Have you ever been to an Italian restaurant? Then you probably heard about the famous Italian dish - risotto!
Risotto is the golden mean between liquid porridge and soup, most likely it's rice, from which all the water has boiled. This is not a dish, but an exquisite way to cook rice, which, incidentally, is not given and obtained by many.
Pick your recipe
To cook risotto according to the classic recipe, you will need two containers or pans, rice, onion and broth. Further, the dish depends entirely on your imagination, you can add tomatoes, pumpkin, asparagus, artichokes, meat, fish and much more.
A few golden rules for making the right risotto:
Use only the correct rice. The most delicious risotto will come from the varieties ARBORIO, CARNAROLI, VIALONE NANO. These varieties do not stick together during cooking and secrete a creamy starchy liquid, which is the basis of risotto. Risotto is prepared by adding liquid to it. Remember that the liquid must be hot. Risotto needs patience and constant attention, so before cooking rice, finish all the associated things. Risotto takes 17 minutes to cook, so watch out for the timer. Calculation of time is worth starting from the moment when the rice fell into the pan.
To make a classic Milanese risotto you will need a broth, cheese, white wine, butter, onion, natural saffron and naturally rice. The best broth for risotto is chicken broth. For its preparation you will need meat - chicken, ideally, onions, black pepper, parsley, wine, fresh peas, lemon zest. Before starting cooking, the chicken must be washed well, divided into parts and put in a pan. Add a pinch of salt to it, and then pour in water (preferably drinking). Add pepper slightly crushed with a knife to the pan, onions, cut in half and celery, and more - do this after boiling.
Put the pan on a large fire and wait until the broth boils, then reduce the heat to the maximum. Descale. Cook the chicken for 2 hours. Half an hour before the end of cooking, add dry wine. The finished broth must be filtered and cooled, and then the frozen fat should be removed from the surface.
Now let's get down to the rice itself. First you need to fry the onions and carrots over low heat until the onions lose their color. If you use other vegetables, also fry them with onions and carrots. Pour rice into the pan and mix quickly. It is necessary to stir it without stopping for 30 seconds, until the rice reaches a golden color on the outside and white inside. Then pour the wine into the rice, and stir continuously until the smell of alcohol disappears and the liquid is absorbed.
The wine has absorbed - start adding the broth. Pour the broth into the rice in a quick circular motion and stir with a wooden spoon. Stir the rice once every 30 seconds, until the liquid is absorbed. Add the soup ladle and stir again.
When the rice is half cooked, add mushrooms, seafood or other ingredients of your choice to it, then add the broth again and continue stirring. Instead of seafood, you can add a glass of saffron broth. When ready, remove the rice from the stove and do not touch it for a minute.
Then add butter and finely grated cheese to the rice, and mix quickly until smooth. Now you can arrange rice on plates, but don’t tell anyone that making risotto is so easy!
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