welcome back to all my food Warriors I know it’s been a little while since we’ve we’ve connected over YouTube but uh you know it’s it’s with the start of a new soccer season things are always very very busy for us and so now that things are well underway thought we’d come back and uh and get back to the program here um so for all you competitive athletes who are looking for healthy things to put in your body as well as busy families who are looking for uh meal ideas great me quick healthy meal ideas for midweek um again this is the place for you so to today’s recipe is risotto Milan this is risoto from the city of Milan in the north of Italy uh characterized by its golden hue uh and all of that is brought about by just a pinch of saffron in aroto don’t be put off by the fact that saffron is a slightly exotic ingredient don’t worry about that at all uh it brings a very very unique flavor to the dish it brings a beautiful golden color to the dish but brzo is is very very approachable as a as a weekday meal um the only thing we have to remember is when it’s ready we got to sit down underneath uh ratoo does not do well sitting around waiting for people to get to the table when it’s ready everybody at the table and ready to go so I’m going to do things slightly different today I’m going to I have a couple of things that I am going to add to this dish that are not quite traditional but you know what I have them kicking around the house and I think they would be a great addition to this dish so we’re going to start things off with a little bit of CPA this is just a little bit of the the butt of the CPA that I have kicking around my fridge I do like to use a little bit of cured meat in myoto I believe it brings a a great deal of savoriness to the dish this is it’s not a big piece this is about 150 gram overall uh this is a cured pork product it’s it’s part of the shoulder of the pig it’s salt cured air dried uh an absolute specialty of of of Italian salumi I just have a little bit of the butt kicking around my fridge if you had a little bit of Panetta maybe a couple of extra slices of bacon uh a little bit of the trimmings of of the pruto whatever you have kicking around completely optional if you don’t want to put this in again completely uh completely optional as um as a an item to put in there I just find it gives you know a good bit of savoriness to the dish it brings a little bit of salt to the dish and I think it adds a little bit of uniqueness but completely completely optional so what I’m going to do is I’m just going to cut this into three thick pieces and I’m just going to cut this up again very very thin I’m not putting this in as a protein this is entirely just the flavoring and keep in mind 150 g of of CA this is going to feed easily six people so again this is not meant to be added in as a protein this is completely as just an additional flavoring and completely optional like I said it’s not traditional but it’s my kitchen and I like it so by all means when you’re making something in your kitchen these recipes are meant to be you know a suggestion if there’s something that you have on hand or something that you like that you think would be a good addition by all means um feel free to experiment and put down in the comments what you did and if it worked there we are we’re just going to give this very very fine dice again we don’t we don’t want big big pieces of meat in our final product all we want here are just very very fine just a very very fine dice so we’re going to start by searing off and just rendering out some of the fat from the Copa in our pan there we are and that’ll give a good start to our dish what I’ve got here beside me is a couple of liters of good quality chicken stock if you are purchasing chicken stock and you don’t make your own at home that’s fine uh my recommendation would be to buy something that has a low salt low sodium content that way you can control the amount of salt that you put into the dish so we’re just going to get this again just chopped up nice and fine there we are so what I’m going to do is I’m going to get the Heat Going On My Pan here now when we’re making the alto it’s important to have a vessel here of a Potter a pan that’s wider than it is tall because we do want to have a little bit of evaporation while we are cooking and we want to make sure that we have an opportunity for all of the stock and all of the flavorings to soak in with our rice there we are around the bottom of the pan there we are and just add a little bit of oil just to get this started there we are all right and we will let that go now we’ve got our vegetables I’ve got one decent sized onion we’re just going to cut this up again into a medium siiz dice as this Cooks in a moist environment that will soften so we don’t need to cut this too too fine there we are maybe something like a/4 inch dice I think would be would be good for this application there we are and we’ll just get the end in there as well oh just the smell of that absolutely phenomenal there we are and we’ll just give this good job here as well all right just keep this here on our board until we’re ready we’ve got some other vegetables to add in here as well but before we do let’s just get our our Copa or our petta whatever whatever meat you happen to have that we’re going to use to flavor our end product we just give that a quick stir we don’t want any of this to burn we don’t want any of this to get any color all we want is for some of that fat just to start to melt in and mix with the all so I’ve got a couple of cloves of garlic here we’re just going to give these guys a little bit of a squash before we again we cut these up nice and fine and remember as we’re slicing these up pinch the blade of the knife so that we have control tuck those fingers in get those fingers out of the way there we are all right so we’ve got our onions we’ve got our garlic ready to go over the heat here a little bit oh the smell of this is just phenomenal so we are almost there with our Copa I do have a couple of stocks of celery here as well and all I want to do these have been washed and trimed I just want to cut these down the middle a couple of times just so that they’re give or take about the same size as the onion this is all about balance of flavors balance of textures there we are so we’ve got our two our two stocks of celery here ready to go and we’re just going to cut those up again medium dice move these over and I’m just going to give my CA one more stir there we are before we add in our vegetables oh just absolutely fantastic there we are so let’s get back to our celery here there we are perfect so now our Copa is nicely rendered so what we’re going to do now is we’re just going to take our board here and we are going to get all of our vegetables right into the pan all of our onions our garlic and our celery and all we want to do is just sweat this down we don’t want to get any color on these vegetables we just want them to soften we want them to become beautifully translucent and we just want to set these and we just want to sweat these down a little bit so what I’m going to do is I’m going to give these a quick stir there we are now important to remember as we’re seasoning the Coco was salt cured so it does have a little bit of salt in it so we want to take that into consideration when we are seasoning so we’re going to give this just a light salt salting and I’ve got some freshly ground black pepper here as well and normally I would put a fresh chili uh but I don’t have a little bit of chili so this time we’re just going to leave that out but if you do like it a little bit spicy by all means feel free to throw a little Chili Pepper in there maybe some dried chili flakes this time we are going to keep it on the lighter side so we’ll just increase the heat a little bit it’s the smell of those aromatics fantastic so we’re just going to check our stock quickly now our stock is right up to the boil so we are going to take the heat right down just leave it at simmer what I’m going to do is I’m going to create a little bit of a saffron tea that I’m going to allow it to sit let the flavor and color start to come out of the saffron so when it’s time to use it we’ll be ready to go so for those of you who have not used saffron before let me just grab a few of these strands there we are so this here is saffron this is essentially the the stam of the crocus flour these grow in Spain they grow all over the Mediterranean uh and in some places in the Middle East quite strong in terms of flavor very unique in terms of flavor but they Prov red an absolutely fantastic color all you really need is a pinch and like I said this will feed easily six people so I’m going to put this in my Ramic in here close this up for the next time now safron is a little on the expensive side I will give you that but it’s it’s you really don’t use a lot and it’s it provides a very very unique uh flavor profile when you are using it in your cooking so what I’m going to do as I’m sweating these down I’m going to take a little bit of my hot stock and this is a little warm so we’re going to make sure we use a towel here there we are and all I’m going to do just take a little bit of this hot stock and I’m going to pour it over my saffron maybe about a cup of stock and I will just leave this here on my board to sit and like I said to create that saffron almost like a tea and the color and the flavor will start to leech out into that hot liquid so then when we pour it into our Doo it’s already got a head start and it’s going to start to flavor and color our dish very quickly so I will give this another 2 or 3 minutes and I’ll be back so we are back it’s been about 3 or 4 minutes our vegetables are softening nicely our our Pan’s been going here on medium heat so what we want to do now while our vegetables have softened is we want to add in our rice so this is 500 gr of Italian what they call risoto Rice there’s really three kinds of rice that Italians traditionally use to make Roto the first one is Arborio that’s that’s ubiquitous found pretty well everywhere karoli which which this is this is my personal favorite and vion Nano which is found really in the region of Venice and local to uh to that region these but not only I find makes the a more consistent Roto you get a beautiful starch content makes it very creamy but I find the rice Cooks more evenly and more consistently just my preference so I’ve got 500 G of konat OI rice I’m just going to add that right to our pan now the rice is not washed at all I want all of that surface starch uh to thicken my roto so I’m just going to give this a quick stir what I want is for the rice to toast in the fat from the olive oil and from the CPA in the bottom of the pan so I want to toss this around literally for about a minute and it won’t be long before you start to smell the nuttiness from the rice as it toasts in the fat and as it starts to absorb the flavor from all of the aromatics that we have in this pan from our onions from our garlic from our celery and obviously from our Copa as well there we are we’ll just give this a quick a quick stir we want to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom but we want to allow the rice uh to toast in here as well so we’re just going to give this just a couple of seconds before we stir it again we have a little bit of white wine as well so we’re going to add that in next this is about I’d say 5 oz of a nice dry Italian white wine Pino Suave orto whatever you happen to have on hand even a dry white vermouth will work in a pinch so we’re going to give this a quick stir just allow this to toast and what Italians Italians have a saying about the rice that they they cultivate in the pole Valley in the north of the country when they make Roto the rice is born in water and it dies in wine so here we are we’ll have our our white wine we’ll just add that right to the pan as well and we’re going to continue to give this a stir what the wine gives this day f is is a little bit of acidity the alcohol is going to cook off but the fuess and the acidity of the wine will stay behind it’s very subtle it’s not a whole lot of wine uh but the alcohol will evaporate so if we’re worried about that don’t don’t worry about that um this is fine for for people of all ages so we will just let this go and we will let the pan dry out before we start to add our stock there we are smell is absolutely phenomenal so what we will do is we will turn the heat off on our stock here our stock is is well up well up the temperature when we are making this Al though we want to remember we never want to add cold stock to a hot pan we bring the stock up to temperature that way we’re adding hot stock to a hot pan and we don’t stop the cooking only to have it you know heat up again um as the pan heats up we want to maintain the that heat in the result to cook it evenly and that way the end product will be much much better much more consistent all right so we have literally no liquid left in the pan the pan is dry so before we add our stock I’m going to go back to that saffron tea that I made earlier you see that beautiful golden color we’re just going to add that right to our pan and because this is saffron and it’s little on the price spy side I want to rinse that out because I don’t want to waste any of it there we are there we are perfect and we will just add a little more stock thies out them really what we want to do is add maybe a ladle Ladle and a half at a time and then we want to give this a stir and as we stir the starch from the rice well as the rice is rubbing against each other as we stir this will ultimately leech out into the liquid and that’s what will create the creamy texture of aoto there’s no cream there’s no butter there’s none of that in here this is this is the traditional method and if we do it right we shouldn’t need any of that stuff so we will just continue to give this a stir there we are every 30 seconds or so and this should be coming up to the boil fairly rapidly what we want to do is is let the liquid in this get absorbed by the rice as the pan starts to dry out as you’re you’re stirring either with your rubber spatula your wooden spoon or whatever Implement you’re using and you start to see you know a dry bottom of the pan just add another Ladle and a half or so of stock uh until we we get to the bottom and we should be pretty well there so I will see you in about 2 or 3 minutes right it’s been about 3 or 4 minutes I’ve added one serving of stock already and as I do I keep stirring little literally every 30 minutes or so I want to make sure I’m moving that Rice around that we have nothing sticking to the bottom of our pan we’re on a good solid medium heat here and I’m always looking to see if my pan is drying out that way I can add another little bit of stock now we do have another twist to our dto here I happen to be out in the garden a little bit earlier and I’ve got some Swiss chard growing and it just so happened that you know what Swiss chard looked good time to be picked so I’m going to add some of that Swiss chard into aroto is it traditional no am I concerned about that absolutely not this is Stellar stuff really nutritionally this is a Powerhouse this is great from the point of view of of helping you regulate your weight helping you regulate um your your blood sugar and it’s great for heart health as well plus it’s got a ton of vitamins and fiber in there as well so we’re just going to add this to our dish again as a vegetable supplement uh bulk it up a little bit more but it actually lightens the dish because you’ve got the the the ratio of rice to vegetables becomes less and so what we do is we have a much lighter Roto it’s easier to digest uh but it’s it also provides a little bit more variety do I need to add it in no but you know what I have the opportunity to do that because it is in my garden readily available ready to be picked and so we’re just going to take the opportunity to add it in in this case so pan is getting a little dry we’re just going to top that up give it a stir there we are and then we will let this the bubble away as we deal with our Swiss jard if you’ve never seen Swiss chard before this is what it looks like this is a a variety called rainbow chard the stocks of of the chart are different colors some of these are are pinks and purples and oranges uh some are are light yellow um really almost even almost white uh but the leaves are very very tender and even these stocks at this age and at this size very very tender in a hot pot of of rotto these will literally take maybe a minute or two to cook so I’m going to prepare these now so that when they’re ready to add in uh it’s just dump in the pot Stir It Up and we are ready to go so what I’m going to do is I’m going to take my first bunch here and this is this is a good bunch of uh a good bunch of Swiss jard that I have here all I’ve done is I’ve given it a quick wash and I’m just going to cut this up just really F in ribbons uh and this will this will cook very quickly as soon as it hits that hot pot so all I’m trying to do here is just cut these up in relatively thin ribbons once you get to the stocks as well just cut those up they’re perfectly edible they provide a nice bit of texture to our Dish as well and so I’m going to add these in nice bit of color nice bit of texture nice bit of fiber like I said the whole the whole plant here is edible there we are so that’s our first Bunch again we’re going to give this a nice stir make sure that we have nothing sticking to the bottom oh the smell of this is absolutely gorgeous these all those can be made at all times of the year and really you vary what’s in season when you’re making them a beautiful result of Springtime vegetables uh beautiful young zucchini zucchini flowers fresh peas uh can’t beat that in the winter in the fall mushrooms a little more protein some seafood maybe uh just absolutely fantastic fantastic to add variety to your diet in a very healthy way so we’ll get our second bunch here and again we’re just going to slice these up in relatively thin ribbons the greens the green part of this will Wilt as soon as it hits that hot pen and the stocks will stofen as they cook this guy here so we can see what we’re doing there we [Music] are there we are so just move this guy out of the way and we will get back to our pan here so there we are see things are starting to dry up in the pan a little bit so we want to make sure we get a little more stock in here and literally with my last addition of stock that’s when I’m going to put these greens in there we’re going to keep them vibrant we’re going to keep a nice bit of crunch nice texture we don’t want to cook these down to the point where they’re they’re completely mushy and they lose their texture we want to keep that flavor vibrant keep that color vibrant and keep a little bit of texture in there as well provides for a much more interesting end product so there we are we’ll just let this go I think I’ve probably got two more additions of stock here in this pan so I will just let this go keep stirring every couple of minutes the heo literally from start to finish it take you no more than maybe 25 minutes and that includes the cooking time and your prep time so great idea for a week night meal hope you try this and incorporate it as part of your repertoire I will see you in about 7 or 8 minutes all right it has been about 7 or 8 minutes we are just about ready to add in our final dose of stock now is when we’re going to add in our beautiful Swiss chart so what I’m going to do hopefully without making too much of a mess we are going to get our stock not our stock our charred rather and we are just going to slide that right into our pot there we are stems and all love this I have done this with Swiss chard I’ve done this with kale I’ve done this with uh if you happen to grow brussel sprouts and they have those big big outer leaves same thing I just take I don’t I don’t quite use the big stock on those cuz it tends to be a little bit Woody but I used the the green part of the the leaves and I’ve added those into rotos as well and they are absolutely spectacular I’ve had I’ve had them with pasta great way to add vegetables to your diet and a great way to use up parts of the plant that are growing in the garden so what I’m going to do now is just take the the rest of my stock add that in there we are and we’re going to mix this up oh I wish you could smell this absolutely phenomenal there we are and again we’re going to mix that around give that a stir make sure there’s nothing sticking to the bottom of our pot and now this with the heat that’s in the pan the rest of that stock we’re going to give this probably another three or 4 minutes and then we should be ready to take that right to the table so same as we started we’re going to stir this every 20 30 seconds get the last of that starch out of the rice have the liquid mostly absorbed but we don’t want this too too thick so we will be back as soon as we are ready to take this to the table about 3 or 4 minutes we are back and our resultto is pretty much there absolutely stunning now this is a very versatile dish because we’re having this as one complete meal one pot one meal uh if I didn’t put any of the Copa in any of that that cured meat or any of the the additional Swiss jard uh I can always use this as a base for a nice uko maybe a nice braze lamb shank uh nice stewed piece of meat with a bit of gravy this would be a fantastic bed for that or in this case you can dress it up and it can be a meal into itself but very very versatile recipe I do hope you try it it’s absolutely phenomenal so we are pretty well there the stock has absorbed has been absorbed rather into the rice um beautiful vibrant colors in this pot nice intense greens I think we are there so I don’t like to cook my risoto to the point where it’s it’s very very thick and stodgy I been to restaurants where they they put it in molds and try to stack it up and it it doesn’t taste the same the way I like to do it is is in the traditional method which we call Alonda on the wave and you’ll see that as we put it as we serve it in our Bowl what this looks like but before we do we’re going to cut the heat we’re going to take this right off the stove and before I put this into my bowl I have about 100 gr of freshly grated theano Jano cheese this is not the stuff that comes in the green container pregrated we we can do better than that we can do a lot better than that big wedg of cheese it looks like a lot but it’s been grated on a microp plane so it gets really really fluffy and arated uh but this is only about 100 gram of cheese and this is used as a seasoning just to finish Theo so what I’m going to do is I’m going to throw that in there I’m going to get all of this out and all this does is it adds adds a beautiful savoriness and a nice creaminess to the end product and all I’m going to do is I’m going to I’m going to stir this in what we call manare just to get the cheese completely work through the and it just it gives it a beautiful Sheen it gives it a beautiful saltiness a beautiful nuttiness a beautiful savoriness it’s just absolutely stunning there we are and you see this these AO as I move the pot it Jiggles this is what we mean by Alonda we don’t want this we don’t want it overdone and thick and stodgy where you can cut it with a knife and a fork I think that’s a little overdone this in my opinion is the traditional the classic and the best way to eat these Auto so we are going to get come on all of our Swiss chard off of our spatula here we’re going to get our our bowl and our Ladle and this this is what I’m talking about look at that those beautiful ribbons of Swiss chard incidentally that’s what the Italians call laa very healthy this is really the sign of early summer it’s one of the first crops that are usually ready in the garden absolutely fantastic now what I like to do just going to move this out of the way here for a minute what I like to do I always have a good bottle of unfiltered olive oil kicking around the house I use it for salads and I use it to dri drizzle over pastas and resultto this is one of those times where it just it it absolutely has to be done so we’re just going to give this just just a little drizzle of olive oil we’re going to get our [Music] spoon now this this is what I’m talking about absolutely spectacular so we’re just going to go right from around the outer edges cuz this is just off the heat so it is hot you get that beautiful saltiness from the Copa beautiful silkiness from the Swiss chard little crunch from the stems it is it’s one of those dishes that it’s it’s it’s very complex it’s very it’s very warming From the Inside Out unbelievably healthy do give it a try this is Coach Joe do like and subscribe to the channel share it with your friends and please if you’re are getting any value out of this please leave uh some comments down below love reading them and love responding we will see you on the next one
