Fun Plans

Well, tomorrow I plan a small dinner with my mom and a friend. We shall see how it ends up. It's going to be another truffle risotto but with a small caveat. I've decided to butterfly a really nice aged New York strip with almost perfect marbling for the top. There will also be some other things I throw into this to show for some fun. I absolutely love the flavor leeks bring out in risottos. I'm either going to have to split the steak in half or sear it and throw it in the oven to finish it off. We shall see. Either way, I think it'll turn out great. I will post photos and the recipe I wind up using here in the next couple of days.

Do to some unforseen issues, this has been put off for a little bit. Not too much longer, though!!

White Truffle Risotto

This is a pretty simple risotto recipe. It CAN be messed up, but risotto is onea those things that I've found be very temperamental but easy to master.


Risotto

9 Cups of chicken broth
1/8 Cup of olive oil
1 Cup dry white wine
1 yellow onion, chopped nicely
1/4 red onion chopped nicely
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 cups of Arborio rice
1.5 Cups of Parmesan Reggiano

Use a side pot to bring the broth to a simmer.

Heat the pan you plan to cook the risotto to a medium level (Med-High for lower grade cookware) I cook my risotto in the copper Ruffoni risotto pan. If you have the money, great investment, if not, it's definitely not a deal buster.

Spread olive oil around until heated
Insert onions until translucent
Then insert garlic and let cook for a minute or so while
stirring the whole time.

Put in rice and stir. (Get used to stirring, you'll be doing a lot of it if you want it to be cooked evenly)

Once the rice is translucent (Outer area is clear and you can see a little egg on the inside, ladle in a cup of broth and continue to stir. After you put in your first cup of broth, pour in the dry white wine. (Be careful as to not do the whole pushing the cork INTO the bottle trick like how I managed how I pulled off tonight due to rushing.)

Keep stirring to keep everything even while keeping broth always covering the top. It should take 15-20 minutes if you have the heat right.

Once you get down to the last few cups of broth left in your side pot, test it to see if it's still crunchy or not. It should be semi-edible while still crunchy at this point - or it will be softening up quickly - meaning you have about 2-3 cups of broth left in your side pot. At this point I would salt and pepper to taste. (I didn't use much pepper, a couple turns on the mill and about a teaspoon or so of salt).

Keep up with the adding of broth to your while testing until the rice is soft enough to eat normally and let the rest of the broth on top reduce itself off. Insert 3/4 cup (Or so) of the Parmesan and the truffle butter and mix them both in.

Optional - Chop up some black truffles and mix them in after the pan is removed from
the heat.

Serve with fresh grated Parmesan and black truffles (If available in your area - Not a make or breaker, it just adds to the flavor. You can usually find them available online somewhere. I wanted to go all out for the wife tonight so I did both and our local Whole Foods carried them.)


Truffle Butter:

Williams Sonoma offers truffle buttter for around $30 for 2.8oz jar

OR

Mix:
1 stick of unsalted butter
4-5 sprigs of Rosemary finely chopped
4-5 sprigs of thyme leaves finely chopped
2.5-4 tsp of white truffle oil (Depending on how much you like truffles. If this is your first time I'd keep it down to 3) The oil was around $15 at Whole Foods - But I'm sure it'll last me a whole lot longer than W.S. variant.