Risotto: Dinner party dish favorite

This is a sponsored post, which means Roth sent me complimentary cheese to work with and also paid me to develop a recipe and share it here. These types of sponsorships allow me to continue to work via the blog as a free avenue for sharing recipes and ideas with readers.

One of our go-to dinner party dishes is risotto, both for economy and richness. I’ve partnered on this series of posts (including my pork belly omelette post last month) with Wisconsin cheesemaker, Roth Grand Cru. The Grand Cru is an Alpine-style cheese, which means Roth follows Swiss tradition and crafting, but uses Wisconsin dairy. When this style of cheese is made in Switzerland, it is called Gruyere, and the name remains regionally specific and tied to Switzerland dairying, like with champagne and other things that got their names from the region in which they started. For this recipe, I used Roth’s Grand Cru Reserve, which is aged for 6-9 months and has a deeper, more mature flavor than the 4-month aged version.

My relationship with risotto began when I chose (and then married) an Italian. From my station in another family’s kitchen during my Brooklyn nanny days, charged with making dinner that 3 pre-teens would eat, I would regularly call my now wife and ask her the proportions of risotto components since random crisper drawer veggies and arborio rice were the what I usually had to work with.

After a few frenzied calls I started to get the hang of this creamy and filling dish and now make it by feel. I’m sharing with you a recipe that will get you started, but please feel free to substitute different veggies to match what’s in season this spring around you (or whatever season it may be).

Spring Vegetable Risotto featuring Roth Grand Cru Reserve

Serves 6

Attention: This is a must-be-present to cook project; once you add the rice to the pan, there’s no stepping away to do anything else. Pour yourself a glass of the wine and plan to hang out and stir for about 20 minutes.

1. Bring 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer.

2. Cut up any combination of onions, carrots, broccoli, pea shoots, radishes, mustard greens, mushrooms or whatever firm vegetables you have on hand to yield 1–2 cups of chopped veggies.

3. Sauté veggies in a large saucepan or French oven for 3–5 minutes in a combination of 2 tablespoons olive oil plus 1 tablespoon butter.

4. Add 1½ cup dry rice to the pan and stir to combine with the sautéed veggies. Let rice soak up the oil; sauté the mixture for two more minutes.

5. (optional) Add ½ cup dry white wine to the pan and stir frequently to allow the rice to absorb the wine.

6. Add 1 cup of the simmering broth to the pan and stir frequently to allow the rice to absorb the liquid. Add more of the simmering stock in ½-cup increments as the risotto continues to thicken and absorb the moisture. Continue this process until you don’t have any more stock.

7. Add ½ cup grated Roth Grand Cru cheese (or the traditional parmesan) to the pan and stir to combine. Garnish plates with some extra grated cheese.

Field Trip: New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

Last month I visited the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum (research and geekout heaven!!!) and I’ve been meaning to share with you some of the shots I took from there.

Admission is $10 and touring around this historic building (and upstairs home) was worth every penny. A woman came in the museum during our visit and informed the clerk that she was the great, great granddaughter of the building’s first occupant and America’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis Dufilho, Jr. The building was constructed in 1823 to be an apothecary for Dr. Dufilho, Jr. and his family’s home upstairs. He sold the building and pharmacy to Dr. J. Dupas and his wife in 1855, who operated a medical practice upstairs and the pharmacy downstairs until 1871. The building was later abandoned and damaged from hurricanes, until the museum was founded in 1950. The collections within are primarily donated from local apothecaries and Loyola University.

An old soda fountain, common in pharmacies, for the dispensing of healing herbal tonics.

Bitters heaven. I thought about the history and the hundreds of brands on the market in the 19th century, which I read more about in Brad Parsons’ book on the subject.

Also, a bottle hoarder’s dreamland…

I now want drawers for all my herbs and botanicals…

More bottles upstairs, filled with vintage botanicals. Also an eyeglass collection, for those interested in specs.

Hmm…sounds like a tasty project, in the name of medicine, of course:

Thanksgiving reminders

Thanksgiving this year complimented some things I’ve been chewing on in my professional life and work environment lately. I’ve been looking uphill and finding there is always more to do than I can accomplish in the week (both with my half-time job with the farmers’ markets and in my other half life of freelancing and writing). Yesterday’s pie brought me the humbling reminder that though I insist my books’ readers focus on not worrying if things aren’t picture perfect, I still expect perfection (and Wonder Woman work powers) from myself.

I posted to instagram this pumpkin pie, which suffered from a minor landslide on half the crust when I warmed it prior to pouring in the filling. I’m really into pie and even when it doesn’t go smoothly, I still tend to pull off a pretty one. This situation had me pouting at first and grouching at anyone who tried to offer encouragement, then feeling sorry for myself over the pie photo I now wouldn’t take because it wasn’t going to look how I hoped.

While the pie cooked, I coaxed myself out of a mini-pity party and remembered that I wrote these two books focused on dropping that exact same standard of perfection to which I was holding myself. It’s my job to meld together what has slid and what still stands and be proud of what I accomplished, a delicious pie from pumpkins I roasted and pureed. In my worklife, I tend to focus on the pile of things that I didn’t get done or how I wished I’d done something better or differently or had exercised more patience, or, or, or…

Pie is apparently my language for self-reflection and this imperfect little pie is my life. I’m damn thankful for it.

Here are some of the highlights from the day once self-reflection time eased into enjoying the first family gathering we hosted in our new home. What a treasure to share our family traditions all together.

First up, I finally got to watch and learn how my dad makes the kick ass gravy from turkey pan drippings and cornstarch. I’ve had no luck with it in the years I’ve tried solo, but watching him work his magic with it was inspiring and made me feel lucky to have him here to teach me. I’m going to practice with making gravy from the bone stock to pour over the leftovers!

Lucky, lucky me that I married into an Italian family and my brother-in-law brought their traditional first course for any holiday, lasagna. O-ehm-Gheeeee. So delicious. Also, lots of hands and loud talking from the Italian side of the table, the Minnesotan Swedes on the other end enjoyed this all quite thoroughly.

Next up was the walk around the farm to let the first course digest and show first-time folks around the property, aka magiclandia where we now live.

Now, down to business. I made Marisa’s recipe for homemade “canned” cranberry sauce that still has the charming tin can ridges and it was a delight to see all cut up how it was served the duration of my childhood of thanksgivings (thanks mom!). I, of course, took the one with the most ridges to signify the most choice slice of cranberry.

And, as always, the best morning-after potion is a pot of simmering bones on the stove becoming nourishing stock that we’ll use throughout the year (after I pressure can it).

How was your day? your pie?