Changing Seasons: Rainbow Chard and Bacon Risotto

There is a chill in the air as we move towards autumn.  Even though I will quickly remind you that summer is not yet over, I will also admit that the time is coming for cooler weather foods.  I'm still getting plenty of greens at the farmers' market and they lend themselves nicely to in-between weather comfort dishes.  

I also, as you may have noticed, have been spending some time hanging around the Amish farm stand at our greenmarket.  There are plenty of local dairy options at the bigger farmers' markets in the city (and of course Ronnybrook is readily available from Fresh Direct or Brooklyn Fare or any number of other conscientious markets), but, of course, my approach is that the local-est is best and I'm happy to support a community who brings us single ingredient items.  You want butter? It's made with cream.  Period.  Yum.  

Over time, we've expanded our take from the Amish stand to include eggs, a variety of cheeses and now, bacon.  And really, isn't that all we need in life? I recently bought a pound of sliced bacon and began dreaming up ways change our world.  Mix in those late summer greens and I had a plan.  My first adventure with this bacon was to make my collard greens, which, in retrospect, was a very good plan.  

By making something I could make in my sleep, I became quickly familiar with how the Amish bacon was different from others that I've used before.  Amish bacon (at least from this particular stand) was subtler, less salty and almost lighter, if bacon can be such a thing.  For collard greens, it was almost too subtle.  And so, rainbow chard and bacon risotto was born.  

To bring out the bacon's strengths, I crisped the bacon and rendered the fat in the pot I'd use for the rice.  Then, I cooked garlic and onions in the bacon fat and added the arborio rice to get it saturated in the bacon fat and other flavors.  The bacon was still subtle, but it was able to come through in a creamy, simple rice dish.  The rainbow chard added earthiness which complemented the bacon without overwhelming it.  Finally, against my husband's protests, I used a simple red wine to bring it all home.  

Now that I've learned about my product, I'm looking forward to new ways to make it work for us.  And, when I need that stronger bacon-y element, there's always Niman Ranch. 

Rainbow Chard and Bacon Risotto

• 5 cups organic chicken broth
• 4 slices bacon (nice and streaky, local if you can find it), cut into about 1 inch pieces 
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (LINK)
• 4 cups rainbow chard, trimmed and chopped (about 1 bunch)
• sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
• freshly grated Pecorino Romano

1. Heat chicken broth in a pot over medium heat.  Lower if it starts to boil. 
2. In a separate pot, cook bacon pieces until fat is rendered and bacon reaches desired crispness.  (I like it nice and crispy to add texture later.)
3. Add onions and garlic to bacon fat and cook until translucent. Add rice and chard.  Cook about 3 minutes until rice is well coated and greens have wilted. 
4. Add wine to rice mixture, stirring constantly, and cook until dry. Add broth in 1/2 cup intervals, cooking until dry. 
5. Mix in grated cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add bacon and give it one last stir to combine.  Enjoy! 

March Daring Cooks Challenge: Sage and Lemon Risotto with Spicy Sausage

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

1. 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.
2. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil.
3. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 hours.
4. 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!
5. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At the end you should have around 2 Liters.
6. 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

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.  Add sage and lemon peel. 
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by about an inch.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. 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.
7. 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).

Meatless Monday: Red Wine Risotto with Peas

I love red wine risotto.  My husband does not.  So, when he ran off for the weekend with the boys, I settled in to indulge myself.  I have a few versions of this recipe that I like to make, one being Giada De Laurentiis' version and another being a variation with chorizo.  In a quest to make it a bit lighter and a good meatless option (not to mention my lack of chorizo on a cold evening), I used another favorite Giada risotto recipe as a base, her Champagne risotto, and came up with a nice and easy version that gave me a dinner and a lunch for my weekend home with the pup.

Note on cooking with red wine: the maxim is true - recipes taste best with a wine you would drink rather than some cheap cooking wine.  However, in a pinch, I keep the remains of a drinking bottle of wine vacuum sealed in the fridge to use in recipes.  It is not ideal, but I find it works for me since I use splashes of wine in my cooking often enough to keep the bottle relatively fresh (a little red wine makes even a jar of marinara sparkle).

Red Wine Risotto with Peas (adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

• 3 cups mushroom broth or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup Arborio rice
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring chicken stock to a simmer on the back of the stove.
2. Melt butter in saucepan.  Add garlic and shallot and cook until fragrant.
3. Add Arborio rice and toss to completely coat the rice in butter mixture.
4. Add red wine and stir constantly until wine has reduced almost completely.
5. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and stir constantly until reduced almost completely.  Continue with remaining broth in 1/2 cup portions.
6. When rice is soft with just a touch of chewy texture, add peas, cheese and seasoning.  Garnish with additional cheese if desired (I pretty much always desire).  Serve and try not to eat both servings all by yourself!