• scales

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice


Directions:

1.Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil

2.Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface

3.Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil

4.Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours

5.Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!

6.Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters

7.Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.








My chosen risotto recipe came out of necessity. I had 1 extra cup of mashed sweet potatoes after making some Sweet Potato Biscuits for my sister's birthday. I had already been trying to come up with ideas for this challenge and this helped me settle on something. I had frozen corn and a cabinet full of spices and herbs, so why not sweet potatoes and corn with some curry? Instead of the white wine called for in the initial recipe I used some marsala.


Since I pretty much changed the recipe, I won't post the one from the challenge. Instead, I will post my version.

Sweet Potato and Corn Risotto

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onions
10 ounces risotto
3 1/2 cups broth
1 tablespoon marsala
8 ounces sweet potatoes, mashed
4 ounces frozen corn, thawed
1/8 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of pepper
sprinkle of nutmeg
sprinkle of cinnamon


Heat olive oil and butter, then add onions. Sautee until translucent. Add risotto and stir constantly for 5 minutes.


Add about a cup of stock at a time to the risotto and stir until each addition is absorbed. Once all stock has been absorbed add the marsala, sweet potatoes, and spices. Stir until everything is well blended.


Serve immediately
This recipe has the sweetness from the potatoes, but not enough heat. Personally, I would kick up the heat with more chili powder, but if you don't like spicy foods this would be perfect.












2 comments:

Audax said...

Sweet potato curry risotto sounds delicious and it looks so good from the photos. Bravo on you effort. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

penny aka jeroxie said...

Oh! that is a delightful combination of flavours. I can see that working pretty well. YUM. I must try using sweet potato in my next risotto.