Risotto with Chestnuts

Risotto with Chestnuts

For the Risotto-part, please view my other post!

Chestnuts (about 25-30 pieces)

Sugar

With a sharp knife cut two lines on the flat side of the chestnuts, one vertically and one horizontally.

Bring water to the boil and add chestnuts, let boil for 10-15 minutes. Take out one by one and peel off the hard outer shell and the soft dark skin (it leaves a bitter taste). Leave some chestnuts as a whole, cut the others into small pieces.

In a small pan melt 2 tablespoons of sugar until liquid, then add water (the sugar might become one solid piece  upon contact with water, but be patient, it'll dissolve again). Stir until you have a nice syrupy liquid, then add the whole chestnuts and let boil a few minutes until nicely caramelized from all sides.

 Add broken chestnuts to the rice about halfway through the cooking-process, continue with ladle / broth / simmering as described above. When the risotto is done, use the caramelized chestnuts to decorate. Here we go:

Three Types of Risotto

My In-laws were coming (again) for dinner and so were two of hubby's nephews. So we were 6 + Baby, and I decided to make different types of risotto. I still had left-over ragù, I had bought mushrooms and had not planned to use them in my weekly menu, and I had the brilliant idea to make chestnut-risotto. So here it goes. Again, unfortunately, I did all of this without sticking to closely to a recipe, so there won't be any indications to grams or Milliliters.

As you might have guessed, the base of all of the risottos is, well, risotto. Who would have thought that???

Risotto
Risotto-Rice (Arborio)
Onion
Olive Oil
Hot Broth (I made it with beef stock-cubes, but of course you can make it from scratch or with vegetarian cubes)

Just so you know, I had about 2,5 liters of broth and 800gr of uncooked rice and there were 5 strong eaters + one picky one and I still have some in the freezer....

Prepare broth and keep hot. Dice onion and fry in olive oil until light golden. Add rice and turn with wooden spoon until glazed with hot oil from all sides. Add a couple of ladles of broth and stir until rice has absorbed all liquid. Continue until rice is done (not too mushy though, the center still has to be "al dente"). You might not have to use all liquid or maybe you need to prepare some more broth. Of course you could add some white wine with one of the broth-ladles.

Risotto ai Funghi
'Shrooms :-))) (champignon or porcini)
Parsley
White Wine
Olive oil

Cut mushrooms in thin slices and fry in oil. Add white wine and let simmer and evaporate most of it. Add parsley and if it's too dry some of the broth.

Mix well with the cooked risotto, and here's the result

Risotto with Chestnuts
Chestnuts (about 25-30 pieces)
Sugar

With a sharp knife cut two lines on the flat side of the chestnuts, one vertically and one horizontally.

Bring water to the boil and add chestnuts, let boil for 10-15 minutes. Take out one by one and peel off the hard outer shell and the soft dark skin (it leaves a bitter taste). Leave some chestnuts as a whole, cut the others into small pieces.

In a small pan melt 2 tablespoons of sugar until liquid, then add water (the sugar might become one solid piece  upon contact with water, but be patient, it'll dissolve again). Stir until you have a nice syrupy liquid, then add the whole chestnuts and let boil a few minutes until nicely caramelized from all sides.

 Add broken chestnuts to the rice about halfway through the cooking-process, continue with ladle / broth / simmering as described above. When the risotto is done, use the caramelized chestnuts to decorate. Here we go:

Risotto al Ragù
Left-Over Ragù (recipe is here or here)
Risotto


Mix. Done. Picture is bad. Sorry.

Risotto with Salmon and Mozzarella-cheese

This was a quick and easy meal. I'm not the biggest fan of rice and especially not of Risotto, but a friend has been eating this again and again for quite some time so I thought I'd give it a try! What can I say? - IT'S AWESOME. And it was just about the first food my baby practically inhaled. Usually she's not the best eater (she likes almost everything, but after a few spoonfuls the just stops eating and instead starts throwing food everywhere...), but this risotto was a big hit. 


Here's the "original" recipe (she got the idea from watching How I met your mother, Season 2, Episode 3, where Barney and Ted's Mother talk about Salmon Risotto - Hey, so TV has some advantages after all...). I made some slight alterations, but see for yourself: 


For 2:
cubes (veggie) for stock/broth
200gr. risotto-rice
1 small onion
(white wine if you like)
150gr. smoked salmon
150gr. buffalo-mozzarella (or normal mozzarella) / Crème Fraiche
lemon juice
dill
salt/pepper


Prepare some stock [broth?] (750ml boiling water and stock-cube according to package or according to how salty you like it - I took the veggie-variety). Turn down heat but make sure the broth remains hot. Cut one small onion into small pieces and fry in butter and olive-oil (equal parts) until light golden. Add about 200gr. Risotto-rice and stir until the rice is covered with the oil/butter. De-glaze with a bit of white wine (I left this step out). Add one ladle of broth and stir gently until the rice has soaked up the liquid. Repeat until you finished the broth or until the rice is cooked (ideally, those two coincide). Add some pepper (I didn't) and about 100gr. smoked salmon (cut into small pieces; I sued more, maybe 150gr.), 1-2 tablespoons Crème Fraiche (I used about 150gr. buffalo-mozzarella, cut into small pieces), a dash of lemon juice and some dill (again, I didn't, I have no idea what it's called in Italy). Since the broth is quite salty you shouldn't need to add salt, but feel free to do so or to add other spices.


Here's the risotto and the baby: