Risotto II

This is the risotto! It's not the most photogenic food. A bit bland and lump looking. But its delicious.I was a little worried while making it because it took a long time for the rice to cook. And it needs to be coddled while it's on the stove. The butter and parmesan cheese do a lot for this dish. Also the wine. I doubled the amount of white wine from what was in the recipe. I also have a lot left over. Because it's so rich, my friend and I didn't have as much of it as I thought we would, last night. So I'm taking the risotto to work this morning and hopefully, it'll get gobbled up. Taking food to work seems to be the best strategy for getting rid of food in a hurry.

The Naked Chef's Basic Risotto

approximately 1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
3 finely chopped shallots or 2 medium onions
1/2 head of celery, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
14 oz risotto rice
1/2 c dry white vermouth or white wine
5 tbsp butter
3-3 1/2 oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Stage 1: Heat the stock. Then in a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the shallot or onion, celery and a pinch of salt, and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and after another 2 minutes, when the vegetables have softened add the rice. Turn up the heat now. At this crucial point, you can’t leave the pan, and anyway, this is the best bit.
While slowly stirring, continuously, you are beginning to fry the rice. You don’t want any colour at any point (so remember, you’re in control, and if the temperature seems too high, turn it down a bit). You must keep the rice moving. After 2 or 3 minutes it will begin to look translucent as it absorbs all the flavours of your base (it may crackle at this point, that’s fine). Add the vermouth or wine, keeping on stirring as it hits the pan - it will smell fantastic! It will sizzle around the rice, evaporating any harsh alcohol flavours and leaving the rice with a tasty essence,
I must admit I’m a sucker for dry vermouth. When it cooks into the rice it seems to give it a really full but subtle flavour and leaves a wicked sweetness that works perfectly with the rice. White wine is lovely, probably ore delicate and fresh. Try both - see what you think.
Stage 2: Once the vermouth or win3 seems to have cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a pinch of salt (add small amounts of salt to taste while you are adding the stock). Turn down the heat to a high-ish simmer (the reason we don’t want to boil the hell our of it is because, if we do, the outside of the rice will be cooked and fluffy and the inside will be raw). Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and allowling each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take tabout 15 minutes. Taste the rice - is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Check seasoning.

Ma Po Tofu

I'm not giving out precise measurements for this dish because I have no clue what they are. This is where the fun is in cooking...

You want to start with 1/2 pound of extra lean ground pork. Add a splash of rice wine, two splashes of soy sauce and a brief drizzle of sesame oil . Mix it all together. Meanwhile, chop up a clove of garlic and two shallots. Heat a frying pan in medium high. Add a small drizzle of cooking oil and then add the shallots and garlic. Stir for a moment or two and then add the ground pork. As the pork browns, make the sauce. It's a mixture of two large spoonfuls of oyster sauce, one spoonful of Asian chilli sauce (you can buy it in a jar), a smaller spoonful of cornstarch and maybe 1/3 c water. Once the pork is fully browned add 1/2 cup of peas. Then stir in the sauce. The sauce will need to thicken so turn down the heat on the pan slightly while it does this. You want it to start getting bubbly. Meanwhile, get the tofu ready. I like using silken tofu because it's much smoother, but it can fall apart easily because it's more delicate. The best thing to do is to scoop the tofu up with regular soup spoon and then nestle the tofu on top of the pork. Let the tofu get coated in the sauce. The sauce shouldn't be gooey thick -- just thick enough to come across as a sauce. Heat the tofu and pork mixture until everything starts to really bubble again. Serve on top of steaming white rice.