risotto

Risotto

This one scrumptious risotto I’ve ever made… Been perfecting my risotto and it took me awhile to finally made a perfect one. A little bit of practice and it will be one of the frequent menu on the table. Finding the right ingredient is the key. I finally found Arborio rice in one of the supermarkets. It’s a delight to have the sight of it at last. I have tried instant risotto in fancy boxes. They are quite good but nothing beats it when you do it with real ingredients and do the long way instead of just putting it in a pot and in an instant you get a short-cut of what you are looking for. Sometimes short-cut works but with risotto, I prefer to do it. It won’t take that long anyway, preparation and cooking time took 30 minutes, which is not too bad.

Ingredients:

1 cup Arborio rice

½ cup diced Parma ham

½ cup diced Bacon

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 glass white wine

2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

1 large white onion

1 liter chicken stock

1 Tablespoon butter

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Procedure:

Boil the chicken stock; while boiling, heat olive oil in a casserole and sauté garlic and onion until onion becomes translucent; not brown.

Add Parma ham and bacon. Continue sautéing.

Add Arborio rice and stir constantly.

When the rice has absorbed the oil and color becomes pale, add white wine.

Continue stirring until all the white wine has absorbed. This allows the alcohol to evaporate and the flavor of the wine is absorbed in the rice.

Add 1 ladleful of chicken stock and continue stirring. Wait until the chicken stock is fully absorbed by the rice before adding another ladleful of chicken stock. Continue this process until the rice is done all the stock has been added and the rice is done. The consistency should not be too gooey and the rice should be al-dente.

Add parmesan cheese and just before serving, add butter.

Best served when hot.

Mixed Fried Rice

Mixed Fried Rice

Have you had one of those days when all you need is a one pot meal? Yeah, that’s how we feel sometimes, when we don’t know what to cook and suddenly this lazy idea comes in mind. Looking at the pantry… Bling! Bling! Mixed Fried Rice! Why? Because its easy and you will never go wrong… Just throw in different veggies, canned goods or left over meat.

Ingredients:
Onion (minced)
Garlic (minced)
Cooked plain rice
1 tin can tuna chunks
1 pc. Smoked Chorizo
1 egg, fried separately
1 carrot (diced)

Procedure:
Fry egg separately, slice in thin strips and set aside. Sauté onion and garlic, add tuna, chorizo, and carrot. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes, add cooked rice, stir-fry for another minute until all the flavors are incorporated. Add the thin strips of egg, fry for another minute. Done. Serve while it is still warm.

Spicy Beef and Rice Wraps

I’ve been exploring lately on puff pastries and I don’t know where I went wrong on my last try, the puff pastry just didn’t puff!!! None the less, this time I made it right. I finally found the tricks, or maybe it’s just my oven. After baking for about 10 minutes at gas 10 (around 270 degrees C ), put on the grill for 2 minutes and the pastry just puffed in few seconds!

Why I’m using ready made pastry? Simply because they are easily available and very convenient to use and besides, I haven’t succeeded making my own puff pastry. I’ll have to work on that yet.

I have an extra puff pastry which is thawed and I hate throwing things just like that, instead of serving the leftover vegetable fried rice last night with the wraps, I used the rice as a filling as well. They look good, but I know its carb overload but what the heck! That makes a quick lunch for us!

Anyway, here’s how I did it.

Ingredients:

2 sheets Puff pastry (ready made)
1 pcc. Slightly beaten egg

Filling:
200 g Beef (Sliced thinly in strips)
1 pc Carrot (Sliced thinly in strips)
1 pc Red Bell Pepper or capsicum (Sliced thinly in strips)
1 tsp. Oil

Seasonings: a dash of the following:
Cinnamon powder
Chili powder
Cumin powder
Paprika powder
Ground black and white pepper
Salt

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 270 degrees C. (Gas 8)

Prepare the filling:
Season the beef with a dash of all the seasonings and rub or massage them to the beef to mix the flavors.


Spicy Beef filling


Heat a nonstick pan, add oil and add beef piece by piece until beef becomes a little firm, keep them moving they randomly turn over to cook the other side. This way, the beef stays in long strips, not curled up. If you put them all together in one go, the beef would curl up. As soon as the sides of the beef are charred or have turned dark brown, they are done. Add the carrot and bell pepper/capsicum and stir with the beef. Cook another minute and the filling is done. Transfer the cooked filling in a plate to cool down in room temperature.

Assemble the wraps:
It is important not to put the filling when its still hot, otherwise the puff pastry will turn soggy. Another tip is do not thaw completely the puff pastry, it is better to thaw them in the fridge and keep it cool until ready to use.

Divide the sheet into 4 equal squares. Place the filling in each square and seal the pastry on opposite sides and brush with beaten egg.


Divide the sheet of puff pastry into 4 squares


Place the filling at the center of the square and seal with egg wash


Bake for 10 minutes on high temperature and on the last minute, put on the grill until brown.

Arroz Branco

Arroz Branco

A good alternative to the conventional plain boiled rice..Different aroma, different texture, and slightly different taste. jst give it a bit of twist than usual! Smells great!

Ingredients:
2 Cups Rice
2 Cups Water
1 Pc. white onion (finely chopped)
3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 bay leaves
Salt

Procedure :
With a medium fire, heat olive oil in a deep pan, add onion until soft but not brown, add bayleaves, stir-fry for a minute. Add rice and stir vigorously until the flavours are blended well with the rice. Add water and season with salt. Simmer for 15 minutes stirring occationally until the rice is done. Serve with favorite side dish... This gives a different smell and texture of the usual boiled rice.

Parsley Rice

Simply add finely chopped parsley to newly cooked rice. Add parsley while still hot.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Vegetable Fried Rice

Ingredients:
2 cups c ooked rice
8 pcs. Green beans
1 Yellow
1 Red Bell Pepper
EggplantOnion
Garlic
Tomatoes
¼ cup water
1 cube chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Procedure:

Slice vegetables and set aside. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent but not burned, add sliced vegetables, except tomatoes, stirring occasionally. Add the vegetables until all the liquid has evaporated, add water and stock, and continue cooking until vegetables are nearly done. Add rice and season with salt and pepper.

Green Peas Rizotto with Beef

Green Peas Rizotto with beef

I love risotto once in awhile to break monotonous boiled rice. To incorporate some veggie, I added green peas for the sake of taking some fibers! Could be served with risotto alone, but here I added slices of grilled beef.

2 cups Arborio rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 glass white wine
1 onion (finely chopped)
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup green peas
2 Tablespoons butter
Freshly ground pepper

Boil stock in a pan. Meantime, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil until completely wilted and translucent. Add rice and mix thoroughly until rice is slightly fried. Add ½ cup white wine while stirring constantly until almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Add the remaining wine and continue stirring. When all the liquid has been absorbed, add 1 cup of boiling stock while stirring constantly. Continue adding water 1 cup at a time until almost all the liquid has been absorbed or until rice is done. Add green peas during the last addition of stock; whilst stirring constantly. Stir in cheese and butter lastly. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Beef Rizotto

Beef Rizotto

My first attempt of making rizotto.. twas a success... forgive me for not having the measurement... All i did was : stir-fried the beef and set aside, boil the rizotto rice until jst tender and drain. Saute' onion until transluscent in low fire, add some rosemary, thyme,sweet chilli powder, add rice add some beef stock jst enough to cover the rice, stir and continue cooking until the stock has been absorbed almost completely, add more stock, stir and again until the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding slowly the stock until the rice is done, add the stirfried beef and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Done! Hubby is not really fun of rice but this was a hit for him! tsk tsk...

Yellow rice with green peas topped with spinach and grilled pork

Yellow rice with green peas topped with spinach and grilled pork

It’s my first adventure with tumeric. In short its my first time to have this ingredient and I am so pleased with the yellow vibrant color on my plate! I love to incorporate vegetables with my dish for the sake of having fiber intake.

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain rice
1 cup water
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 white onion (finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons oil
Salt & pepper to taste
A handful of spinach
2 pork fillets

Preparation:

In a casserole, put water, rice and tumeric. Bring to boil and simmer covered for 10-15 minutes or until rice is done. When done, fluff the rice with a for to avoid rice sticking together until completely cold at room temperature.

Meanwhile, sauté garlic and onion in oil until translucent. Add rice and mix vigorously until all the flavors are well blended. Add green peas and continue cooking until peas are done. Sprinkle a little water to provide a little moisture. Season with salt and pepper.

On the other hand, grill 2 pork fillets until done.

In another pan, bring to boil 2 cups of salted water, blanch spinach for 1 minute or until wilted.

To plate the dish, place rice in a plate; add blanched spinach in the center and topped with the grilled pork.

Garlic Fried Rice

garlic fried rice

Garlic Rice

Another flavor that can be easily infused with rice is garlic. I failed once making crispy garlic. It wasn’t crispy coz it was burned! I think the oil was too hot that when I added the garlic it suddenly turned dark brown and next minute it turned very dark brown and when I tasted it , it was too bitter! Now I know what’s the trick!

Here’s what I did:

10 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Pinch of salt
2 cups cooked rice
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a pan with moderate fire. Once heated, turn the fire to the lowest. Add finely chopped garlic and stir occasionally; continue cooking until garlic turns golden brown. Remove garlic from the pan using a slotted spoon, leaving the remaining oil in the pan. Drain garlic with a kitchen paper (This is important to keep the garlic dry and crisp). Add rice to the pan and toss frequently until rice is turns slightly dark or until the garlic-flavored oil is well absorbed. Season with salt and pepper. Add half of fried garlic to the rice and toss further.

To serve, garnish the rest of the crispy fried garlic on top of the fried rice. Serve with your favorite viand.

Eggy Wacky on Congee

Eggy Wacky on Congee

My lasang pinoy entry. I know its kind'a wacky. Need a story and a recipe? It's here.