During my heydays as a chef/restaurateur in Sydney, some of us young turks would meet in a late-late night place on a Saturday night (read Chinese restaurant), eat & drink till dawn because most of us would be off on the Sunday, sometimes play poker (a game that obviously eluded me since I have managed to lose a fair deal of money), gossip copiously and exchange funny stories of customer behavior, the good the bad and the ugly. As the wine and various lubricants flowed abundantly, conversation would inexorably turn to our kitchen staff and tricks of the trade.
There were three standards by which we would judge a young chef's ability to cook, and have a future in this cutthroat's world of cooking: a basic stock, which, if made well, would become a demi-glace , a simple three-egg omelet (you think it's simple? Try it) , and the dreaded risotto.
By which I mean a kick-ass risotto, not the gluey, choke-your-mother-in-law stuff most aspiring cooks turn out (apologies to MiLs, I have one as well!)
You may ask, why bother if it is this hard? It's not. It's a common sense dish, think of it as the person you love and live with: it needs a steady but constant attention, and in time it will pay off massive dividends. Ok, that may not be the perfect analogy but you know what I mean to convey: a perfect risotto may seem elusive to most but it is incredibly simple if you follow this diary to the (grain) letter.
I have searched teh internets high and wide for the origins of this dish and did not find much except for this tidbit from Clifford A Wright's excellent work on Mediterranean cuisine :
One of the unintentional end products of the clearing of the Lombardy plains for the establishment of rice fields in the fifteenth century was risotto. The motivation for the clearing and reclaiming of the plains was simply the demand of the growing towns for food. That demand was met not by rice growers but by budding capitalists who had the financial wherewithal to back the farmers in establishing these rice fields in the Po Valley. One of the earliest references I know of concerning rice in northern Italy is a letter of September 27, 1475 from Galeazzo Maria Sforza to the Duke of Ferrara concerning twelve sacks of rice. In the days of the Venetian Republic, la Serenissima, as the city-state was known by both its citizens and its enemies, would spare nothing to properly regale the ambassadors to St. Marks with all the pomp and splendor befitting such a noble position. The state dinner was a notable event, and the master chefs of the Doge would prepare an exquisite minestra di riso that centuries later evolved into the risottos we know today.
There are basically three important rules to make the perfect risotto: first, you will need a heavy-based pot because it will distribute heat well (stainless steel, cast-iron, copper - I still use my old cast-iron pot, very handy for this kind of dish). Also, make sure it's a pot with two good handles for the constant stirring, and only use a wooden spoon because you do not want to break down the grains, or scrape the bottom of your pot.
Secondly, the grain selection: a high-starch (amylopectin), low-amylose round medium (or better, short) grain rice is a must for this dish. The short grain has the ability to absorb liquids and slowly release starch and so they are stickier and richer than the long grain varieties. The principal varieties used are Arborio, Baldo (though rarely seen in supermarkets), Carnaroli, Padano, and Vialone Nano (the latter two are hard to find and rather expensive) so personally I use Arborio because it is widely available and reasonably priced (in my Sydney eatery, I used Carnaroli and dressed it up expensively, using wild mushrooms or a slice of heaven in the form of a truffle).
And finally, the all important stock: if you are making a seafood risotto make a fish/shellfish stock or a chicken one. Nowadays I make a simple root vegetable stock, cooked slowly over three or four hours (all stocks can be made in advance, several days if you are going to freeze it or a single one if you are going to use it the next). Note that it is important to add hot stock, not cold into your risotto. For stocks recipes look no further than my diary on....stocks !
Are you still with me? The main advantage of this dish is that you can use any ingredients available to flavour it: slivers of meats, morsels of fish & shellfish, diced poultry & game, vegetables & mushrooms, herbs, whatever you have in your larder will have a chance to end up in it, call it a socialist dish, with equal opportunity ingredients! Another word before I go on to the recipe: risotto needs an aromatic flavor base, a foundation if you wish (in Italy it is called Soffritto ) and it is simply made with finely minced onions or shallots, a tablespoon of good olive oil or a knob of butter (a combination of both is even better), cooked over medium-low heat, until translucent, but not brown. This will coat the grains nicely and give it extra flavor and gravitas.
For the purpose of making this diary short (and concise) here is one recipe that should be easy to follow: wild mushroom risotto (in which you can add almost anything if you wish, that is up to you. The pic is below, all other pics are just part of a tease ;.)
For this particular exercise, let's say this is going to serve 6 persons (you can always double-up if you need to)
400 grams (approx. 15 ounces) of Arborio rice, 2 pints of (heated up) stock, 2 onions or 12 shallots, finely minced, 1 or 2 celery sticks, chopped up thinly, 1 pound of wild mushrooms, washed and dried and cut into thick strips, 1 large knob of butter, 4 tablespoons of a very good virgin olive oil, 2 glasses of dry white wine or 1 glass of dry vermouth, 2 ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper to taste, and plenty of elbow grease!
In your heavy-based pot, over medium heat, pour 2 tbsp of olive oil with a small bit of butter, add the onions and celery (if you wish you can also add tiny cubes of carrots and garlic....but I digress), and cook till translucent but not brown. Add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes before adding the wine or vermouth, stir, and stir, once the liquid has evaporated add the first big ladle of hot stock, and stir with your big wooden spoon, cook for 3 minutes or until the stock has been absorbed, then add the mushrooms, check for salt & freshly grounded black pepper, stir, and stir, and add more stock... I think you are getting the gist of it now. Do not add too much stock or you will overcook your star risotto! The whole cooking time should not exceed 15 minutes (check the grain, it should be al dente, like pasta, not soft, not hard), by which the last step (and I'm afraid it is an essential step), add the rest of the butter and olive oil plus the Parmesan cheese, stirring like hell. This will bind the ingredients together in perfect matrimony, adding the desired creaminess to this royal dish.
My addy is in my profile should you wish to relate how successful your risotto turned out. All (red) wines bottles are gladly accepted, virtual and real. And now a word from our sponsor: