So I made leek risotto. Ran into a little snafu though. I thought I had vegetable broth in my kitchen but it turned out to be creamy corn & roasted red pepper soup instead. Oops... So I used 1 cup soup plus 3 cups water in place of the broth. I've also just realized how wonderful aborio rice is. It's an Italian short-grain rice which is firm, creamy, and chewy, because of its higher amylopectin starch content. Gave the risotto a wonderful crunch.
Leek Risotto with Basil Coulis:
1 1/4 cups arborio rice
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
5 leeks, thoroughly cleaned and finely chopped
3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp mustard
1 small bunch basil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tbsp olive oil
juice from one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
In a large sauce pan, slowly bring the stock to a strong simmer. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Chop the whites of the leeks, discarding the tough greens. Lightly saute the leeks in the butter until just cooked. Add the arborio rice, gently tossing frequently to coat each grain in a little butter. Cook until translucent. Add a ladleful of simmering stock to the rice, stirring to combine. Keeping adding only one ladleful of stock to the rice only after the rice has absorbed all of the previous ladles worth of stock. Stir each time to add the stock and occasionally as needed.
Between ladlefuls, place basil, garlic, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, and 1/4 cup stock in a food processor. Process until very smooth and strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove any left over solids. Season with salt and pepper and reserve.
When the risotto is almost finished, stir in the remaining butter and remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the mustard basil coulis.
Matt (the mushroom delivery man) brought fresh mushrooms to my door tonight so I sauted them in olive oil.
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