Lemon and Asparagus Risotto
- Adrianna
- Jul 31, 2018
- 3 min read
July 25 - At the beginning of the summer, Brenda listed off a few dishes she could teach me to make, suggesting full confidence in her ability to make them. Brenda isn’t much of a cook (her words not mine), so the list wasn’t long, but risotto was on it. Risotto is one of my favorite foods, so I was excited to try to make it, and felt confident knowing Brenda would be able to walk me through it if I had any problems. Butttt, it turns out she really had just made it once, and it had turned out “pretty good.” And thus, in reality I was on my own to figure it out, laughing about this discovery the whole night while cooking. Luckily, I had a recipe from the genius Alice Waters, so I knew it’d turned out just fine. Following her recipe for lemon and asparagus risotto, I was determined to pull it off and feel like a real chef. (I’m not sure why risotto means real chef to me but let me have this one.)
I watch a lot of cooking shows and listen to cooking podcasts (lame I know), so I’ve picked up a few things about how to make risotto. I knew it required a lot of stirring and that you have to add liquid slowly, so when Alice’s recipe confirmed that, I was feeling pretty good about myself. To begin, I melted butter in a Dutch oven and then added shallots. The recipe called for onions, but if you’ve been following along with my summer, you know I have a new-found love for shallots. I left them to soften for a bit, and then added the Arborio rice to cook for a few minutes.
After this point is where the stirring and liquid pouring comes into play. Some white wine to start, and then the first cup of warm chicken broth was added. The broth was simmering somewhat strongly, and I was under the impression that the rice should be stirred until the liquid is mostly absorbed. As the rice got thicker, I added more broth, ½ cup at a time. I repeated this until I ran out of broth and until the rice was completely tender. (At about 15-20 minutes in I added asparagus, which this recipe called for, but it can be left out if you want to make a simpler risotto.) At the point when it was nearly done, I added butter, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese, then finished it up, allowing the whole thing to sit for a few minutes before serving. A quick mix-in of parsley, for some extra flavor and color, and done! Thirty minutes of stirring and observing had passed and I had made risotto!
And to be honest, it tasted really good. I can’t say I’m surprised because I did follow a really good chef’s recipe, but I was proud nonetheless and enjoyed multiple heaping servings of it. I’m definitely going to pull this one out at school to impress my friends, but I’m not sure if it’ll come out as good, you know considering I won’t have an expert like Brenda there to help.
(I don't have a direct link to this recipe, but check out this blog which outlines the recipe for you. The original recipe is found in The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.)
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