Ok so here is the basic risotto that I use:

1 cup of Arborio rice

3 cups of liquid, any combination of wine, water, stock

finely diced shallots or onion

1-3 flavouring agents such as mushrooms, sausage, bacon, peppers sweet or hot, seafood scallops shrimp etc, chicken, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts.

freshly grated parmesean or grana padano cheese, please do not use the dried stuff that comes in the little plastic container.

a couple of tablespoons of butter and canola or olive oil.

Kosher salt and Fresh ground black pepper

Here is how it all comes together.  Melt the butter with the oil of your choice in a large saute pan.  Add the finely minced shallots and or onions.  Time to start the seasoning as well, a pinch of Kosher salt and few grinds of pepper, I often will add some ground thyme though you can certainly use fresh here as well.  Stir these around until the bits soften and start to turn translucent.

Next add your flavouring agents.  If you are using something like sausage or bacon you will want to have the pieces be uniform size and fairly small, you want them cooked before moving on.  if you are using scallops. shrimp or other delicate seafood you might consider cooking them till they are almost done and then removing from the pan until later in the risotto process.  Keep layering in the seasoning as well, you should add another pinch of salt and pepper.

Once the flavours have all had a chance to meld together you add your rice.  This step is instrumental in the risotto building procedure.  You want to get all the rice grains coated in the flavours that are in your pan.  You want to heat the rice and keep stirring until the edges of the grains actually start to turn translucent just like the onions before.

Now the liquid, I will add about half a cup or so of the wine I plan on serving with dinner.  This is a Food and Wine pairing trick, it makes for an instant match when the wine you are drinking is in the food you are eating.  Add the wine and stir around you are “deglazing” the pan and picking up all the stick on bits in the bottom of the pan.

Ok so here is the part that makes risotto the labour intensive scary dish.  The liquid needs to be added in small doses over a 20-25 minute period.  I use a ladle to add maybe 1/3 of a cup of stock or water at a time to the rice dish.  As you add each addition of liquid you stir the rice and wait for the liquid to be almost totally absorbed by the rice, then you add some more and repeat the process.

Now depending on your rice, the humidity in your kitchen, the other ingredients you have added you may need more or less liquid than 3 cups.  Once you are about 2 cups into this process try the risotto.  See how it tastes, do you need to add any seasoning.  The will most likely still be crunchy at this point but you want to gage it and see what it is like.  The finished product should be creamy but the rice grains should still have some firmness to them, think el dente pasta.

Once you get to the point that the rice is done and the consistancy is thick and creamy you add the grated cheese.  Add this to taste but remember the cheese will help to bind up the risotto and if you add too much you are going to get a stodgy mess.  If you go a little over board on the cheese just add a little more stock and stir until the risotto thins back out a little bit.  It shouldn’t hold it’s shape when you put it in a dish but you are not making soup either.

Ok so my Mushroom Risotto with Crispy Beef Strips:

2 cups of arborio rice (I was cooking for 5 adults)

6 cups of beef stock

2 cups of sliced cremini mushrooms

half of a med-large white onion finely chopped

1 cup of grated grana pandano

1 cup of red wine

Kosher Salt and black pepper

ground thyme

allspice

1.5 tablespoons of butter

1.5 tablespoons of canola oil

Fairly thinly sliced left over steak from the night before

I followed my method above for the rice.  I pan fried the steak strips making them caramelized and crispy.  When the rice was done I served it in a bowl with a few crispy steak strips on top.  I served it all with a 2006 Cab Sauv, the same wine I added to the rice.

4-6 med/large sweet potatoes chopped into 1 inch cubes (about 6 cups)

2-3 leeks chopped, white and light green parts only (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 large carrot chopped (1 cup)

6 cups of chicken or veggie stock

1 tablespoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons of fresh ginger chopped

Zest of 2 limes chopped

Juice of 2 limes

1/2 cup of cream (for a very rich soup use 18% cream, for more healthy use half and half)

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of canola oil

Kosher Salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

The vegetables can be very roughly chopped, this soup is pureed so you do not need to worry about presentation at this point, you just want everything to cook at the same time.

Melt the butter with the canola oil in a large stock pot.  Once melted add leeks, carrots, a pinch of kosher salt (maybe a half teaspoon or so) and about the same of fresh cracked black pepper, you are not looking to add colour to these just want them to be soft and start to go translucent.  Add the cumin, cayenne, lime zest and ginger and sweat a little longer.  Once you can really smell the spices add the sweet potatoes and stir them around getting them coated with all that leeky spicy mixture.

After 3-5 minutes add the chicken stock, you want to just cover the vegetables, if you need to you can add some water.  Bring to a boil and if necessary skim the crud that can float to the surface.  Reduce heat to a medium simmer and let it cook until the potatoes are nice and tender, approx 20-30 minutes.  Test for seasoning at this point.  Depending on how salty your stock is you may need to add some more salt and pepper.

Once the soup is cooked it’s time to puree.   You can use an imersion or stick blender if you have one.  Make sure you get all the big chunks, you want the soup to be smooth.  If you are using a traditional blender be very careful when pureeing the soup.  Do not fill the blender to the top I wouldn’t go much over half full, and when you start the blender up make sure you put a folded kitchen towel over top of the lid.  Hot liquids expand when you blend them and not only can this make a huge mess, it can be dangerous!  Puree the soup in batches until you have it all smooth.

At this point you can cool and store the soup in the fridge, I often make this the day before Thanksgiving dinner.  When you are ready to serve slowly heat the soup, over med-low heat.  The soup is really thick and the bottom can get super hot and then start to spurt out of the pot.  I burned my hand during a soup geyser incident one year.  Stir the soup as it is heating to prevent this.

Once the soup is hot and just before you serve it, add in the lime juice stir it in to incorporate well. You can add the cream to the whole pot of soup and stir it in, or you can add a little to each serving and do a little swirl pattern.

This soup is always a huge hit at our Thansgiving/Christmas dinners and there are rarely any leftovers.

4 lbs skin on, bone in chicken pieces (I used drumsticks but I think this actually works better with all the parts)

1 cup of flour

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground thyme

3-5 tablespoons canola oil (you may not need all of this)

2 cups of button mushrooms

1 cups of pearl onions peeled

1 cup of Red wine (to be authentic you should use a Cote du Rhone, but any medium bodied red will work)

2 cups chicken stock

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together the flour, salt, pepper, thyme and garlic powder.  Dredge the chicken in this mixture.  I find this is easiest in a large zip top type bag.  Put the flour mix in, add a couple of pieces of the chicken, toss about until well coated, repeat.

In a dutch oven or other thick bottomed large pot (that is oven safe) heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil over med-high heat.  Once the oil is hot start browning the chicken in stages.  Do not add too much of the chicken at once or you will lower the temperature of the oil too quickly.  You also want to have the chicken in just one layer in the pot.  You want to just brown and crisp the skin here, you are not cooking it all the way through yet.  It should take maybe 2-3 minutes per side.  Take the chicken out of the pot and set aside while you finish browning the rest.  Add more of the canola oil as required.

Once the chicken is all done, make sure you have about 1 tablespoon of oil left in the pot, add a little more if you need it and put the peeled pearl onions in the pot.  Stir them around, you want them to caramelize.  Season with salt and pepper.  Watch the heat once you have finished with the chicken you may need to reduce the heat a little bit, you don’t want to burn the onions.  Once there is some good browning on the onions, add the mushrooms.  Depending on your mushrooms you may need to add a little bit more oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Normally you would do some bacon lardons at the same time, for the work potluck I left out the bacon as we have people in the office that do not eat pork.

Once the mushrooms and onions are good and brown add the cup of red wine and deglaze the pan.  Make sure to stir with a wooden spoon at this point, you want to scrape up all the brown bits off the bottom of the pot.Reduce the wine by about 50% and then add the chicken stock.  Reduce this by about 25% or so, and then add the chicken back into the pot, stir everything to incorporate and the put on the lid and place in the preheated oven for about 2 hours.

After the two hours is up, check the chicken, make sure it is cooked through.  The juices should run clear and there should be no sign of pink to the meat.  If you have one you could check the meat with a thermometre, you want to at least 160 degrees.

You can serve this with rice, potatoes or noodles.  I like mashed potatoes because then you can pour the gravy over the potatoes.

Enjoy

1 Lb mussels

1 Lb little neck clams

1 Spanish hot chourizo sausage – the store I went to did not have andouille

8 Shrimp, these were 8-12 count I think

Half a large sweet onion diced

6-8 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons butter

Juice of a lime

Olive oil

White wine

Ground thyme

cayenne pepper

“Boil” seasoning – “Old bay” or something like that

Salt

Pepper

First peel and if necessary devine the shrimp.  Put in a dish with lime juice, olive oil, salt & pepper, a 2 lightly crushed cloves of garlic.  Let sit for 30 minutes or so.  Cut the sausge in to managable lengths for grilling.  Get your barbq nice and hot.  Grill sausage and shrimp until almost totally cooked.  Meanwhile, in a large stock pot over med/high heat start melting the butter and add approx an equal amount of olive oil.  Add onions and stir until they start to go translucent.  Add remaining garlic minced and keep stirring.  Once you can really start to smell the garlic add your clams and stir getting them coated in the onion/garlic mixture.  Pour in 1/3 to 1/2 a bottle of white wine, and put a lid on to trap all the steam.  Let cook for 3-4 minutes.  Remove lid and add the mussels, stir to mix everything up and put the lid back on.  Cook for another 2 minutes or so.  Add your previously grilled sausage and shrimp, stir to get everything evenly distributed and cook for another 60-90 seconds.  Serve with really good crusty bread, you will not want to leave behind the juices!

When I did this at my brother’s it was for four of us, so I made sure everyone got 2 shrimps, 2 clams and some sausage.  There were plenty of mussels so I didn’t have to worry about those.

1. Cost, a pound of green beans, free trade single origin, Costa Rican Tarrazu beans cost me $6 pound.  Gourmet roasted coffee is at least $12 a pound, and quite often much more.  Starbucks special release beans are usually over $15.

2. Taste, coffee made from freshly coffee beans is so much better than the stuff you get from the local coffee shop.

When I first started drinking the coffee I was roasting at home I found there was something really different.  At first I even thought that maybe I wasn’t roasting the beans long enough.  The difference was that there was no stale bitterness to the coffee.  The coffee is smooth and rich, I can actually drink this coffee with nothing added.  And I have always been a cream and sugar guy when it comes to coffee.

I have been using a hot air pop corn popper to roast my beans.  For $19.99 it is a very good investment.  The cheapest counter top roaster I have seen is over $100.  The only drawbacks are that I can only roast 1/2 cup of beans at a time, and that the cover seems to be starting to melt since roasting the beans takes longer than popping some popcorn.

It takes approx 8 minutes to roast a batch of beans.  I have been letting the beans cool for 10 to 15 minutes before grinding some up and brewing in my french press.  French press is my favourite way to make coffee.  Some people do find that the coffee from the french press is a little strong.  I have started just adding a little bit of hot water for anyone who is having coffee to lessen the strength a bit.

This is a trick I learned from a food and wine show that had a Merchants of Green Coffee booth.  And from watching the Good Eats “True Brew“coffee episode.  Something like 7/10ths of coffee are water soluable and there are a lot of bitter compounds.  Overextraction is what causes bitter coffee.  I use 2-3 tablespoons of coffee for a 12 oz mug of coffee.  This is perfect for me though you may find you prefer more or less.  Remembering of course that you can always add some hot water if you find it too strong.

I have gone through all my beans and now I need to head back to the coffee store.  The Green Beanery is close to where I work and is where I got the Costa Rican beans.  I will be making a trip this week, and trying some other beans.

So you bring some water to a rapid boil and then you stir in the oats.  These oats look nothing like the ones with the old dude in a hat on the package.  They are not flat and pasty white.  The steel cut oats are a more of a golden brown colour and they look more like some kind of bird seed.  Once you have added the oats you stir alot until the liquid becomes milky and the oats have started to swell.  Everything becomes really thick and then you reduce the heat and simmer it for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally.  Once they were almost done I added a pinch of kosher salt, a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, some cinnamon, raisins and little bit of maple syrup.  I don’t like my oatmeal too sweet so you should be tasting while doing this.  I wanted to add apples, but ours were going soft.

This oatmeal is the best I have ever had.  It’s almost like a risotto, the grains of oatmeal are all still individual, but it has this creamy consistancy just like . . .  a risotto.  I have all kinds of ideas of different oatmeals, you could go tropical, add mangoes and bananas, or all berries, almonds, walnuts and more maple syrup.  And probably what will be considered the craziest idea, make a really savoury oatmeal, some sausage, bit of onion maybe.

Because I made such a big pot, I had a lot of left overs.  So I have brought some with me and I am eating it at my desk.  I popped it in the microwave and it’s still really good.  It is less creamy than it was yesterday, but once again my risotto comparison holds, if you have ever microwaved left over risotto, it is never as smooth and creamy as when it is served fresh.

So it looks like I have solved my breakfast at work problem.  I will just make up a really big batch of oatmeal every few days.  And if you have never tried the steel cut oatmeal I highly reccommend it!