helloooo :) and risotto!

Hi! So im starting a blog. mostly at the encouragement of my sister, Neela and an adorable email from Tamera and some posts on facebook from awesome friends. <3 thank you all for your support! i think thisll be fun!

So i began trying to cook bc, as most people know, i recently moved across the country from California to Florida. and in florida, i know NO one. well now i guess i know some people hah.. but no one that i could call or text out of the blue and say 'hey lets waste time together.' which is why i had to find a productive way of wasting time alone.. SO i decided i would learn to cook! ... also im becoming a wife soon :) (and hopefully a mom soon after that) and my dream is to be the mom who makes The Most Amazing something... so im working on finding my "something". i dont care what it is to be honest... the most amazing pasta sauce? the most amazing birthday cake! (that would be a good one!) the most amazing homemade french fries? whatever. just SOMETHING. something thats all mine for some reason.. and that no one can make like me.. lol .... and yes. my need to be the best at something stems from my own unique issues :) lol but thats for a different blog.- anyway, the mom who makes the best something has to start somewhere. and im starting in florida with an electric stove :/ (i HATE electric stoves btw. i need fire!)

... i dont know where to start really... cooking has been really therapeutic since ive been here. its something to really put all my energy and thought into bc mostly i have nothing else to do. i feel like its a really good, productive way to spend my time... and dipaks money :/ hah

i am a suuuper picky eater. so buying cook books is a no go for me. its just not useful to buy a book with 50 recipes in it when ill probably be grossed out by 48 of them lol.. thats why i never thought i could cook  properly. pretty much everything about raw food grosses me out. i dont like getting my hands dirty... and thats not a pun or expression or anything. i literally hate when theres ANYTHING on my hands... flour: blekh, batter: yuck, raw chicken: dont even talk to me. so every time i make something, its like a freakin adventure from beginning to end. and im constantly washing dishes. as SOON as the chicken is done touching the cutting board, im washing it. its all very uncool.. unnatural, chaotic lol.. nothing like Giata at home. im about 30 pounds heavier than her and my brow MUCH more furrowed the whole time im cooking.

That having been said, im still trying. and yknow, spending all this time in the kitchen is making me actually feel better about having all these crazy neuroses. you CAN eat only 5 foods and learn to cook lol. so anyway.. dipak really likes chicken. ive never been so crazy about chicken. BUT ive learned to make chicken so that i like it too!! apparently the trick is to NOT overcook it. lol who knew. - oh also. another thing you should know about me.. i pretty much LOVE restaurant food: american, greasy, steak n' potatoes, all american, not at all home-made, food. in fact, most of the food i make at home, i eat a few bites and decide if its re-makeable, and then have cereal. :/ ... should i be telling you this? whatever, its true. im NOT a "foodie" by any means. but when i DO like something, o.m.g. i dont just like it, i fall in LOVE. in fact im pretty much like that with my whole life. any of my best friends or family can attest to that. So the things ill put on this blog will be the things that i LOVE.. or the things that dipak LOVES- and i should also say that he is the TOUGHEST grader(critic?) on this earth. even worse than my 4th grade teacher who rolled her eyes at my native american missions diorama. most things that he really enjoys, barely gets above a 7. recently we went to Ruth's Chris steak house.. super fancy, amazing butter-covered steak- he gave it a 6 and a half. lol... gotta love'im :) so you can guarantee that if he likes it, its good.

despite the first couple meals i made getting a 6, i kept trying! and now i have a few meals under my belt (and in my love handles) that are pretty good! my most recent cooking-dream-in-life is to make amazing fried chicken. ive tried it a couple times... but its never any good. stay tuned for my third attempt. the chicken is always nice and tender.. and i make cornbread with it (which is my fat-asses favorite part!!!) and the cornbread is always amazing! but the chicken falls short. to be fair, im trying to fry the outside and then bake the rest... i feel too guilty fully deep frying things in my house. i feel like deep frying should be magic that is saved for restaurants :) (like bacon strips)..

so the other day, i made risotto from scratch!!! first of all, i had no idea that risotto is just a certain kind of rice. i thought it was little tiny pasta.. lol - again, REALLY NOT A CHEF haha...

so ARBORIO rice. that is the traditional short fat rice that is used to make risotto :) Alton Brown taught me. he is my second love. (dipak, youre still #1 :)) so the ingredients are:

1 cup Arborio rice
3.5 cups chicken stock (get the ones that have less sodium, just so you can control how salty it gets)
1/2 a cup white wine (i got a cheapy pinot grigio. no one tells you what KIND to get. and cooking wine smells awful lol)
1-2 tsp butter (more if you love butter lol.. less if youre trying to be "healthy" blekh)
1/2 an onion - finely chopped (i use the little yellow/white ones)
1/2 tsp minced garlic (you can buy whole jars of minced garlic btw!! best thing ever ever.)
1/2 a lemon
about 6 asparagus stocks (cut into inch long pieces- and put more if you want obviously)
about 1/4 cup of corn (i use frozen corn :/ i dont think its worth all the work to make a whole freakin corn stalk for a few kernels -- anyway, use more or less if you want.. the reason im writing these little tid bits is bc when i was cooking, i wish someone wouldve assumed im an idiot making food for the first time ever so that i wouldnt have to feel so scared the whole time.. then once you make it once or twice, then youll know what to expect and you can make your own decisions. but if youre like ME..... youre welcome :) ***)
about 1/3 of a cup of fresh finely grated parmesan cheese (this was the first time i had ever bought an actual block of cheese from the fancy section of the grocery store.. and it was worth it!! when you grate fresh parmesan, its so fluffy and light and amazing. and its not stinky or dry or pizza-storey at all!)

So once you have all those things, see if you have an electric kettle. if so, my Alton says use it! itll keep your liquid at a simmer which is so cool! you dont have to think about it anymore once its in the kettle- SMART! so you take your wine and your chicken stock and pour them into the kettle (or a little pot- heat on med/low).

put a medium sized skillet on the stove (i also hate when recipes say things like that, bc what is a medium size?? compared to what?? but now i get it... theres no other way to say it lol. so just not the biggest pan in your pantry... the SECOND biggest pan haha) so put that pan on the stove and put the heat on med/low.. throw in your butter and let it get melty. i like to use my wooden little spatula thingy to move the butter around and coat the bottom of my pan. then when its almost all melted, throw in your onions. then stir them around and let them "sweat" - apparently that means letting them get soft and kinda see-through and smelly :) (a good kind of smelly) ALSO! keep the heat LOW! in this recipe, "if it starts to brown, turn it down!" nothing should be actually COOKING- keep the heat on med/LOW. ...mostly low.

after a couple minutes, take your cup of uncooked rice, and pour it into your pan of butter and onions. -im being specific bc when i first looked up different recipies for risotto, i didnt understand if they wanted me to put the rice in the liquid (which seems normal) or put the uncooked rice in the skillet (which seemed insane)- do the insane one. uncooked rice in the skillet! stir it around for about 5 minutes (i set a timer for everything...just so i dont forget) stir the uncooked rice constantly and in that time, the rice will absorb the butter and onion flavor.. KEEP THE HEAT LOW!

after that 5 minutes, add some of your stock/wine liquid. add just enough to cover the rice slightly in the skillet. then, some recipies say to stir constantly, some say dont. im lazy and scared of splatter, so i dont stir it. and then i saw an episode where my Alton said DONT stir it :) so yay! after about 3 minutes, push the rice aside with your spatula. if you can wipe it aside and see the bottom of the pan clearly, then its time to add more liquid. add just a little more. maybe just enough to fill the space you just made with your spatula. KEEP THE HEAT LOW :)

keep doing that over and over again until only 1/4 of your stock/wine liquid is left, then taste the now-risotto (the rice should be getting fatter and more creamy looking now). if its still a little hard, keep going. also at this point you can add salt! youll need it i think.

VEGGIE TIME: around the end of your stock/wine, grab your already cut up asparagus and put it in a small pan with some butter and that minced garlic, squeeze that 1/2 a lemon, and some salt. just to taste. you really cant mess this up btw.. i also would hate it when people said "salt to taste" bc i refuse to taste things that arent finished :/ more of my crazy controlling weirdo-dom- im getting better about this. anyway, the asparagus- you really CANT mess it up. just throw it in the pan, cook on medium for about 5-7 minutes with all the little fixins. at the last couple minutes of the asparagus, throw the corn in so it has time to thaw and cook a little. leave the veggies on super low after theyre done.. your risotto should be pretty done now too! ***(SIDE NOTE: you can take ANY two vegetables that you like/love, and substitute them and it will be even MORE amazing, bc youll love it more... lol obviously bc you can choose lol- but corn and asparagus are MY favorite)

when the risotto tastes done, and has absorbed most of the liquid in the skillet, add generous sprinkles of the parmesan you grated and fold into the risotto! mmmmmmmm :) im thinking about it and getting hungry... at midnight. OH its midnight! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIGGY!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

lol okay then throw in your veggies! and youre done!! its freaking amazing!!- personally, i looove risotto so i am veryyyy picky about it! and i just LOVE this recipe! so try it! :) and then tell me how it went!