Champagne Risotto

Giada.
Giada, Giada, Giada.
How do you know the way to my heart so well? Crispy prosciutto and champagne? Seriously? Please just stop toying with me already and let me move in.

Champagne Risotto
4 thin slices prosciutto
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
12 asparagus spears, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 shallot, finely chopped
3/4 cup Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
3/4 cup Champagne
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Place the slices of prosciutto on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake until the prosciutto slices are almost completely crisp, about 6 to 8 minutes. The slices will crisp up even more as they cool. Reserve for garnish.

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Blanch the asparagus in the chicken stock for 2 minutes. Remove the asparagus with a slotted spoon. Set the asparagus aside and keep the chicken stock at a low simmer.

In another medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the shallot and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat in the butter. Continue toasting the rice, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes more. Add the Champagne and simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes total. Remove from the heat. Gently stir in the asparagus, remaining butter, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Spoon the risotto into serving dishes and garnish by breaking the crisp prosciutto into smaller pieces over the top of the risotto. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Quinoa Risotto

Quinoa is a nice, South Beachy grain, and it's actually quite tasty, especially combined with the yummy, earthy flavors of wild mushrooms. Even if you cook too much of the liquid off (which I may have done) and it's not quite as soft and creamy as risotto typically is, the dish is still pretty damn fine overall. This is a great, easy, totally straightforward recipe. I loved the addition of goat cheese due to my severe goat cheese addiction. I typically use grated Parmesan or Romano cheese which are much more true to a standard risotto. This time around I used a little bit of both. This dish is much less labor intensive than a true risotto as well, since you add all of the liquid at once and leave it to simmer, rather than adding it ladle by ladle (though you can do that too!).

Mushroom Quinoa Risotto
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large shallot, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound wild mushrooms, such as chanterelles, oysters, or porcinis, cleaned and chopped
1 cup quinoa
2 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 cup white wine (I used a chardonnay)
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled AND/OR 1/4 - 1/2 cup grated hard Italian cheese such as Parmesan

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter. When the butter has melted, stir in the shallot, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

2. Add the olive oil and mushrooms, season again, and cook for another five minutes, or until mushrooms have begun giving off their water. (You can prepare the dish up to this point and set aside for an hour or two, or refrigerate overnight.)

3. Add the quinoa and the wine and broth, stir, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook at a bare simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the Parmesan and the goat cheese until both have melted, season to taste, and serve hot. You could also stir in some additional butter at this point if you're more interested in richness than waistlines.

Arancini

Zombies don't just eat brains you know. In fact, if they had the choice, I'm quite sure they'd also go for deep fried eyeballs. Q thinks so too and give that the dead eat people parts, and the living love anything deep fried, he's asked that I make arancini for his upcoming Zombie-que. BYOF (Bring Your Own Flesh) to this three corpse meal and all that good cheesy stuff. Speaking of cheese - arancini! I love these things; in fact I had my stepmother slave away making them for my 29 1/2th birthday party.
You can make these with any kind of risotto you like; here is one option from All Recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 cup uncooked Arborio rice 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 1/2 cups boiling chicken stock 1/2 cup frozen green peas 2 ounces finely chopped ham salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese 1 egg, beaten 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 3/4 inch cubes 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup dry bread crumbs 1 cup vegetable oil for deep frying

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook, stirring until onion is soft but not browned. Pour in the rice, and cook stirring for 2 minutes, then stir in the wine, and continue cooking and stirring until the liquid has evaporated. Add hot chicken stock to the rice 1/3 cup at a time, stirring and cooking until the liquid has evaporated before adding more.
2.	When the chicken stock has all been added, and the liquid has evaporated, stir in the peas and ham. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat, and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Transfer the risotto to a bowl, and allow to cool slightly.
3.	Stir the beaten egg into the risotto. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining egg and milk with a fork. For each ball, roll 2 tablespoons of the risotto into a ball. Press a piece of the mozzarella cheese into the center, and roll to enclose. Coat lightly with flour, dip into the milk mixture, then roll in bread crumbs to coat.
4.	Heat oil for frying in a deep-fryer or large deep saucepan to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Fry the balls in small batches until evenly golden, turning as needed. Drain on paper towels. Keep warm in a low oven while the rest are frying.

Now, so far I've made the risotto. I made it last night and put it in the fridge to make the balls today. We'll see how that goes. . . I thought I should probably form the balls last night, and then freeze or refrigerate them, but there just wasn't any room. Besides, this dish was created as a way to use leftover risotto, I see no reason why I can't refrigerate the whole batch as leftovers and make the dish the next day. We shall see. I'm having visions of a cold, crumbly mess, which would not be good.

UPDATE!
No cold crumbly mess in sight. This means you can even forgo the egg mixed into the risotto (which I did) and it'll still hold up just fine. I fried these bad boys up - golf ball to racquetball sized and they flew off the plate. The deep fried testicles (olives) not so much.
This is an ooey gooey mess, so be prepared for it, or watch Alton Brown and let him learn ya some battering tips. Start watching around 9:10 for the part I'm talking about.