basic risotto

Weather's gettin' cold, so let's bust out the carbs, baby! Saucy rice is easy:

• Sweat some finely chopped onion or French shallots in butter.
• Add about two cups of short grain rice (Arborio or sushi rice are likely candidates) and stir to coat with butter
• Add a cup of weak chicken stock (2:1 water:concentrate) and a cup of white wine and simmer while stirring gently
• When liquid is absorbed, add more stock about a half cup at a time and continue stirring
• Repeat until rice is tender but still firm (al dente)
• Add more stock to adjust consistency, as the rice should spread easily on the plate (a gluey mound is bad). A total of about 6 cups of stock will go into the pot
• Season with good, finely grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, perhaps some fresh thyme and a splash of wine

Some favoured variations on this are wild mushroom risotto and roasted squash risotto. For the former, some of the stock is replaced with the soaking liquor (filtered to remove grit?) of a package of dried porcinis or morels, which are also added towards the end. A garnish of fresh wild mushrooms sauteed in butter is nice, if you can get them. The latter... add chunks of squash at the end. Duh. Sage is a nice seasoning to add to this one, with brown butter drizzled on top.

I recently tried parcooking my risotto for a dinner party, i.e. taking to 3/4 completion (after about 4-5 cups of liquid) earlier that day and then cooling it on a cookie sheet. That evening I dropped the cooled mixture into a few cups of simmering stock, brought everything back to a simmer, added the seasoning and was ready to serve on warmed plates in five minutes. Nice trick with a great result.