Risotto: Kind of like rice, but not

Yay, risotto! I feel truly chef-like that I pulled this one off. So, I made Cauliflower Risotto With Brie and Almonds. And it was actually (amazingly?) really pretty good.

Step one was bringing the broth, water and thyme sprigs to a simmer. I, of course, stupidly didn't have any thyme sprigs, so I just used some dried thyme and that was fine. Perhaps it would have been better with fresh thyme, but I GUESS WE'LL NEVER KNOW, now will we? But, feel free to just use the dried stuff, cause it was, ya know, fine.

Anywho. Then I sauteed the cauliflower in butter, oil, salt and more dried thyme. Mmm, it smelled gooooood.

Next up was turning regular old rice into the magical goodness that is risotto. I was unreasonably afraid (as it turned out) of the process, but it wasn't really all that hard.

As was previously mentioned by others, the basic concept is just constantly stirring the rice whilst adding broth (by the half-cup) at regular intervals over the course of about twenty minutes. It's kind of fascinating to watch it...um...grow.

Once I had risotto, I added in the previously sauteed cauliflower and the brie. By the way, the hardest part of this entire venture was removing the rind from the brie. What the hell? I'm sure I went about it all wrong, but my god did I create an unfortunate mess of that poor cheese. Thank god I was just mixing it in with the risotto, so nobody had to witness the squished up horror show that I created. Oopsies!

I topped it with toasted almonds, and Arie ate his with some pork chops that he made in the Foreman Grill, while I ate mine with a veggie-chicken burger. I'm showing a picture of his meal because his looks much fancier than my pathetic fake-meat.


In conclusion, risotto rules. This one in particular was quite delicious -- not too brie-y, and very rich and wonderful. Oh and also? Fake chicken doesn't photograph so well.

Risotto: Lobster Broth Goodness

One of the main reasons why I wanted to pick risotto for this P-off C-off is the fact that it is one of those foods I have always assumed was outside of my skill level in the kitchen, and we here at P-off C-off are all about pushing ourselves, right? The other, far more important reason is that fact that I currently have a freezer full of lobster broth and was searching for a good reason to use it. Rumor has it that risotto is all about the broth.

At first I looked for a good seafood risotto recipe, but didn’t find any that sounded exciting. Then I turned to my new cookbook The Art of Simple Food, which had a recipe for Asparagus and Lemon Risotto--a perfect complement for lobster broth. The book also included a whole section on tips for making risotto, which was very, very helpful.

The recipe called for:
1 lb asparagus, sliced into ¼” pieces
1 lemon, zested and juiced
3 T butter
1 small onion, diced fine
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
5 cups broth
½ cup dry white wine

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

First you melt 2T of the butter in a heavy bottomed pot and sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Then you add the rice, stirring occasionally until translucent. Meanwhile you bring your broth to a boil and then turn off. Add the wine and lemon zest to the rice and cook until the wine is absorbed.

Now comes the fun part—lots of broth and stirring. Starting with one cup, add the broth to the rice, stirring occasionally, until the rice thickens. Never letting the rice get dry, you then keep adding the broth ½ cup at a time. Keep stirring.

The recipe called for salting the risotto when you add the second cup of broth, to let it sink in, but since my lobster broth was pretty salty, I uncharacteristically skipped that step.

About 12 minutes in, add the asparagus to the rice. Having never made risotto, this step made me nervous, because all of the asparagus made it harder to keep an eye on the consistency of the rice. It might be easier to learn how to make risotto on a plain version.

Keep adding broth until the rice is tender but has a firm core—about 30 minutes in total. Then add ½ of the lemon juice and parmesan and stir like it is going out of style to whip up that last bit of creaminess in the rice.

Mmmm. The lobster broth made for some amazingly rich risotto. I highly recommend it. I served it by itself, but it was so rich it probably would be better as a side dish. No matter what, I learned that risotto is easier than I thought and that it really is all about the broth.

Weird science: Risotto

I have wanted to learn to make risotto since I first found out that it doesn't have any cream in it. A creamy-tasting food with no cream--amazing! Actually making it made me even more impressed with the bizarreness that is risotto. How did anyone ever figure out that instead of boiling rice in liquid, you could cook it and then add liquid later, and that it would turn out totally different and awesome?

I compared a bunch of recipes and ended up using the one for Parmesan Risotto from the New Best Recipe cookbook. Generally I find that cookbook is way too complicated, but since I was in awe of this foodstuff, I wanted lots of detail so I'd make sure I did it right. Here's the recipe:

3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups water
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced fine
salt
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
2 onces Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (1 cup)
Ground black pepper

You bring the broth and water to simmer in one pot and then turn down the heat to just keep it warm. Then separately you cook the onion in butter for ~10 minutes, until the onions are soft and see-through.

Next, in the step that seems very counterintuitive, you add the rice to the onions and cook it for about 4 minutes ("until the edges of the grains are transparent," according to the cookbook, but I could not discern that change.) At this step you could sort of start to tell that the starchiness of the rice was making it all goopy, which I guess is what leads to the mysterious creaminess.

After that you start adding liquids: first the wine, cook for 2 minutes stirring frequently, then 3 cups of the water/broth mixture. This turns the whole operation into a soupy mess. But after you cook it for about 10 minutes, stirring infrequently, the rice absorbs the liquid. You then keep adding the broth mixture 1/2 cup at a time, and stirring every 3-4 minutes so it doesn't stick to the bottom, until it tastes done.


Lastly you add in the cheese, salt, and pepper, and eat! Pardon the blurriness of my plate picture and the big pork chop in front (Mr. Jenny made that part of the meal, which was also quite good). I was very happy with my risotto--it was a whole lotta creamy deliciousness. I will definitely make it again, and maybe experiment with adding other stuff, like mushrooms and saffron. Mmm, science.

Shallots = Love, updated

I didn't think I was actually going to get around to doing a shallot recipe this week, but when I clicked on Apartment Therapy's Kitchn yesterday and there was a shallot recipe at the very top, I figured it was probably a sign. This one actually comes from Martha Stewart, and let's just admit it: that woman is awesome. We're all on that bandwagon now, right? Good.

So, I made this braised chicken with shallots, & it was fan-freaking-tastic.

PoffCoff has really helped me learn how much I like to cook. I would never have made this kind of meal for just myself if it weren't for this site, but now I know that cooking at home solo, with a little glass of wine, some John Legend -- it's a great way to spend an evening.

I pretty much followed the recipe. Brown your chicken thighs, go ahead with the big chunks of halved shallots -- they'll break down some in the cooking process -- and opt in for the tarragon at the end. It really added (dare I say it?) complexity to the flavor. I want to eat this every day.

Update: The lovely folks at kitchn.com posted an update on this recipe today, having now tried it themselves. They served the dish over pasta, which I think would be tasty, but also seems unnecessary. The chicken thighs I used were boneless and skinless, and I agree that its easier to deal with. The chicken was still amazingly flavorful. Mainly, I was just excited to see a bunch of commenters talk about how delicious this was, because I agree! I ate it for four or five days.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Cider Vinegar Sauce

It's a twofer! I wanted to catch up on the poff coffing, so I followed this recipe from Epicurious, which involves both stuffing foods in other foods and shallots! The first step involved making the shallot/cider vinegar sauce... I was skeptical about adding the sugar to the sauteed shallots without adding any liquid, but it worked and didn't burn or anything. I didn't have homemade beef or chicken broth to add once it was called for, so I just used instant vegetable broth--my favored brand is Rapunzel--which seemed to work just fine.









Then, the stuffing... all that was involved here was some fairly straightforward sauteeing.



Then, the assembly. My chickens came split, which was handy.


They also came skinless, so I skipped the step of browning them in a pan... Also, I forgot to buy kitchen string to tie everything together, but it all held together well enough. So yes, into the oven they went, and 15 minutes later, done! The only other change I made was to cut out some of the butter in the sauce, as it seemed like a lot of butter. But the results all around? Delicious!


The sauce tasted great in combination with the sweet and savory chicken and stuffing. Overall, I must say that it was a bit of a potschke, as my mother would say... but none of the steps were hard, and it's pretty fun to cook up some fancy food for yourself. Also, I think this recipe could be easily adapted for non-meat eaters by using slices of firm tofu instead of chicken.

Farfalle with Asparagus, Roasted Shallots and Blue Cheese

For my shallots, I followed this recipe from epicurious. I took advantage of the recipe reviews to make a few adjustments. It also seemed like it would make a lot of food so I halved the recipe and it made enough for two servings plus leftovers.

First off, instead of bread crumbs, I toasted about 1/2 cup of pine nuts in my cast iron skillet.

The recipe called for peeling and halving the shallots, which seemed to me to be really big shallot chunks, so I cut them a little smaller. After they cooked down during the roasting, the size was much better.

Many of the reviewers pointed out that you have to really love blue cheese to make this recipe. I love me some blue cheese, but since I was making this for company (does Amy count as company?) I decided to tone down the strong flavor of the Saga Blue that I bought by mixing about 2/3 goat cheese and only 1/3 blue and that worked. It could be ramped up to half blue and half goat, but even I might have been overwhelmed by all blue cheese.

To make the sauce creamier, I set aside a little bit of the pasta water to mix in along with the cheese and also added a little half and half. Toss it all together with plenty of salt and pepper and it was done.


This was a super fast and super easy recipe. Between this and Amy's Mac and Cheese, I can safely say that shallots + cheese + pasta = gooooood.

The Mysterious Shallot

Not a leek, not a scallion, not just a really tiny onion. According to Anthony Bourdain, "Shallots are one of the things - a basic prep item in every mise-en-place - that make restaurant food taste different from your food." Time to P-off C-off 'em.

French toast stuffed with love (and cheese)

A few weeks ago, my friend told me about some marscapone cheese-stuffed french toast he ate at a breakfast joint here in Chicago. As a lover of all things cheese, I couldn't get it out of my mind. Thank god that this P-Off C-Off stuffed foods challenge came along!

Not only had I never tasted stuffed french toast, I also lacked a recipe. I ended up creating my own, with some help of recipes found online and Cook's Illustrated recent article about french toast, which provided all sorts of tips, such as how to dry out the bread (oven dried is better than left out) and make the best batter (with egg yolks, whole milk and melted butter).

Anyhoo, here are the ingredients for 6 slices of french toast:

• Bread: Trader Joe's challah bread, cut in 1-inch slices.
• Filling: 1 banana, 8 oz marscapone cheese, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• Soaking liquid: 1 and 1/2 cups warmed whole milk, 3 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/4 teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon vanilla

So, the process was pretty simple. I started with the bread. I cut a large slit in bottom of each piece, maintaining about an inch of uncut bread on the top and both sides. Then, I place each piece on a cookie sheet and baked them in a 300 degree oven to dry them out. I cooked them about 8 minutes total, 4 minutes on each side. When they're done, don't bother turning off the oven, you'll need it later.

While the bread was cooking, I made the filling: I just pulsed all of the filling ingredients in my food processor until they were combined.

When the bread had cooled about five minutes, I stuffed each slice full of as much filling as it could handle. Using a butter knife worked well to fill the entire pocket with the cheese mixture. I had about double the amount of filling that I needed, so it could probably be cut in half. (Though I've been slathering the leftover filling on toast all week, and it's been AMAZING.)

Wisk the soaking liquid together, remembering to warm the milk (not too hot) and melt the butter first. Them pour the liquid into a square 8 x 8 baking dish, so you can get nice bread coverage. Bread should just soak for about 20 seconds on each side.

Now, you're ready to cook! Heat butter in a large skillet over medium low heat; when the foaming stops, you can throw on the bread. Cook about 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. The flipping at this point can get sort of delicate because the heated filling gets sort of oozy. Some of the recipes I found online recommended refrigerating the stuffed bread slices for 30-60 minutes, which might've helped avoid any leakage. Nevertheless, I found the leaking minimal as long as I was careful.

When you're done with each slice (I managed to fit two in the pan at a time), you can throw it onto that cookie sheet that's still in the oven. That'll keep it warm until you're ready to eat.

I served the toast with butter and syrup and bacon on the side -- definitely a plus to balance the french toast's sweetness. Honestly, the french toast was amazing. The final result was rich and sweet but not soggy, and the stuffing was creamy with a subtle hint of banana and cinammon. Rave reviews by Husband, who wolfed down three slices. Tres bon!

Stuffed Pork Chops

As soon as the theme of food stuffed in food was suggested, I knew that I had to try and make my grandmother's stuffed pork chops. I loved them as a kid, and I have been craving them since I started eating meat again. I emailed my grandmother for the recipe, and although my first attempt did her version no justice, they were still pretty good.

I started by making the stuffing--sauteing 1/2 cup onions and 1/4 cup celery, along with a dash of chopped fresh sage, in butter until they were translucent. Then I tossed in 1/2 cup of bread cubes and sauteed for a few minutes more. I mixed it all with the key ingredient: a small can of creamed corn. None of these measurements were exact as I guessed the proportions, but they seemed about right. Next time I might try adding an egg to bind it a bit more, but it could go either way.

Then things got sort of graphic. Of course for my first meat Poff Coff I would pick a recipe where I really have to get in there. I bought two center cut, bone-in pork chops, each about 1 1/2 inches thick. I cut a slit in each pork chop, and used the knife and my fingers to hollow out a pocket in the chop. Like so:


Then I salted and peppered the chops, stuffed each pork chop with the stuffing and closed the opening with a toothpick. Tada!


I browned the pork chops for a few minutes on each side in my cast iron skillet.

My oven, which has never been reliable, picked yesterday to break down completely. But that's what toaster ovens are for! I put the chops in a baking pan and cooked them for 25 minutes on one side at 350 degrees, turned them, and cooked for another 25. Because I had so much stuffing left over, I threw the extra in the pan for the second 25 minutes. If I had been cooking in a real oven with more space, I probably would have put the extra stuffing right on top of the chops.

As a side, I made brussels sprouts my favorite way (and also a Phyllis Croxton recipe) - sauteed with balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese. Mmmm.

I served the chops with the extra stuffing and the extra juices from the pan poured on top.


The stuffing on the inside kept the pork chops really juicy and the sweet of the creamed corn balances well with the flavor of the meat. Really, it's all about the creamed corn.

If I were to do it again, I would add more sage to the stuffing and would salt and pepper the chop more than I did. This is definitely a recipe that I will make again and want play around with a bit. But considering how dumb I still am about cooking meat, and given the fact that I had to do it in a toaster oven, it was really easy and good. Yay, Poff Coff!

Couscous and Feta Stuffed Peppers that actually didn't suck!

To usher out the holiday madness and usher in the season of feeling restless, unfulfilled, overweight and cold, I decided to host a post-holiday party for 7 lucky ladies and gentlemen. And I decided to cook for it. Since I lack anything resembling confidence in the kitchen, this was a stressful undertaking. But lo and behold, I think I actually made some magic happen.

The menu included Butternut Squash and Parmesan soup, Avocado and Tomato Wedge Salad with Basil, Green Beans in Ginger Butter, Two Cheese Mac N Cheese with Caramelized Shallots and the aforementioned Couscous and Feta Stuffed Peppers. Since this week's theme is Food Stuffed Inside Other Food, let's focus our attention on the peppers for now, shall we? Mmm hmmm.


I used this recipe. Step one was to cut the tops off the peppers and clean them out, and then boil them, which I thought was slightly odd. But okay. It turned out fine. After they were all boiled up, I then drained them for awhile, upside down.

In the meantime, I began preparing what I have affectionately nicknamed "the guts" for the stuffed peppers.

The recipe called for preparing the couscous in vegetable broth, which I made from scratch (pats self on back). My local supermarket sells some pre-packaged soup veggies, and I just peeled, chopped and let them simmer for awhile. (Disclosure: I made the broth a week before for some lentil soup I was making, and froze enough to use for the peppers. How Martha of me!).

So, yeah. The guts. Zucchini, yellow squash, onion, cherry tomatoes, chick peas, couscous, fennel seeds, oregano and feta...all chopped up, cooked, and mixed together into yummy, gooey, cheesy deliciousness.

Which was then spooned into my pre-boiled peppers (in Christmas colors, of course).

I prepared them the morning of the party, covered them with tinfoil and left them in the refrigerator for a few hours. Not a problem. (Phew). Then, when my pals arrived, I just removed the tinfoil and stuck the tray in the oven for fifteen minutes and voila...stuffed pepper perfection.
Make these! They totally ruled.

Food Stuffed Into Other Food.

After a long break, the P-Off C-Off is so ON! This week's challenge involves the stuffing of one food item inside yet another food item. And then eating it.