Easy PEAsy Risotto (Barefoot Contessa)

I saw this on the Barefoot Contessa last week and had to make it.  I haven't had risotto in ages.  This recipe is as easy as it looks and it's just fantastic.  You don't stand and stir it, you bake it in the oven.  The final touch is a bag of frozen peas - yes, frozen.  Not thawed.

Ingredients

* 1.5 cups Arborio rice
* 5 cups simmering chicken stock, divided into four cups and one cup.
* 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
* 1/2 cup dry white wine
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt (I only put in one teaspoon and felt it was pretty salty, so try using only one)
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the rice and 4 cups of the chicken stock in a Dutch oven.  I used my Le Creuset.

Cover and bake for 45 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente.

Remove from the oven, add the remaining cup of chicken stock, the Parmesan, wine, butter, salt and pepper, and stir vigorously for two to three minutes, until the rice is thick and creamy.

Add the peas and stir until heated through.

Vanilla. Roasted. Pears.

This recipe came from Smitten Kitchen!  I only used one pear and I didn't have any vanilla beans handy so I used bottled vanilla.  I eyeballed her recipe and cut down the amounts, but not very precisely.  Even if you don't like pears, this is sure to please. Drizzle the sauce over whipped cream.

Here is her recipe:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/2 pounds slightly-under-ripe, fragrant, medium pears, peeled if desired, halved though the stem and cored
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the sugar in a small bowl. With a thin, sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Stir the seeds into the sugar.

Arrange the pears in a large baking dish, cut-side up. Drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the fruit, then sprinkle with the sugar. Nestle the vanilla pod among the fruit. Pour the water into the dish. Dot each pear with some butter.

Roast the pears 30 minutes brushing them occasionally with the pan juices. Turn the pears over and continue roasting, basting once or twice, until tender and caramelized, 25 to 30 minutes longer (if the pears are small, test for doneness after 35 or 40 minutes of cooking; a paring knife poked into the thickest part of one should meet with no resistance).




http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/12/vanilla-roasted-pears/

Peachy Keen

I recently made a blueberry/peach cobbler that is posted on Smitten Kitchen. 

Peach Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler


For the fruit
1 1/2 (about 4 cups) pounds peaches, pitted and cut into slices*
1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries, rinsed and dried
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt


For the biscuit topping
3/4 cup (3 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white)
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish.

Make the biscuit dough: Stir together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry mixture with your fingertips, a fork or a pastry blender. Stir in buttermilk with a rubber spatula until a wet, tacky dough comes together.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough over the filling; don’t worry about covering entire surface. Bake until the cobbler’s syrup is bubbly and the biscuit tops are browned, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool slightly and scoop it into bowls. Top with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, of if you’re having an accidental run-in with this cobbler before noon, plain yogurt.


http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/cornmeal-drop-biscuit-peach-blueberry-cobbler/


(NUMBER TWENTY-ONE in 2010)

Don't fry chicken while wearing shorts

Well, I thought I'd give you an update. I had hoped this was going to be a triumphant post, one where the toddler finds she can run a marathon... but nooo, I had to go and burn my hand on hot oil!

So, my PSA for the day: DON'T WEAR SHORTS WHILE FRYING FOOD. AND CONSIDER WEARING GLOVES.

Sunday I was idly flipping through one of my many cookbooks (I actually own more than ten, can you believe it...) and came across what looked like an easy recipe for fried chicken. Well, it was easy, all apart from the hot burning oil, but I digress.

So, the recipe. It called for marinading the chicken in buttermilk for an hour or so and then the flour mixture has cayenne pepper and garlic powder in it. The treat was the honey/butter/pecan glaze you pour on top.

Well, my version didn't have pecans and it wasn't exactly a glaze, but it was good.

How the hell do you fry anything without splattering it all over? I'm sure a lot of this had to do with the heat of the oil - I had no idea what I was doing, so I just let it get good and hot and the first ones I threw in turned brown IMMEDIATELY - in fact you are supposed to let them cook 7 minutes on a side - I turned them over in about a minute and they were charred. I turned the heat down to low immediately and then put in the next batch.

Well, the first piece of chicken didn't want to unstick from my fork so, one hand was holding the big lid (so that the splatters wouldn't hit me) and the other one was gently trying to shake the chicken off, and somehow the oil came up - not splattered really, more like bounced, from the chicken piece - and a big glob hit the meaty part of my palm. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I'd say a quarter of my palm, the meaty part under your pinky, below the fold - covered in oil - it all happened really fast.

I immediately put it under cold water and held several ice cubes under this cold water - this was so the ice would melt quickly. I did that for a while and luckily, luckily, when I woke up this morning there isn't a lot of evidence anything happened last night - it is swollen a little but not really red.

It was shiny last night and pretty red (maybe in part from the icy water) and I was sure I'd see blistering. I don't know if it will blister eventually, but right now it's not as bad as I expected.

The chicken tasted good though.