Kielbasa Risotto

My girls and I watched Ratatouille the other night.  If you have never seen it, stop what you're doing now, buy/rent it and go watch it.  And of course, since it's a movie that involves food, and cooking, it follows suit that I was in the mood to cook.  Add to that someone in my Facebook feed talking about recently having made risotto, and top it with being hungry for kielbasa, then we have a match made in heaven.  The following week, I just had to play.

Up until 1994 I had never had kielbasa a day in my life, let alone even knew what it was.  I grew up on German, and Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine.  This delightful sausage is Polish, and until I met my husband, didn't even know where Poland was on the map.  Not that he's strong in his heritage or anything, but with a last name with 10 letters, one must assume homeland food runs in the family somewhere right?  I mean, I grew up with sauerkraut (YICK).  Well, eventually I learned it's actually a pretty common food in this area, eaten by more than just Polish heritage.  And it's freaking AWESOME!  So of course, I cook with it as much as I can.  And this time around decided to put it into risotto.  I present to you, Kielbasa Risotto.

Ingredients

• Kielbasa, one link, sliced down the middle then diced so you have half moons
• Chives, 3 or 4 stalks.  I prefer to use chive over onion as it's not so strong a flavor
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Cloves, 3 or 4 small ones, smashed and minced
• Aborio Rice, 1 cup
• Chicken Stock, or boullion/water, 6 cups
• Sweet Vermouth, splash

Directions
 

1.  In an 8 cup pot, drizzle olive oil in the bottom and place in chives and garlic.  Saute on med heat until the garlic is brown and chives are softened.  Add to that your kielbasa and cook until browned, continuously stirring so as not to burn the bottom too much.  It's OK if some of it turns brown.  That's called "fond" and it's flavor.  Besides it goes away in this next step.

 2.)  Take meat out, retaining juices and oil in the pan.  Set aside in bowl for later.  Pour the rice into the pot.  Stir briefly then, then splash with the sweet vermouth.  If you HAVE to measure, it was probably 1/4 cup.  Keep stirring until the vermouth is absorbed into the rice.

 3.)  Pour 1 cup of chicken broth in and bring to simmer on low.  You don't ever want this to boil, just a soft simmer.  Continue to stir.  We don't want the water the boil away, we want the rice to absorb it.  Continue to add water at 1/2 to 3/4 cup at a time.  Wait until you have nothing but rice left before adding the next addition of water.  This WILL TAKE FOREVER.  Or approximately 30 minutes, of you standing there stirring rice and adding stock.  But it's SO worth it.  When you have just 1-1/2 c of stock left, dump the kielbasa back into the pot with 1/2 cup of water and continue to stir and let it absorb.

 4.)  With 1/2c of stock left, optional... dump in some frozen peas.  I'm a mom, gotta have that vegetable.  Oh hey, speaking of mom, this is also a ONE POT MEAL!  Score.  Let the last of the stock absorb into the rice and you'll notice that it has taken on a creamy consistency without actually having any cream in it.  Ta-da, you just made risotto.



AND... the kids and husband gobbled it up!

Serve and Enjoy!

Side Note:  This reheats well in the microwave.  Just be sure to re-heat after adding a splash of water for it to steam by.

Leftover Lobster Risotto

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love lobster.  Offer it to me at boat price and I'm gonna eat three 2.5-pounders in one sitting.  I've once eaten a 4-pounder and a 1-pounder in one night.  I have also been seen to consume six 1.5-pounders over the course of a long afternoon.  I didn't grow up in New England.  I had never really had lobster until I was 12.  So of course, I'm not tired of it.  And how CAN you tire of it?  It's just SO naturally good.  The only seafood better than lobster just might be scallops.  It's a close call.  So, when I buy lobster, I buy it in mass quantities.  The last time I purchased lobster was to host a lobster meal for an out of town work guest, who was visiting from Boulder, CO for the week.  I served up lobster, fried potato slices, corn, an of course a pile of steamers.  I over buy.  You never know when said guest could want more than just one... and we know I do.  But alas, he did not, and neither did my boss who joined us for the evening.. so I had 2 lobster leftover and I had already had my 2, plus 1/2 of Kassidy's.  So, I shelled them and stuffed them into a freezer bag.  And I shelled them right down to nothing.  Not like my grand-mother-in-law (aka. Grammy) does... but I got pretty close!  Did you know there is meat in the antennae?  How about in the very bottom of the tail fins?  Yep, it's everywhere.  Think about that next time you order lobster.  It's not all about just the claw and tails. Go for the knuckles, legs and dig in.


So, I had this bag of lobster that's been calling my name from the freezer for quite some time.  And today I was home early since Karsyn had a fever.  This left me the ability to get on the internet and search for a variety of recipes for Lobster Risotto.  However, as usual, not finding a single recipe I liked in its entirety, I pulled down my reliable Joy of Cooking.  I can ALWAYS find a recipe in here, or at least something to get me started.  So, what do I come across?  A basic risotto recipe.  One I have used before.  (future blog on Italian Sausage Risotto, a recipe modified from sister-in-law)  Risotto is risky.  Not to make, since it's really a very easy recipe. But risky business when feeding the family.  You all read Busted Applesauce Pork, right?  This could go either way....

Well, the kids were asleep and I was done with work... so, really what's the risk, they get to make their own dinner or starve.  So, off I played.

Ingredients

• 2 lobsters, cooked and shelled (come on, get in there and get it ALL or you won't have enough if you use just claw and tail) - rough chop, nice big chunks
• 2c Aborio Rice
• 2T dried chives
• 3T olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, mashed and diced
• 1/4 cup white wine OR marsala wine OR sweet vermouth
• 8 cups stock
• Since my lobster was frozen, I poured 4 cups of water over it and boiled it to defrost, using that water as 1/2 my stock.  The rest of 4 cups was chicken stock.
• Peas (optional, feeding a family it's nice to have a veggie and make this a 1 pot meal)

Ok, Assemble!

1. 3T of oil into a nice solid pan (do not use non-stick) 
2. 2T chives into pan
3. garlic clove into pan
4. Saute on low-med heat until happy (which really means until you can start to smell them and the aromas in your kitchen are going crazy)
5. Don't let them sit, keep stirring
6. Add the rice to this and KEEP STIRRING, you're now sauteing the rice until it "pops" into a white color
7. Add the wine/marsala/vermouth to the pan slowly and keep stirring.  The rice will instantly absorb it.
8. Add 1 cup of stock and allow to light simmer, but never boil
9. Keep stirring.  Water will start to absorb into the rice.  When it's just about gone, add another 1 cup of stock.
10. Repeat step 9 until you have 1cup of stock left.
• This is the time consuming part.  Not hard...just boring.  1 cup, sit, stir, wait for absorb, repeat.... should take about 30-40 minutes if you do it right.
11. Toss in your lobster meat (and optional peas)
12. Keep stirring, turn heat to low.
13. Cook until all water is absorbed, which really shouldn't be much longer than 5-10 minutes.
14. Plate and Eat.

You're going to get enough here to feed 6 adults nice heavy portions.  I had enough for Me, Rob, the girls, and 2 bowls of leftovers for lunch this week.  I hope it reheats well.  I'll post back the results.

 

Safe to say... tonight, was a hit!  I already knew that Kassidy liked lobster, but this was a new medium in which to eat it.  Karsyn just digs right into anything.  But Kass took a little bit of coaxing.  Once we got her going though she ate just about her whole plate.  Even Rob didn't "hate it."







Change it Up!?

• Instead of lobster, at one point I thought this might go really well with sauteed mushrooms and shredded chicken.  A nice substitute to the lobster and peas.
• Also, I did find the recipe tonight a tad bland.  You may want to add salt, some cracked pepper.  Many recipes out there call for saffron, a VERY expensive and yummy addition and not something I stock.