The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.
This challenge excited me greatly as I absolutely love risotto and would like to make my own stock more often. Check and check! I do tend to stick to my regular Red Wine Risotto with slight variations and so I took this as a sign from the universe to try something new. I certainly couldn't post twice on the same recipe, not for a challenge!
But I am getting ahead of myself. First, risotto requires stock. And I've seen and heard many a time that the better the stock, the better the risotto. Essentially, I hadn't seen anything yet! I made two attempts to collect a chicken for my stock. The first stop was an NYC-based gourmet grocery shop that was on my way home from a yoga class. I was shocked and astounded to see that a 3 lb. organic whole chicken cost well over 16 dollars. Since organic, all-natural, well-treated chicken is the main way I'll eat it these days, I headed over to my local Trader Joe's. There, I found a 4 lb. organic all-natural whole chicken for just over 11 dollars. Much better.
I used the challenge recipe for the stock because I haven't yet settled on a way that I like to do it and I was intrigued by the use of lemon in the seasoning. I was short on lemon peel at the time, but I did have some dried lemon zest and so that was the one substitution I made. In went the rest of the seasoning (see recipe below) and off it bubbled for what seemed like forever. The smells were very enticing. I removed the chicken which pretty much fell apart and used the meat in another dish coming later this week.
Next came the risotto. The use of lemon in the stock got my recipe improv mojo going since I've seen several lemon risottos over time that I wanted to try. I do have the preserved lemons from the last Daring Cooks challenge, but I also wanted to use the brave little sage leaves that have lasted on our window sill winter. By this time, I'd managed to procure actual lemons and so, sage and lemon risotto!
I used the recipe base recommended for the challenge, and tweaked it based on another that I found online. We didn't have quite as much happy sage on our plant as I'd hoped, so I think you could do with a lot more. This is also a very subtle soothing risotto. I knew I'd need to add a little pop to make it a hit in my house, so I sauteed some local hot italian sausage from Bradley's Farm that I picked up at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market and sprinkled it on top of the risotto. This gave the dish some extra spice that didn't overwhelm the sage and lemon favors. I don't recommend adding it any earlier as it may have competed with the risotto.
Chicken Stock
- 1 large chicken 3-4 pounds
- chicken bones 2-3 pounds (I didn't use, but this will make the flavor richer)
- 2 onions, roughly diced
- 1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
- 2 sticks celery, roughly diced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp. peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
- peel of 1/2 lemon or good dash of dried lemon zest
- 1/4 tsp. allspice
- Wash the chicken and bones and places in a large stock pot. Cover completely with water and bring to a boil. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface.
- Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil.
- Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.
- Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup or enchiladas!
- Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At the end you should have around 2 Liters.
- Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.
Sage and Lemon Risotto with Spicy Sausage
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 bunch sage, roughly chopped
- peel of 1/2 lemon
- 12 oz Arborio rice (about two cups)
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
- 1/3 pound fresh hot italian sausage, casings removed
- Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes until soft and fragrant. Add sage and lemon peel.
- Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
- Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
- Add enough stock to cover the rice by about an inch.
- Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
- Repeat Step 5 until rice is slightly al dente and cooked through. In the meantime, saute the sausage in a small pan, breaking into small crumbles. Set aside.
- Add lemon juice and pecorino to finished risotto. Mix well. Top with sausage. (Remove lemon peel in the event there will be confusion. I left it in because it was pretty and continued to impart lemon flavor to the dish).