In this episode of East Coast Food & Drink host Mark DeWolf crafts his calling card dish, risotto and matches it with a delicious California Chardonnay. This recipe is simple, and affordable to make, and is a great main course for a spring dinner party. Learn how to Mark’s asparagus and leek risotto.
Story by Mark DeWolf, SaltWire
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so for our main course we’re going to
make a risoto dish uh we’re going to use
leaks we’re going to use asparagus and
we’re going to serve it with chicken so
I think a lot of people get intimidated
by risoto you don’t have to just follow
the process but first things first we’ve
got to get the chicken going I want to
make this dish in less than 25 minutes
so great for a dinner party uh it’s not
expensive you know I’m using chicken
thighs not chicken breast so we’re
saving a little money there seasoning
season it up with a little bit of salt
and
pepper then we’re going in a little bit
of oil into the pan not too
much and we’re going to get that skin
nice and
crispy and while we’re doing that we’ve
got our stock we’re going to get our
stock going remember you know one of the
great things about um being Frugal and
sustainable is about using everything so
I’ve already pre- prepped my asparagus
got off took off the rough ends I’m not
just going to discard them I’m going to
throw them into my stock pot just going
to give a light bit of uh flavor to my
stock just to enhance the asparagus
component so why do I I love chicken
thighs I actually cook so much more with
chicken thighs than chicken breast I
think they have so much more flavor you
know good rule of thumb Chef I used to
talk talked to or work for way back when
Michael Smith always talked about you
know the breast is not a a well-used
muscle so tends not to have a lot of
structure and fat to it and not a lot to
it in flavor so where you go in an
animal that’s used more tends to have
more flavor I’ve left the bone in bone
will give a little more flavor too so
we’re going to let that kind of saute
for a couple minutes we want to get that
crispy it might take four to five
minutes we’ll flip it over and then it’s
going to shoot into the oven for about
15 minutes of 400° that’s a perfect
timing because when that chicken goes in
the oven that gives us the absolute
right amount of time to cook our risoto
so when we cook our risoto we’re going
to use our boreo rice now traditionally
Northern Italy it’s arboro or canori
rice now canoli is a little more rich in
starch than a BAL but or Bal you can
find in any grocery store it’s really
good don’t use any rice don’t use any
long grain rice you want a short grain
rice specifically with lots of starch
that’s what gives all that creaminess to
the
dish you can see the Skin’s getting nice
and crispy we’re going to flip those
over and then we’re going to work from
the same pan we’re going to keep all
that Flavor now as for the wine when
you’re thinking about okay you got
chicken you got
risoto what are you going to pair that
with well I’m going to pair it with a
glass while I’m cooking cuz that’s how I
cook but so again think about the
character of that dish you got creamy
risoto lots of flavor and then chicken
which is not that heavy so we can go two
ways we could
go Suave Classico which is the
traditional pairing in Northern Italy um
but I think with the chicken it’s a
little richer than that so again our
Shard a we serve first course can carry
us right through the second or or we
could go something Savory and red and
light not too heavy frado from it Sicily
and Italy bar a lighter style Barbara
from Northern Italy or even you Noir so
if this if I finish the sard I’m going
to open a ball of red uh so I guess
you’ll know at the end of this show if
I’ve uh uh down the first bottle between
appetizer and Main
Course okay so our chicken is good now
I’ve got a pan ready to
go we’re going to turn down that heat a
bit we’re
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gonna he chicken is in the oven now
we’re going to start our risoto so we
have a 15 minutes plus another 5 minutes
for it to rest that gives us a perfect
amount of time to cook rotto a perfectly
cooked risotto takes exactly 15 to 18
minutes so
I do equal parts butter and olive oil
you can just do butter as they might do
in Northern Italy um but I like to
reduce the the smoking point a bit by
adding the olive oil uh then we add our
leaks if you can’t find leaks you can
use shallot white onion and we’re going
to sauté this down it’s going to take
three or four minutes to cook
down while we do I’m going to have a
glass of wine because that’s what I do
um now the wine can go into the pan too
uh you know nice connection between
flavor of the wine and flavor of the
dish is to use the same wine when you’re
cooking as what you’re drinking this
one’s a little expensive normally I
would add something cheaper because
really all we’re looking for by adding
wine is to add an acid component so
really don’t break out your big $50
chardonay to cook your risoto uh this is
when you get something from a box so
let’s say the leaks have wilted down a
bit they’re not quite there but for our
purposes for today they’ve they’ve hit
that level this would only take a moment
or two so now is when we hit our rice so
this is our Boral rice I’ve got a cup
now this is important so you want to
stir your risoto
your rice because you want that rice to
get covered in the oil and in the butter
kind of helps to separate the
kernels um so they don’t get all gloopy
on you so there’s a few little processes
in cooking Roto that are important and
toasting your rice is it so one to two
minutes a little bit of toast then we’re
going to add our wine so this is now the
next kind of evolution of our cooking
process
so wine so about A4
cup and what you want to do is you want
to cook that down till the liquid is
almost gone and this we’re just trying
to take out kind of COA out the starches
of the rice so this whole process is
about adding a little liquid making I’d
like to say making the R kind of beg you
know make the rice begag for more if you
don’t it just ain’t right so my Italian
mama would uh kill me if I did not do
risoto right she’s not really my Italian
Mama but I do have some friends in
Italy and they would kill me if I didn’t
do this right so we’re going to let that
evaporate and then what we’re going to
do is add a ladle full of stock or a
spoonful of stock at a time so as soon
as this evaporates which will be just a
second we’re going to add a little full
of
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stock okay so the liquid’s all
evaporated now we’re going to add a
little stock so I’m going to about about
a cup at a
time and this is all it is is just keep
repeating now off camera my camera man
asked why couldn’t I add red wine well
red wine you can and there is a great
tradition of doing red wine risoto in
Northern italyan place called peont but
I don’t want for a fresh disc like this
to have the pink color and the the
purple tones of wine in my risotto so
it’s really for color I don’t want to
use red wine uh white wine does tend to
have a little more acidity to it and and
the fruit flavor is a little more
diminished we don’t really want to
overpower power the asparagus and the
leaks so uh red wine perfect if you want
to make a red wine on Zoda I would just
say make it with mushrooms or truffles
or little gamier food like uh like a
pheasant or Quail or that kind of thing
so all we do rinse and repeat rinse and
repeat rinse and the repeat
so then you’re going to ask yourself how
do I know when it’s done well in theory
in 15 to 18 minutes we know it’s going
to be done but we know when I pull my
spoon back and it just kind of very
slowly comes back together uh that’s
when the risoto is done this is
obviously just still in the cooking
process so we’ll see that at the end and
you might be asking about when the res
the asparagus goes in that’s only with
the last kind of spoon bit of stock
because it’s going to take a very short
mile of time to cook that asparagus
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we’re nearing the last step so we’re
hitting about the 14 15 minute Mark I’m
adding my
asparagus then we’re adding the last of
the stock so I’m just going
to filter out all that kind of good
leftover asparagus and leak tops that I
had used to uh
kind of add a little more flavor to the
stock so that’s just going to cook down
for a second we’re going to add about
a/4 cup of Parmesan
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cheese or a little
more uh you don’t have to add a pad of
butter some people say yes some people
say no butter makes it better uh so
we’re going to add that in too so really
now this is going to be about 2 minutes
to being done I’m going to pull out my
chicken from the oven
and we’re going to set this up as our
main
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course this Roto looks like it’s
done that really slowly comes back
together that’s a good good sign going
to take this off the
heat because it is finished we want to
always of course do a little taste test
to make sure it’s
cooked it’s got what the Italians will
say is alente it’s got a little bite to
it which is what we want nice and creamy
uh seasonings there I mean I’m just
going to add a touch more
perm because I didn’t really add any
salt you know this is uh the the
parmesano the parmesan is acting as salt
if you can’t find paragano regano use
Gran Bano beino any of those will work
so now I just have to pull out my
chicken Blake this up
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okay so chicken is out of the
oven on top of our
risoto we want to add a little extra
splash of color all I did is make the
what we call Green oil which is blank
ing parsley in boiling water for 20
seconds taking it out putting it into a
ice ice bath which is just ice water
taking it out of the Ice Water putting
it through a towel or paper towel to get
rid of all the excess water and then
combining it with a little bit of
vegetable oil or olive oil and you just
get a nice little pop of
color and that’s a super simple main
course to make and I eat my risoto
mama would be
proud class of
charie that’s a super simple but elegant
main course for a spring
menu ciao and cheers
1 Comment
Is this a craft beer flavor?