Thickening Soup with Congee

Congee is a porridge made from simmering rice till it falls apart. Unlike the gruel which Oliver Twist was subject to, Congee is actually considered to be a quality dish in the Far East and in Western parlance is more like a meat or seafood stew. In some versions, like Japanese Okayu and Teochew  Moi, congee is made with the inividual rice kernals left intact. In most cases though, and the Cantonese are probably most famous for this, Congee is considered well made only if the rice is simmered till it disintegrates completely, leaving a silky smooth thick rice gruel. This type of congee is great for thickening soups and stews.

Wheat flour is troublesome to use as a thickener for soups as flour needs to be cooked at above the tempeature of boiling water before it looses that raw flour taste. It can’t be added to a soup directly, you have to fry it in butter to make a roux first. Corn starch creates an undesirable gooey texture. It also has a tendency to seperate and loose its viscouscity with time and after boiling so it can only be added at the last moment and all the soup must be consumed immediately. Is there something else we can use to make our soups thicker and richer?

Cantonese style congee on the other hand has none of these issues and it is quite a healthy alternative. It also has a very subtle plain taste which will only enrich and not alter your soups primary flavour. Although you can use congee to thicken any soup, it is best used to with chowder or puree type soups. For pure cream soups like cream of chicken or oysters florentine soup, you’d be better of making a roux from butter and flour for that distinct buttery taste.

Both bowls contain 1 tablespoon of the same rice boiled for exactly fifteen minutes. The rice in the bowl on the left was pre-frozen and is halfway turned to mush. The rice in the bowl on the right however was left unfrozen and the individual grains are still clearly intact.

There is however a well known shortcoming with congee, which is perhaps the reason it is not often suggested as a soup thickener. It takes a long time for rice to disintegrate completely, perhaps upwards of 2 hours of slow simmering. Some people use an immersion blender to shorten the cooking time but that means cooking the congee seperately and besides you only need a very small amount thickening purposes.

Let me give you a better way. Soak the rice for five minutes and then freeze it in a zip lock bag. Water inside the grain will freeze and expand, and as it does it will weaken the integrity of the rice kernals, making them fall apart more easily. It doesn’t matter how long it is frozen, for an hour or overnight.

Finally some details about the actual process. There is no need to boil some congee seperately, just add raw rice when you are boiling the stock. The rice should pretty much disintegrate in about half an hour if it was has been frozen before. If it’s a stew or chowder, just add the rice directly at the beginning. It’s as simple as that. How much should you add? Rice expands to many times its original size when hydrated and I would say up to (i.e. sometimes less than) 1 tablespoon per cup of liquid. 

Notes

• Use only oriental type rice, preferably the short grained type. Japanese rice is one such type. These will breakdown faster. Tough varieties, like those you use for making risotto, and defintely wild rice, are unsuitable. Check out my rice page for details on types of rice grains.

 

Chicken Ginseng Soup (Samgyetang)

(serves 6)
Chicken Ginseng Soup, the deluxe version of chicken noodle soup, is one of my Korean favourites. It’s a sumptuous soup made from young chicken and ginseng, a root greatly prized in Asia for its health-promoting properties. The third ingredient is glutinous rice, which has the magical property of transforming the earthy tones of ginseng into a delectable flavour even while it adds body to the soup. Together they make a really tasty nutritious broth, especially for someone who is under the weather.    

cut open to reveal the glutinous rice within

Ingredients

1. Young Chicken (i.e. small)
2. Ginseng slices (1/4 cup)
3. Raw Glutinous Rice (3/4 cup)
4. Dried Red Dates (15)
5. Garlic (1 bulb = 12 cloves)
6. Chicken Stock Cubes (2)
7. Coriander Seed Powder

Preparation 

For the general theory of preparing East Asian soups, please refer to my Chinese Consommé post. If you are not familiar with glutinous rice, refer to my White Rice page.

1. Rinse 3/4 cup of glutinous rice a few times.
2. Open up a bulb of garlic and peel each clove after cutting off the tips. You should end up with a 12-15 whole cloves of garlic .
3. Spoon the rinsed rice into the body cavity through the rear of the chicken. Cut a small opening in the chicken below the neck to allow free flow of water into the body cavity from the front.
4. Place the chicken in a tall pot which is slightly larger than the chicken. This way, the entire chicken can be covered without using too much water.
5. In a kettle, boil 2 litres of water. Pour this into the pot (with the chicken in it). After a minute drain away the water.
6. Boil another 2 litres of water in the kettle and add this to the pot, followed by 2 chicken stock cubes, 1t salt and 1t coriander seed powder. Simmer, semi-covered, for 20 minutes.
7. After the first simmer, add 15 dried red dates, the garlic cloves and 1/4 cup of ginseng chips. Simmer on low for a further hour, topping up with hot water as necessary. Keep the chicken totally submerged until the last 15 minutes.
8. After the hour is up, leave the soup to cool for a few hours on the stove, with the cover on. When the soup has cooled, skim off some of the fat on the surface.
9. When its time to serve the soup, bring the soup to a boil for 5 min. Some people like to add chopped spring onions at this stage, but i think its more for garnishing than taste. Depending on your tastes, you should need to add a further 1 to 2 t of salt before serving. Add this incrementally, checking the soup each time.

10. 

    The key ingredients (except the chicken) to make your soup.

Notes

• Do not use any other type of rice. Glutinous rice is known for the integrity of its kernel and other types of white rice would simply disintegrate long before the soup is done. That being said, do not over boil the soup or even glutinous rice will break up. Besides, no other type of rice has the same complimentary chemical interaction with ginseng.
• The timing for this recipe assumes the glutinous rice is inside the chicken. If you decide to use parts instead of a whole chicken, reduce the amount of rice to 1/2 a cup and add it to the pot 20 minutes after you the garlic, dates and ginseng instead. Rice cooks much faster outside the chicken. Be forewarned, the soup will also be more murky. 
• Depending on the size of your chicken you can use more or less rice, but you don’t want to stuff the chicken too fully. Once the rice expands, access to the boiling soup may be impeded for the rice right in the center.
• Just use American ginseng, it is cheaper. Forget the mumbo jumbo about the medicinal differences between Asian and American Ginseng. My recipe uses ginseng slices (again because it is cheaper) but you can use an equivalent amount of whole ginseng roots (pictured) if you like. In that case add the ginseng right at the beginning.
• Why didn’t we just add all the ingredients at the beginning? Because the garlic and ginseng (slices) would become too mushy before the rice is cooked.
• Why do we need to add the first lot of boiling water? Why do we need to let the soup cool before reboiling? You were supposed to refer to my Chinese Consommé post. 

 

Chicken Nasi Briyani

(serves 3)
Biryani originates from India and is one of the most popular rice dishes in Singapore and Malaysia, where it is known as known as Nasi Briyani. In all types of Briyani/Biryani, you cook meat curry with rice instead of cooking them seperately as in most curry dishes. In this version of Nasi Briyani, I employ the Chinese fried rice method to cook them together. This way the rice is moist on the outside, yet remains fluffy on the inside. The perfect comfort food.    

Ingredients

1. Curry Chicken
2. Raw Basmati Rice (1/2 cup)
3. Coriander (1 cup, chopped)
4. Ginger (2t, grated)
5. Turmeric
6. Coriander Seed Powder

Pre-Preparation (Curry) 

1. You will first need to prepare the curry according to my Singapore Curry Chicken recipe. Do this ahead of time.
2. Take note, you won’t need the whole amount of the curry cooked with that recipe unless you are making a double version. You will also need to make a few simple modifications to the recipe:
   1. To create more chili oil, add 3T of vegetable oil (you need an oil with a mild taste so use canola or sunflower seed oil) before you start boiling. 
   2. Skip the potatoes altogether.
3. When the curry is done, skim 4T of chili oil from the top of your chicken curry and keep this in reserve.
4. Extract and shred 2 chicken legs (with thighs) or their equivalent from the curry. Also measure 1.25 cups of curry (inclusive of onion bits) and pour this over the shredded chicken.

Pre-Preparation (Rice)

1. You will also need to boil some turmeric flavoured rice, also ahead of time. If you don’t know how boil rice, refer to my White Rice Page.
2. Start with half a cup of raw rice rice. You should use Basmati rice, and if you really can’t find some at least make sure you use a long grain variety -  if you don’t want the whole thing to turn to mush.
3. After you have rinsed the rice and before you start cooking it, add 1/2 t of turmeric to the water. This makes the rice come out yellow.
4. After the rice is cooked, allow it to cool in the open for an hour so it dries up. 

Preperation

1. Julienne your coriander in two portions. Cut the bottom one third (i.e. the stem part) of the coriander first. Then do the rest (i.e. the leafy part) and keep them seperate.
2. Remove the skin from a thumb sized piece of ginger and grate it. You should end up with 2t of grated ginger.
3. In a large non-stick pan, heat up 3T of vegetable oil (again, not olive oil). Pan fry the coriander stems and grated ginger on high heat till there is a strong aroma of ginger coming from the pan.
4. Add the (cooled) turmeric rice to the pan. Douse the lumpy rice with the chili oil you skimmed earlier and then break up the clumps by pressing down on them gently with a flat implement. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, keeping the heat on high, until you see a bit of the rice browning.
5. Pour in the chicken and curry. Continue to stir-fry to make sure every grain of rice comes into contact with the curry. When the curry begins to dry up, add most of the leafy coriander, sprinke on 1/2 t of sugar and 1t of coriander seed powder and turn the heat down. Continue to fry for a further minute and then remove from the flame.
6. Taste and then sprinkle on salt to your satisfaction. Plate your Nasi Briyani and then garnish with the remaining coriander.

Notes

• This is the maximum amount you can cook at one go on a normal flat 12 inch pan. If you try to cook more, you won’t have enough of a cooking surface to dry the curry. If you want to do a double portion, use a paella pan, wok or something of similar size.
• If you didn’t notice, the Indian version is Biryani, the Malay version is Briyani. Quirk of transliteration from a century ago.
• Some recipes also use raisins and/or cashew nuts. You can consider adding these.
• You can also use curry chicken from another source. The amount however will depend on the thickness of the curry sauce.

 

Baked Rice Pudding

(serves 1, scalable to many)
Rice Pudding is a surprisingly popular dish around the globe, even in places which don’t eat rice as a staple. This particular recipe is of the English variety and is a dessert. Besides being absolutely scrumptous, my recipe is a quick and convenient one. As each portion is made individually, it is totally scalable. It only takes about forty minutes to complete, including baking time.

 

Ingredients

1. Rice (2T)
2. Cream (3T)
3. Custard Powder (0.5t)
4. Sugar (1t)
5. Raisins (1T)
6. Pine Nuts (1T)
7. Butter
8. Nutmeg
9. Golden Syrup

Preparation

1. The recipe assumes you are using mini-ramekins. Any kind of small baking container which holds half a cup of water will do.
2. I’ve found that using Japanese Rice for rice pudding is best. It is a short grain which remains wetter when cooked, but at the same time has a very nice chewy texture. Start by placing 2T of raw rice in your ramekin. Fill the container with cold water and give it a good stir to rinse the rice, then pour away the water.
3. Marinate your raisins in 1T of dark rum. This step is optional in case you are adverse to liquor.
4. In a bowl, mix 0.5t custard powder and 1t sugar with a spot of hot water, stirring it till you get a smooth consistency. Next, stir in 3T cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Add the whole mixture to the rice.
5. Add boiling water (about 4T) to the ramekin till you almost reach the rim, followed by a small knob of (salted) butter. Cover the ramekin with aluminium foil, just use one foil even if you have multiple ramekins.
6. The baking is simple, just remember : 15+10+5 for the toaster oven. Have the toaster oven on for 3 minutes to preheat it and then bake the ramekin for fifteen minutes. If you are making more than one portion at a time (you can do up to 4 in a standard toaster oven), add 1 minute to the initial 15 minutes for every extra ramekin.
7. After 15 minutes, lift off the foil and add 1T raisins and 1T pine nuts. Stir the rice to get all of it off the ramekin bottom, this makes for a fluffier pudding. Recover with the same foil and bake for a further 10 minutes.
8. After 10 minutes remove the foil, drizzle on a flat t of golden syrup per portion and then bake uncovered for a final five minutes. This will dry up the pudding and give it a nice crust.

Notes

• You can use cinnamon instead if you don’t like the spicy taste of nutmeg.
• If you can’t find golden syrup or don’t know what it is, use maple syrup or honey.
• If you use a regular oven it will take longer as the heat is less direct. If you use 1-cup ramekins instead of mini ramekins, it will take longer too because of the greater volume.  I can’t list all the baking times for various combinations, just remember that the rice-custard must have been boiling for a few minutes before the part where you add the raisins and pine nuts. You can also do the initial stages of the baking by boiling in a pot to saved time.
• In case you were wondering, 12T= 0.5 cups.

 

The White Rice Page

White Rice is without a doubt the best tasting staple grain in the world, since most of it ends up being eaten in its plain form instead of being ground up and transformed into a bread or noodle. It is consumed in Southeast Asia, Indochina, Japan, Korea and the Southern half of China at almost every meal, day after day after day, as plain boiled rice. I attribute the popularity of rice to its firm yet fluffy texture, and its amazing ability to soak up the flavour of whatever it is eaten with.

 

While Risotto and Pilaf feature sometimes in Western menus, it is a pity that rice as a viable side dish of carbs has not really caught on, not even in fusion cuisine. My own observation is that white rice goes well with poultry and seafood, as well as dishes with cheese and/or creamy sauces.

 

Instant Rice
Let me start by saying that instant rice has no place in any self-respecting kitchen. It is rice that is precooked and then dehydrated, which you then rehydrate yourself. Some things like stock can be dehydrated, but rice is not one of those things.  The process destroys the texture and aroma of rice.

 

Storage
Premium rice will come in vacuum sealed heavy duty plastic. Do not open the package until you actually plan to use the rice. Once the packaging is opened, raw rice can be stored for a few months at room temperature as long as it is kept dry in an air tight container. If it is not consumed after a few months you run the risk of weevils, which is a minute infesting insect normally associated with rice. You can keep rice much longer, for over a year, by storing it in your fridge in a zip-loc bag.

 

Cooking White Rice
To get the perfect pot of rice, you simply rinse the rice, place it in the rice cooker with some water, press a button and wait. If you really want to cook rice, I strongly urge you get a rice cooker. It is notoriously difficult to boil rice over an open flame. A bit too much water and you get mush, a bit too little water and end up with rice pebbles. If even a bit of rice gets burnt, and trust me this happens very easily, the burnt smell gets infused into every grain into the pot.  Rice cookers are inexpensive appliances and they have become pretty versatile; you can use them to steam stuff or even stew like a crock pot. Nowadays they even come with microchips which makes them more forgiving if you have too much or too little water.

Before rice is boiled it should be rinsed a few times, usually in the container it is about to be cooked in. Swirl the rice in water that half fills the pot and then pour out the the water quickly, discarding the bits that float along with the water. These are the grains which have been damaged by weevils. Rinsing also removes any corn starch which may have been used to improve the appearance of the grains. Some people like to use the discarded water for watering plants. After rinsing twice or thrice, leave about 1.5 cm of water over the rice (the rule of thumb is to have just enough water to cover your index finger placed atop the rice).

Types of Rice
Here is a brief description of some common premium varieties of rice.

Jasmine Rice 
This is also commonly known as Thai Fragrant Rice, because it is originates from Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of rice.  A similar variety is grown in Australia and exported. Jasmine Rice is a long grained variety with a slightly translucent appearance. Its key attribute, which is why it is so popular, is that it does not become as sticky as other types of rice upon cooking, even though it becomes just as tender. For this reason, it has displaced the shorter grain varieties from China as the defacto standard for quality Chinese rice. You will usually find Jasmine Rice being served in the affluent homes of East Asia and in reputable Chinese restaurants worldwide. Jasmine Rice is perfect for making fried rice, although I’d leave it out to dry for an hour or so after cooking to dry it up first.

Basmati
Basmati is another long grain variety like Jasmine, which comes from the Indian sub-continent. It is rarer and more expensive than Jasmine and is sometimes referred to as the King of Rice in India and Pakistan. Although it  shares many of the same qualities as Jasmine, it is even thinner, giving it a very elongated appearance when cooked. Indian rice dishes such as Nasi Briyani would typically use Basmati. If you are preparing Curry, Chicken a la King or perhaps Beef Stroganoff, this is the rice variety I’d recommend.

 

Japanese Rice
Japanese rice, also known more formally as Japonica, is the only type of rice eaten in Japan and considered a high quality variety. This is also the rice that must be used to make sushi. Rice that is cultivated is Japan is never exported, and any Japonica the rest of the world eats is an ‘inferior’ crop grown in the California. You can recognize raw Japanese rice as it is unusually roundish, short and always well polished. It is also more opaque than Jasmine and Basmati. As it is a short grain type, cooked Japanese rice is sticky which allows you to pick up balls of rice using a pair of chopsticks with no difficulty. What sets it apart from other short rice is it doesn’t become mushy, even though its surface is sticky. Many consider Japanese rice a prized variety because of this unique quality. If you are making a baked dish with rice, like this Lobster Thermidor Style dish, I’d use this variety.

Glutinous Rice
This is sometimes called sticky rice, or mochigome if you are in Japan. Its a medium length grain which takes a very long time to cook. Consequently, it is not normally used as a every day staple grain. You can recognize it easily as it is totally opaque and is has a pearly white appearance. On the occasions that it is eaten as ’rice’, glutinous rice is not boiled after rinsing, but is soaked for several hours and then steamed (or pan fried till it is cooked, a very labourious process ). Because glutinous rice is very sticky and chewy, it is very often used to make steamed leaf wrapped rice and meat dumplings. It is also a commom component of desserts in many parts of Asia. As for me, I usually use glutinous rice as a soup ingredient when I make Korean Chicken Ginseng Soup.

Arborio Rice
Strictly speaking, Arborio Rice doesn’t belong on this page as its also not boiled like white rice but slow cooked into a creamy risotto. But it is a white variety and its found in my kitchen. Arborio grains look a bit like Japonica but are even shorter and chubbier. I won’t go into the details about making Risotto here, you can look that up on my Risotto Page.

Notes

• Rice is easily flavoured. If its a powdered flavour like turmeric or a liquid flavour like chicken stock or butter, add it before the rice starts cooking. If its something solid like bacon or mushrooms, place it on the rice when it is half cooked and continue cooking.
• While white rice tastes the best, it is the worst in terms of nutrition since all the vitamins and nutrients are contained in the shell which has been polished away. This is a reason why wild rice is preferred in the West. In the old days, when Asians were poor and used to eat rice without any meat or fresh vegetables, they’d develop vitamin dificiencies like Beri-Beri. However, as everyone eats meat and vegetables regularly now, this has become a problem of the past, so eat as much rice as you please.

 

Porcini and Chicken Risotto

(serves 5)
Porcini mushrooms and risotto are a match made in culinary heaven. Sometimes referred to as the king of mushrooms, porcini are often dried to enhance their flavour and when rehydrated, give a rich nutty ‘soup’ which can be added as stock to the risotto. This particular recipe also introduces some chicken and proscuitto to bring out a meaty undertone, but in a manner which doesn’t compete with the flavour of the porcini.

Ingredients

1. Dried Porcini Mushrooms (30g)
2. Proscuitto, sliced (100g)
3. Arborio Rice (1.25 cups)
4. Chicken Leg and Thigh (1)
5. Shallots (4)
6. Butter (50g)
7. Grated Grana Padano (1/4 cup)
8. Chicken stock cube
9. Cognac

Preparation

1. Simmer your chicken leg in 3 cups of water and one chicken stock cube, for at least an hour. For best results, do this the night before.
2. After the stock has matured and cooled, remove the skin and shred the soft chicken meat by hand into small bundles of fibres. If you don’t boil the chicken for long enough, you won’t be able to do this.
3. You also need to soak your porcini in 1 cup of water for about an hour before you begin making the risotto.  Use cold water, as hot water will give the porcini a slight rubbery texture after it rehydrates.
4. Roll up your proscuitto slices and cut each roll lengthwise into two. Then cut bits of the half rolls to arrive at small rectangular slivers. On medium heat in a non-stick pan, fry the proscuitto to a crisp with 2T of olive oil. Sprinkle in 1/2 t of sugar and then remove the meat using a strainer for later use. Return the dripped oil to the pan.
5. Julienne the shallots into small pieces that are the size of rice grains and fry them in the retained oil plus an additional 2T of olive oil to form a sofritto. Its best you use the same pan without washing. Stir-fry under low heat until the shallots are limp, taking care not to caramelize them. 

Stop here if you are preparing ahead of time, for this marks the point of no return. Once you begin the next stage, you’ll need to serve the risotto soon after it is done.

1. Turn up the heat on the pan and add the rice into the soffritto, stirring well to coat the kernels with oil. Add the shredded chicken and continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes or so. Seperately, reheat your chicken stock to a boil.
2.  At this stage it is usual to add some sort of wine to the rice but in this case, we’ll be adding the procini and the flavoursome water used in their soaking instead. Reduce the heat to produce a low simmer.  Stir until the risotto begins to dry, then proceed to ladle in the hot chicken stock. Add just a ladle of stock each time, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Continue doing this for about 20 minutes and when the stock runs out, just use plain water instead.
3. When your risotto becomes creamy and al dente and you can let it almost dry up, after which you turn off the heat.  Total simmering time varies a bit with the type of grain you are using, so rely on taste and appearance to decide if the risotto is done and not a timer.
4. Cut a ¼ slab of butter into 1 cm cubes and mix it with finely grated grana padano, a milder hard cheese which doesn’t crowd out the porcini flavour. This forms the mantecatura, which is stirred in towards the end when risotto is made.  In addition, sprinkle on some black pepper and 2T of brandy. After tasting, you may add a bit of salt or more cheese as a final adjustment if you deem necessary.
5. Cover the pot and let the risotto rest for 5 minutes so that it can absorb a bit more liquid and fluff up. Garnish with the crispy procuitto as the final touch.

Notes

• My first risotto recipe contains many of the finer points on making risotto, which I have opted not to repeat here. You should refer to that post if you don’ make risotto often.  
• 30g sounds like a really small amount to use, but as the mushrooms are dessicated, this works out to be almost a cup in volume.
• I know I’ve said don’t use stock cubes for risotto, but this is a special case. The salt content is taken into account in the recipe.

 

Red Seafood Risotto

(serves 4)
Its actually looks more orange than red, but this recipe uses crustacean heads, so that makes it a red risotto. Risotto is a dish that is conceptually simple, but difficult to master in practice. This particular risotto, which uses prawns, scallops and portobello as its core ingredients is one of my favouites.

Rather than describe how one type of risotto is made, I’ve decided to write this recipe in such a way that is becomes a generic guide to making risotto as well. So it looks like its very long, but actually it just contains many of the finer details which I usually gloss over.

Ingredients

1. Tiger Prawns (6)
2. Large Scallops (6)
3. Arborio Rice (1 cup)
4. Smoked Clams in oil (1 tin)
5. Lobster Bisque (1/2 can)
6. Onion (1)
7. Portobello Mushrooms (2)
8. Butter (50g)
9. Chardonnay (½ cup)
10. Pecorino Romano (1/4 cup)
11. Cognac
12. Coriander Powder

Preparation – Stock

1. On medium heat, brown 1T of pressed garlic in 2T butter. Don’t use a non-stick pan as you’ll be scratching it later.
2. Cut the heads of your prawns off while waiting for the garlic to brown, then stir fry the prawn heads in the garlic oil. When the heads have become completely red for a minute, pour in 1 cup of water.
3. As the water boils, cut each head into three pieces using a large pair of kitchen scissors and then crush the heads with a wooden spatula, the type with a flat edge. Next decant the liquid through a strainer into a pot.
4. Repeat another two times such that you end up with 3 cups of clear stock in the pot. Now add 1/2 a can of lobster bisque to complete the stock.

• NEVER add salt to the stock as you will lose control of how salty the risotto is after the water has evaporated.
• Commercially pre-made stock is pre-salted, making them unsuitable for risotto.

Preparation – Soffritto

1. For the soffritto, you’ll need to use a non-stick pan i.e. a different one from the one used earlier. This will ensure that you won’t get a burnt taste from bits sticking to the bottom of the pan.
2. Julienne the onion into pieces that are the size of rice grains and fry them in 4T of olive oil using low heat until they are limp. You should do this without caramelizing the onion. Adding a pinch of salt at the start will help keep the onion from browning.
3. Stop here if you are preparing ahead of time, for this marks the point of no return. Once you begin the next stage, you’ll need to serve the risotto soon after it is done.

• The onions will practically dissolve into the risotto. Many Italian recipes utilize this method, using aromatic vegetables and sometimes bacon bits, to arrive at a more complex and satisfying flavor.

Preparation – Simmer

1. Turn up the heat on the pan and add the rice into the soffritto, stirring well to coat the kernels with oil. Continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes or so.
2. Add the wine, and stir until it almost evaporates completely before adding a ladle of stock. After adding the stock, adjust down the heat to produce a low simmer.
3. Each time, add just a ladle of stock, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Add more stock each time the rice begins to dry out.
4. In between stirring, de-shell and de-vein the prawn bodies and dice them, and dice the mushroom and scallops as well, into fingernail sized pieces. After simmering for 15 minutes, add the diced ingredients and smoked clams.
5. Continue stirring and simmering the rice for about another 10 minutes until it is creamy and al dente, then turn off the fire.
6. Total simmering time should have been about 30 minutes but rely on taste and appearance to decide if the risotto is done and not a timer.

• NEVER add cold stock to risotto as repeated sudden cooling makes the rice powdery. So keep that stock on a simmer in a separate pot.
• NEVER add all the stock at one go. You don’t know exactly how much stock you need and this takes away your contol of the cooking time.
• Constant stirring rubs off bits of the grains’ surface, giving the starch that creates a risotto’s characteristic creaminess.
• Arborio is the standard rice type for risottos although the more expensive carnaroli rice is sometimes used. Carnaroli cooks faster and absorbs more liquid, which means it will have a stronger stock flavour.

Preparation – Mantecatura

1. Cut a ¼ slab of butter into 1 cm cubes and mix with finely grated pecorino romano (or any other kind of hard cheese). This forms the mantecatura, which is stirred in as the finishing touch. For an extra creamy texture, you can cheat by stirring in 1T of marscapone as well. This is optional.
2. Next, sprinkle on some black pepper, 1T of Coriander Powder, 2T of brandy and a ½ t of sugar. After tasting, you may add salt or more cheese as a final adjustment if necessary.

• NEVER add salt before this stage, as the concentration of the stock increases flavour over time, and besides hard cheese is salty.
• I prefer using pecorino romano as it is a stronger grating cheese which goes well with rice but other hard cheeses can be substituted if desired. Check out my Cheese Page for more details.

Resting

1. Cover the pot and let the risotto rest for 5 minutes so that it can absorb a bit more liquid and fluff up.
2. Garnish with a bit of coarsely grated pecorino romano as you serve.

• This is the ONLY time you should cover it.
• You cannot pre-make or re-heat risotto. So time it such that you can serve it immediately.