The first time I was served risotto, I had no idea what it was. We were having dinner in Napa and the creamiest rice imaginable sat on my plate. It took one bite to convince me it was the best rice on the face of the earth. Still, I honestly thought it was plain rice mistakenly undercooked, yet it was soft and creamy. This was years and years ago, before risotto became the rage.
I have read many recipes for risotto but never mustered up the nerve to face a pot of rice, slowly, ladle full by ladle full, add broth and stir stir stir. Well, after mastering lemon and orange curd, sugar syrups and persnickety buttercream, I decided it was about time to overcome risotto phobia. Besides, Rose has a recipe for risotto in her Celebrations book. If anyone could walk me through it, I felt confident she could. And she did!
She offers two methods; one with a pressure cooker and the other with a heavy pot. I chose the latter lest I launch a pressure cooker like a bottle rocket through the ceiling. It took a great deal of stirring, a great deal of adding hot broth bit by bit, but eventually the arborio rice absorbed the liquid and became creamy.
The only thing that could possibly top being able to make risotto is going to Italy again and savoring risotto.
Well prepared risotto is one of the little pleasures in life.
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ButterYum
Vicki, this looks delicious! I have arborio rice in my pantry, just trying to muster up the nerve!
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious! Like you, im afraid of pressure cooker too.. i'm not sure if the new pressure cookers still make those hissing noise like the one that my mom use to have...frightened the hell out of me back then..lol!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience! I know it was just delicious. joan
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