whats the best risotto??

i really want a great tasting risotto!!
any ideas?
whats your favourite?

the one my mum makes.. lol
i will have to get the recipe

Roast pumpkin, fetta, pinenuts. Really simple: basic risotto with garlic, white wine and chicken or vege stock, roast pumpkin until caramelised, toast pinenuts, serve topped with pumpkin, pinenuts, crumbled fetta, preferably sheep milk, finely chopped chives, cracked black pepper and a bit of extra virgin olive oil. I often use a raspberry infused oil and it is a brilliant flavour, garlic infused oil would work too, as would roasting some garlic with the pumpkin and squeezing it into the risotto at the last minute.

Chicken and mushroom is always good, too. I saw a recipe for a saffron, prawn and 'something' risotto once but for the life of me can't remember what the other ingredient was. Maybe asparagus would be nice?

Mmmm, risotto...

A few ideas to get you started...

Fennel, Roast Pumpkin and Chicken
Duck, Orange and Asparagus
Spinach, Pea and Mushroom
Scallops, Mussels and Fennel
Basil and Lemon
Chicken, Bacon and Pea
Apple & Thyme
Spicey Sausage and Leek
Spinach and Mushroom
Beetroot and Horseradish
Spinach, Gorgonzola and Walnut

The possibilities are endless...great way to use up the contents of your fridge....what do you have to use up?

Imho the key to a great risotto is the stock that you use - I usually start making a fresh stock whilst I'm preparing the other ingredients and then just ladle hot fresh stock from one pan into the other as I need it.
You can alter the taste of the risotto by tailoring the stock to suit - if you are adding veggies to the risotto then add some of trimmings, leaves, etc to the stock pot - add some chopped tomato or tomato puree for a deeper colour and flavour - herbs that will survive the boiling - bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, curry leaves are all good additions.

I love all sorts of risottos. My DH makes a really yummy one with tonnes of vegies and cajun chicken. The secret ingredients are chili and lime - yum!

Mushroom and Blue Cheese...yummy

Jamie Oliver does a great mushroom one. You cook the mushrooms (heaps of them) down in butter first and add rosemary and thyme. Then in another pan, cook a basic risotto with butter, white wine, veggie stock, etc and towards the very end, right before you add the cheese you put the mushroom mixture through it. Its absolutely gorgeous! Oh I want some now, might have to rethink dinner plans! :)

I use Jamie Oliver's base recipe as I find it is delightfully creamy. The sky is the limit for adding your flavours, some of our favourites are;

Prawn & Pancetta
Lemon & Pea
Mushroom (I use swiss, oyster, porcini & field for a really 'meaty' flavoursome result)
Broccoli & Bacon
Seafood (I use prawns, scallops & barramundi or swordfish)
Pumpkin, fetta & pine nut.

IMHO the secret to a great risotto is two fold, one is taking the time to ladel the stock in and gently massage the creaminess out of the rice. The second is is using lovely fresh herbs to season the dish ... I always add herbs with the butter just before serving and it makes such a difference to the layers of flavour.

Have fun ... yummmmm love risotto!!


KAZ76, glad to see Jamie has another fan! I agree that the two pan approach is a good one, particularly with seafood as it means you can prevent your seafood from being overcooked, rather adding it to the rice at the last minute for a perfect result :D

Duck Confit, truffle & peas ;) Yes its extravagant, but its so worth it!
Chicken, pancetta (or bacon), mushroom, pea & marscapone.
Roast Duck, Mushroom & Asparagus
Wild Mushroom Risotto
Bacon, baby spinach & roast pumpkin.

man they all sound soooooo good, now who wants to come make sme some!

I totally suck at making risotto :(:(

I love pumpkin risotto, chicken and mushroom, or just the mushroom one my Mum makes.

The last risotto I had out was while I was pg with Steph, and I couldn't eat onions then either. It had whole baby onions in it, and I asked for it without, but they were still in there. I nearly spewed!

Netix - what happens with your attempts at making risotto?

Niliac ohh duck how do u cook the duck to put in the rissotto and what stock do u use???

i sooooooooooooooo love duck

I have had many terrible risotto's in restaurants ... BEST I ever had was in an Indian restaurant in Melb ;)

... I LOVE any risotto as long as it's got PUMPKIN in it :dance:

I made a rissotto following a recipe, a mushroom one but I was really dissapointed that it wasn't creamy. Should you substitute water for milk or cream to get a creamy version?

The creaminess comes from the starch released by the rice during the cooking process - you need to use a good quality risotto rice and stir it pretty much continuously to maximise the release of starch.

They don;t turn out as 'creamy' I guess for want of a better description, Bear. Well, not as creamy as maybe I am expecting.

I used to have a risotto cookbook (may still have it in the shed, but I'm pretty sure I discarded it for lack of use) and tried making one or two from that, but I wasn't very happy with the result.

When I make 'risotto' (or should I say 'a dish with rice in it that looks like it could be related to risotto'), its just got onion, butter, rice (whatever is in the cupboard, not even risotto rice :redface:), stock (read: water and stock powder), tin tomatoes, maybe some tomato paste, and herbs. Pretty sure that's it. Soften onion in butter, add rice, stir well to coat, add everything else, stir often on low heat until rice cooked and water absorbed. Add grated cheese (usually tasty, not even parmesan! :redface:) at the end.

When I have tried to make 'proper' risotto (hot stock/liquid, added a bit at a time), it took AGES to cook, and the rice didn't even cook properly with the directed amount of liquid.

There's your problem Netix. :)

It's critical that you use a proper risotto rice like arborio. These have a much higher starch content than other rice varieties and like Bear said, it's the release of starch that gives it the creaminess. The stock should be added a little bit at a time, and stirred continuously, only adding more when the last lot is absorbed. Yes, it should take a while, and I find that risotto usually uses more liquid than directed. Good things take time, and like a proper custard, or good gnocchi, it's worth doing properly.

It also helps to gently fry the rice in the butter or oil until the grains are translucent, then start adding the stock. I usually add a good splash of white wine before the stock and reduce it.

I was typing exactly what Suse said, before Riv tried to help. :P So her post has my celebrity endorsement. I'm sure that will make a difference.

If you are prepared to stand over it stirring it then you can make it about 20-30 minutes using the traditional method - keep the heat a little higher and keep everything moving around to stop it burning on the bottom of the pan.

A few thoughts to help you make a creamy risotto...

Don't add tomato to it - the acidity in the tomato will stop the starches binding together, if you want tomato in it then leave it to the end of the cooking process.

It's really important to add the stock a bit at a time - the starch is released by all the grains of rice rubbing against one another as you stir it....if there is too much liquid at the start then this doesn't happen, so it doesn't get creamy. You can add the stock in larger quantities as the rice cooks as most of the starch will already be out at that point.

Making a risotto is not an exact science, so don't stick to times and quantities in the recipe too closely...if the rice isn't cooked when the recipe says it should be, then don't worry about it, just keep stirring and adding stock until it is ready - if you add too much stock and the rice is cooked, but the risotto is too wet for your liking then add a handful of grated parmesan and stir it through to pull it back together.

WRT to the stock - even if you won't make your own stock, then think about having a couple of cartons of ready made stock in the back of your cupboard - most supermarkets have a decent selection now, and they taste much better than powders or cubes. Suse's suggestion of adding a spash of white wine at the start is good, it helps develop the initial flavour base that your stock is lacking....also think about adding other veggies to the chopped onion at the start to improve the flavour - finely chopped celery and/or fennel will do wonderful things to the risotto's taste.

What IS fennel anyway (says Nelle who is too lazy to Wiki it)?

nelle its a herb!

It's a vegetable!

It has a bulbous white root that smells a little of aniseed - it's great sliced raw into salads, in risotto, roasted or braised in the oven...all round good veggie that is in season at the moment.

The root usually has 3-4 shoots coming out of it that are topped with leaves, that can be finely chopped and used as a herb - the seeds can also be ground in a mortar and used as a spice.

I liken it to aniseed like celery LOL!

I cheat and buy roast duck, (as get this) I hate the smell of roast duck don't ask me why, although I think it has something to do with chinatown ;) Duck confit I have a very good supplier but it also is very easy to make yourself, its just time consuming and usually when I get a hankering I want it then and there. Roasting duck is very easy, and if you don't want to do a whole duck, you can just get breast with the skin on and pan fry it (just make sure you do skin side first and do score and season the skin first). It is important IMO to have a crispy skin if doing the risotto I mentioned as there is just something about the taste. When I used to live closer to gourmet produce I used to make a mean 5 spice asian duck breast that we used to have with pommes anna (french style potato gratin) and it was good. But alas I don't have the same wonderful stores closeby and my wonderful son is no way near as easy going as Paris was so unless its the weekend a day in the kitchen is sooooo out of the question LOL!

My favourite is with scallops and peas with a bit of lemon and mascarpone cheese on top. The mascarpone then melts and makes the risotto extra creamy.

Had this in a restaurant in Hobart (which is one of the reasons I fell in love with Hobart ... but I digress) and we try to recreate it at home.

Thank you all. I knew that is was only supposed to take around the thirty minute mark (if that), but I don't think I was game to turn the heat up.

And I didn't know that about the tomatoes, thanks again Bear.

I will have another go. Sans onion atm. Or fennel. Not sure I could go the aniseed either.