My First Risotto

We love to watch Food Network, Top Chef, and sometimes we even watch Hell's Kitchen. On every show, someone is always cooking risotto. I have had it in restaurants and love it, but for some reason it seems really intimidating to me. Well, those fears are gone now. Tonight, I cooked my first risotto. I never played football, but to me, this feels like I just threw my first touchdown. That didn't sound right coming from me, but you get the drift.

I will say, that this is a very time-consuming dish. The recipe and pretty much every TV chef says you have to constantly stir this or it will stick and burn. It was really creamy and delicious and you could add or subtract any of the flavors depending on what you like. Jason actually thought this was a bit too lemony. So, if you don't like lemon flavor, hold off on some of the lemon zest. I hope you try this....you would really impress someone if you took the time to make this!!!

Risotto:
3 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 pound Arborio rice

5 cups chicken stock

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt & Pepper

Lemon zest (from 1 whole lemon)

Lemon juice (from 1/2 a lemon)

Splash of white wine

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, warm the 5 cups of chicken stock.

2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat.

3. Saute onions and garlic.

4. Add rice to the butter, garlic, and onions and cook for 1-2 minutes to coat the rice.

5. Then start add 1/2 cup of the chicken stock to the rice, stirring constantly until absorbed.

6. Keep adding the stock 1/2 cup at a time....make sure it is completely absorbed before you add more. This is the time-consuming part.

7. Once all of the stock has been added, pour in the juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt, pepper, lemon zest and Parmesan cheese.

8. Hit with a splash of white wine and once that is absorbed, you're ready to serve.

Thai Chicken & Rice

We love Thai food and this is one of my easiest Thai dishes. It isn't authentic.....I mean, you won't find this in any Thai restaurant (at least not a reputable one). It's my version of Thai Chicken & Rice. This is really better if you let it sit in the fridge so that the flavors can meld together. I try to make this the day before we eat it or at least the morning of.

At the bottom of this post, I have pictures of the Thai products I find at my grocery store. If you've never tried Thai food before, this is a nice introduction. You will get a real feel for the flavors of Thai food without it being too spicy or weird.

Thai Chicken & Rice:
1 lb chicken tenderloins, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cans lite coconut milk
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons red curry paste (depending on how hot you like things)
1 box coconut rice
***If you have veggies and you want to add them, do it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Tonight, I didn't really have anything in the fridge, however onions, carrots, zucchini, or peppers are all great additions to this dish.

Directions:
1. Pour olive oil in a skillet and let it get hot.
2. Add curry paste and cook until you can smell the paste. This sounds weird but is actually says to do this on the bottle. It will smell spicy and good.
3. Add one can of coconut milk and cook over low heat until the curry paste has dissolved into the milk. Do not let milk come to a boil.
4. Add chicken to the milk mixture and add until done.
5. In another pot, bring 1 can of coconut milk to a boil.
6. Add contents of rice box, stir and remove from heat.
7. Once the rice has cooled and the chicken/curry mixture has cooled, combine the two in your skillet and place in the fridge.
8. When you are ready to serve, simply stick in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

I use Thai Kitchen brand coconut rice and red curry paste.....here's a picture of what they look like. If you can't find this exact brand, use whatever you can find.

Country Rice & Sausage

Well, it's the night before Thanksgiving, so I wanted to cook something "light" for dinner. Ha! I found this recipe the other day in a cookbook at the library. One great thing about working in the library is that we have hundreds of cookbooks. If I ever get a free moment, I'll grab a cookbook off the shelf and just thumb through until something interesting pops out at me. Well this one jumped off the page. Jason loved this dish. He said it reminded him of "dirty rice" but since I used sausage, it would be more like a "poor, white trash, dirty rice." Thanks Jason.

White trash or not, this was really good. Be careful with the red pepper flakes if you don't like things spicy!!

Country Rice & Sausage:
2 cups cooked rice
1 (16 oz) package of pork sausage (I used Bob Evans)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup water
1 large carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4-5 fresh sage leaves (or 1/4 teaspoon of dried sage)
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. Cook sausage until brown and crumbled.
3. Remove sausage from pan and drain on paper towels.
4. Add celery, onion, carrots, red pepper and salt & pepper to pan and brown.
5. Add water to veggie mixture.
6. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes.
7. Return cooked sausage to pan and stir in cooked rice.
8. Check seasoning and add more salt & pepper if needed.

Curry Rice Salad

Tonight, I made a delicious dish that my Aunt Bettie makes. It's a cold curry rice salad and it's wonderful. I served it with baked barbecue chicken. There's something about warm chicken and a cold rice dish that just works. I love this recipe and I love my Aunt Bettie. When reading the ingredients, you'll note a few that I left out, for various reasons. I will say that green olives would be good in this dish, if you like them. I think I'll chop them up and add them to this the next time I make it and just see if Jason even notices.....probably not.

Curry Rice Salad:

1 box Chicken Rice-A-Roni

4 green onions, chopped

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 cup mayo

1 jar artichokes, chopped (keep some of the liquid from the jar)

***Now, the recipe actually calls for the following, which I didn't add:

1/2 green pepper, chopped (I thought I had one in the fridge, but I didn't....oh well)

12 stuffed green olives, chopped (Jason doesn't like green olives)

1 can water chestnuts, sliced (Kyle doesn't like water chestnuts)

Directions:

1. Make Rice-A-Roni according to package directions and let cool completely (I used the microwave)

2. Add remaining ingredients (including just a little of the juice from the artichoke jar)

3. Let sit in the fridge for a while before serving, the flavors are much better when they've had time to get acquainted

Get Ready to Live!

This recipe is from my grandmother and it's one of my favorite things to eat. This dish goes with everything and it's really easy to prepare. Jason did a little dance when he found out we were having this tonight.....even on crutches, he still danced, which proves just how good this really is.


Baked Rice:
1 cup rice
1/2 cup water
3/4 stick of butter
1 can Campbell's French Onion Soup

1. Melt butter in a covered baking dish
2. Add remaining ingredients
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, stirring halfway through

The rice will absorb all of the liquid from the butter, water, and the soup and the flavor of the french onion soup will go through all of the rice.

Rustic Green Curry

2 cups of rice
2 tablespoons green curry paste
1 can of lite coconut milk
1 lb. chicken cut into chunks
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash
1 bunch of basil

Any veggie combination will do for this recipe, it's up to you and your preferences.

1. Cook the rice according to package directions.
2. In another pot, bring the coconut milk and the curry paste to a slow boil, stirring until the curry paste is dissolved.
3. Add the diced chicken and vegetables.
4. Let simmer until chicken and vegetables are completely cooked.
5. Tear basil and add to curry mixture.
6. Serve over rice.