Daring Cooks Challenge - Risotto with Caramelized Onions & Roquefort Cheese

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf. The main requirement of the challenge was that we must make our own stock and the risotto base.

The base consisted of wine, rice, oil, stock, cheese and butter. Then we had to choose our own variation of risotto after the base was made. I had some Roquefort blue cheese waiting for me to consume, so decided on a risotto with caramelized onions and Roquefort. I can't remember where I first saw this risotto combination (either through blog surfing or in one of my recipe books). I think I originally came across it when searching for a base recipe for the Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Blue Cheese sauce to go with my Beef Burgers. The risotto I had in mind, was quite different to that cheese sauce. I haven't been able to locate the original recipe, but I do remember there was the port, red onions and blue cheese in the ingredients list.

Making your own stock made a major different in taste. I used a couple of chicken thigh pieces instead of a whole chook. Originally I was thinking just adding the caramelized onions was going to be a bit dull, but it actually enhance the base flavour of the risotto.

I usually use butter for my base instead of olive oil, but I think the olive oil did work better. At least I don't have to be careful about getting my butter burnt. Thank you Eleanor and Jess for the wonderful challenge! :)

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

• 1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
• chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
• 2 onions, roughly diced
• 1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
• 2 sticks celery, roughly diced
• 2 cloves garlic, halved
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)
• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)
• peel of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1. Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
2. Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
3. Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
4. Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
5. Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
6. Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
7. Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 

8. The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Risotto Base

Ingredients:

• 60 ml olive oil
• 1 small onion (quatered)**
• 400g rice (Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli)
• 60 ml white wine
• 1 L chicken or vegetable stock , simmering

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
2. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
3. Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
4. Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
5. Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
6. Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step.. Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
7. Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

** Note: Since I was making a Caramelized Onion Risotto, I diced up my onion into smaller cubes and left them in also.

Risotto with Caramelized Onions and Roquefort Cheese

• 1 litre chicken broth - See recipe above
• Risotto Base - See recipe above
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 large red onions (thinly sliced)
• 2 twigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup ruby port
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup freshly-grated parmesan cheese
• 60g Roquefort (or try goat cheese for a non-blue option) - about 1 tablespoon per serving

Method:

1. In a separate 10-inch pan with a lid, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the red onions and cook for about 5 minutes to soften. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to low.
2. Continue to cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the port. Simmer the onions and let the port reduce until completely dry, about 25 more minutes. Remove pan from the heat and set a side.
3. While the onions is cooking, in a heavy base pot (I used my dutch oven pot) make the risotto. See risotto base recipe above.
4. Once you are at the final stage of the base risotto, pour in the last 100ml of stock, then stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter, Parmesan cheese and the caramelized onions.
5. Cover the pot with the lid, and let the risotto sit and rest for about 5 minutes.
6. To serve, spoon the risotto into shallow bowls and sprinkle the top with small pieces of Roquefort.

Bolognese Sauce

I still have a week off before I have to go back to work. So I've been mostly occupying my time with slow cook foods - now that I do have the time to do it. This Bolognese recipe is something I eyed some time back on Spinach Tiger and always wanted to try it out but never had the time. I really wanted to try it out because it required each individual step to reach a certain stage before moving on. Like completely cooking off the wine and milk. That's two cups of milk by the way.. I really wondered how long that would take. :P

Bolognese Sauce
Recipe adapted from Spinach Tiger - Originally from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classical Cooking

Serves 6-8

• 2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 6 Tablespoon butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 2 slices of chopped bacon
  
• 1kg ground beef chuck (seasoned with salt and pepper before cooking)
• Salt
• Black pepper, freshly ground
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cup dry white wine
• 3 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes with juice, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 pounds pasta (tossed with 2 Tablespoons of butter when ready)
  
• Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese at the table
  

On medium heat, add oil, butter, onion, until translucent. Add celery, carrots, cook 2 minutes, stirring, not browning.

Add bacon then meat, break up with fork, and when no pink color is showing, add milk.

Turn down heat to simmer, stirring frequently until milk has evaporated. Add nutmeg.

Add wine, stirring thoroughly. Once wine has completely evaporated, add tomatoes, and simmer on very very low stirring every now and again. If sauce dries out, add 1/2 cup water a time.

Cook for a minimum of 3 hours. I think 4-6 hours is better.

Taste and season with salt, pepper.

Serve over pasta.

I had this simmering on low heat for about 6 hours. The resulting bolognese was bursting with flavor and both rich and creamy at the same time. And because we only have 4 people in our household, the leftover bolognese was soooo much better the next day. I will definitely be making this recipe again. :)

Notes:

• The original recipe doesn't call for bacon, so you can omit this out if you want.
  

Creamy Mushroom Risotto Balls

Risotto balls or Arancini balls make great starters or finger food type snacks. Once you have the base risotto made up, the process to make them into risotto balls is really quick and easy. All you really need is some flour, beaten up eggs and breadcrumbs. As a little extra, I prefer to add a small cube of cheese into the risotto ball. The deep frying process melts the cheese and crisps the breadcrumb layer. So that each little ball is crispy on the outside with its own molten cheesy center. Now how can anyone resist that ??! :P

Creamy Mushroom Risotto Balls

Adapted from Fratelli Fresh's recipe on Arancini Balls in Vogue Magazine

For the Risotto:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 medium onion (chopped finely)
• 1 leek (white and light green part only, finely sliced)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 250g mushrooms (sliced)
• ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 250ml white wine
• 4 pieces of dried porcini mushroom
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped sage
• 2 tablespoons chives (finely sliced)
• 100g Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Bring the broth with the dried porcini mushrooms to a simmer
2. Heat a large pot over a medium-high flame. Add in the olive oil and butter.
3. As the butter melts, saute the onion and leek for 1 minute until it softens but doesn't brown.
4. Add in the bay leaf, sliced mushrooms and chopped garlic and cook for another minute
5. Season with freshly ground black pepper and salt
6. Add the rice and saute for another minute, until it turns translucent.
7. Pour in the wine and cook until the alcohol has evapourated and the rice as absorbed all the liquid.
8. Begin to add the broth. One ladle at a time. Add the next ladle only when the previous liquid has been aborbed. Stir occasionally.
9. Finely slice up the soaked porcini mushrooms (that was in the broth) and add these into the risotto rice
10. Stop adding the broth when the rice has cooked to the equivalent of al dente for pasta.
11. Add in the fresh herbs - in this case some parsley, sage & chives.
12. Stir in the grated Parmesan Cheese then the butter.
13. Cover the pot and let rest for about 3 minutes. This is the part that helps the risotto turn really creamy. Remove the lid, taste and add salt or more seasoning if required.
14. Spread the rice out into a tray and allow the rice to cool to room temperature

For the Risotto Balls:

• Risotto (cold) - See recipe above
• Plain flour for dusting
• Beaten eggs (one or two, depending on amount of risotto)
• Meltable cheese - anything from mozzarella to cheddar (sliced into 1cm cubes)
• Breadcrumbs
• Vegetable oil for deep-frying

1. With dampened hands, take a spoonful of risotto and flatten it out a bit in your hand
2. Place the cheese cube in the middle then shape cold risotto into 4cm or so balls.
3. Roll balls in flour. Shake off any excess flour.
4. Roll balls in the beaten eggs
5. Transfer and roll balls in breadcrumbs. Shake off any excess.
6. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep saucepan until its hot enough for frying
7. Deep fry the balls until golden brown.
8. Remove the balls and let rest on a plate covered with paper towels
9. Season with some flaky sea salt and serve immediately with a sauce of your choice.
   

Notes:

• To turn these up a notch, you can drizzle in a couple of drops of truffle oil into the risotto once its finished cooking.
• You can refrigerate the risotto balls and repeat the 'egg - breadcrumbs' stage again to yield a slightly thicker crunchier coating.
• The dried porcini mushrooms are optional, but a little bit of these babies do go along way in terms of taste
• For the fresh herbs, I used Parsley, Sage and Chives. You can substitute with whatever you have available.
• You can make this recipe up to a day ahead, and leave the pre-formed risotto balls in the refrigerator for up to a day. Just remember to cover them up well so the rice doesn't dry out too much.
• The mushrooms can be substituted to any other flavoring ingredient like parma ham, seafood, pumpkin and other vegetables.

Bacon & Mushroom Risotto

Just one day before winter and its been pouring down with rain for most of the day. On days like this, there is nothing more comforting and relaxing than just curling up in front of the T.V, all wrapped up in a warm blanket with a creamy bowl of risotto. Here's the recipe for what we had for dinner tonight...

Bacon & Mushroom Risotto
Originally adapted from Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Risotto Recipe

• 2x 50g of butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic (smashed & chopped)
• 1 leek (thinly sliced)
• 1 onion (sliced & chopped)
• 4 slices of bacon (sliced & chopped)
• 500g risotto rice
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 2 cups of mushrooms (roughly sliced)
• 4 cups of chicken Stock
• 5-6 pieces of dried porcini mushrooms
• pinch of salt
• 100g of freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Salt & Pepper

In a separate saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil, then keep on a slow simmer. Give the porcini mushrooms a quick wash to remove any dirt, then add into the chicken stock with a pinch of salt.

In a heavy based pot (I use my dutch oven), melt butter in olive oil, add garlic, leek, onion. Cook over low heat for 5 mins then add in bacon. Continue to cook for a further 10 mins. Be careful not to brown the leeks.

Add rice and keep on stirring. Add in wine and continue to stir until all the wine has cooked into the rice. Add a ladle of hot stock and stir until the rice has absorbed the stock. Turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Keep on adding stock to the rice one ladle at a time as the rice absorbs the stock.

About 10 mins in, take out the porcini mushrooms (which has now been rehydrated from the simmering stock) from the saucepan and slice into small pieces. Add this to the rice. Add the sliced mushrooms to the rice and continue to stir. Continue until all the stock has been added, this should take around 20 mins.

Remove from the heat and add the remainder 50g of butter with the parmesan cheese. Place lid on top of the pot and let it sit for about 2-3 mins. Season with Salt & Pepper to taste.

Sprinkle with any leftover parmesan cheese.

Pasta Bolognese

I remember when my grandma would make me Spaghetti and put it into one of those chinese thermos flasks for me to take to school for lunch. I tend to be rather popular during lunch time on those particular days at school. My grandma's recipe was actually more like chinese spaghetti. She used soy sauce to marinate the beef, added chinese rice wine, garlic, onions, fresh tomatoes and some chinese green shallots. There was no use of cheese, bacon, red wine, basil or any other typical Italian herbs. But it was delicate and deliciously yummy in its own way... My highschool friends certainly thought so.

This recipe here is not my grandma's recipe. I've actually tried to mimic my grandma's recipe before, but it was never quite the same. My own recipe, which I have adapted from many other recipes, is distinctively more Italian than Chinese. But the reason why Spaghetti Bolognese is one of my favorite comfort foods is because of the one my grandma first made for me.

I've broken this recipe down into separate stages. With the ingredients shown in the right order. Hopefully it is easier to understand this way.

Pasta Bolognese

Phase 1:

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion (sliced & chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic (smashed & chopped)
• 4 slices bacon rashers (chopped)
• 1 carrot (grated)
• 1 celery stick (diced finely)
• 1 kg lean mined beef
• salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in a big pot (I use a dutch oven pot)
2. Saute onion, garlic, bacon, celery and carrots until soft (3-5 mins)
3. Add beef, season with salt and pepper and cook until browned.

Phase 2:

• 2 fresh or dried bay leaves
• 1 Cup of red wine
• 150 ml milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Add Bay Leaves, Red wine and bring to boil , then reduce heat to medium. Simmer until most wine has evapourated.
2. Add milk and Nutmeg
3. Cook until milk has been absorbed.

Phase 3:

• 2 Cans of Whole tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• drizzle of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• salt and pepper
• a good handful of fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
• lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese, to serve

1. Add tomatoes, sugar, herbs, Worcestershire sauce and mix in the tomato paste. Bring the heat up so the sauce starts to boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer gently for ~ 45 mins.
3. Season to taste with Salt & Pepper (if required)
4. 5 mins before serving, add in the torn basil leaves.
5. Serve with your favorite cooked pasta and cover with cheese

This is one dish I tend to make a whole pot of, then separate into 'twosome' meal sized containers to freeze for later. After the immediate meal, I'm usually able to get about 3 more full containers from the leftovers in the pot.

Quickie Meal ~ 15 mins to reheat the sauce while cooking the pasta

And the leftovers always tends to taste better. :)

Baked Spicy Meatballs

I never really used to be a fan of meatballs. To me, they just tasted like a lump of mince meat that lacked any flavor. When I saw an episode of Jamie Oliver's cooking show (forgotten which one it was), about a baked meatball dish that calls for some spices and herbs, I decided to give it a try. This meatball recipe is now P's favorite dish. So much in fact, that he actually participates in the preparation process (for a change)...

Baked Spicy Meatballs
Recipe originally adapted from one of Jamie Oliver's cooking shows

Spice Mix
Warm the Spices slightly in a pan until fragrant, then grind together:

• 1 stalk of rosemary leaves (chopped finely)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon thyme seeds
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorn
• 1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes

Meatballs
Marinate and mix together with spice mix:

• 500g of quality minced beef
• 1 brown onion (finely blended in a food processor)
• 4 garlic cloves (finely blended in a food processor)
• 2 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cornflour
• 1 egg
• handful of breadcrumbs (add more if mixture is too moist)
• Grounded spice mix

Mix all ingredients together. You do have to use your hands here.

Have a shallow bowl of water ready and form the meatballs while dipping your fingers into the water every couple of meatballs. The water makes it easier to form the meatballs without bits and pieces sticking to your hands. Once the the meatballs are formed, brown them in a heated pan with a dash of olive oil, until they are browned all over, then set a side in a baking dish.

Tomato Sauce

• teaspoon of olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 2x cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 handful of fresh basil leaves (torn)
• couple of dashes of tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (or more to taste)

In a saucepan, heat oil then add in garlic. Once the garlic starts to cook, pour in the canned tomatoes. Let simmer on medium-high heat until the tomatoes break down. Once the tomatoes break down, add basil leaves, tabasco sauce and sugar to taste. Stir and let simmer on low heat for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C, top meatballs with the tomato sauce then cover with parmesan cheese.

Put baking dish into oven for about 20 mins, or until the cheese has turned golden brown. Serve with some spaghetti.

Lasagne

For me, making lasagne usually consists of throwing together whatever I have left over in the fridge. I could be using pork, beef or meat from sausages. Maybe some bacon, carrot, celery or not. No parmesan ?... not a problem..have cheddar. Ricotta or belchamel sauce .. or in this case both. :)

Lasagne to me is a highly flexible and revolving dish to say the least.

For this lasagne recipe I used some leftover ricotta and threw in some cherry tomatoes that seemed to be nearing its use-by-date.


Lasagne
Not sure which recipe I first learnt how to make lasagne, but i think I can call this one an astrogirl original.

Marinade the meat with:

• 1 kg of beef
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour
• couple of grinds of fresh pepper

And if you want to spice it up a bit more, you can add in 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds and cumin. Set this aside to rest.

Base ingredients - 1st into the pot:

• Olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1 large brown onion (chopped)
• 3 slices of bacon (chopped)
• 1 carrot (finely grated)
• couple of grinds of salt & pepper

In a dutch oven (or large pot), on medium heat add olive oil and the rest of the above ingredients in that order. Once the onions have started to sweat a bit (about 3 mins), add in the marinated mince.

For the tomato based meat sauce:

• 2x cans of whole tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 tablespoon of white sugar
• dried herbs (eg. oregano, basil - if not using fresh herbs)
  or
• 1 bunch of fresh basil (leaves only - if you have it)

Once the beef has started to brown and cook through, add in tomatoes, paste, red wine and dried herbs. Leave the fresh basil till later. Cover and simmer for about 1 hr.

Preheat the oven to 180C

About 45 mins into the cooking, start preparing the belchamel sauce. Also soak your lasgagne noodles into a hot water bath for about 15 mins.

Belchamel Sauce (cheese sauce):

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of grated cheese (I used cheddar)
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• salt & pepper to taste

Make a roux with the butter and flour, then gradually add milk. Once everything has combined smoothly, add in cheese, nutmeg and some salt & pepper to taste.

Assembling the Lasagne:

1. Put a bit of the cheese sauce into the bottom of the lasagne pan.
2. Place 1 layer of lasagne noodles on top
3. Spread 1 layer of tomato meat sauce over the lasagne noodles
4. Add a layer of cheese sauce on top of this.
5. Cover sauce with a layer of lasagne noodles.
6. Repeat until the lasagne pan is nearly full.

As mentioned before, I had some ricotta cheese leftover (less than about 100g) and some cherry tomatoes. I also ended up with quite a bit of basil. So I used these to create a topping with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Topping:

• Ricotta cheese
• cherry tomatoes (split into halves)
• basil
• parmesan cheese
• salt & pepper

This part is totally optional. If you want a normal topping, just finish the lasagne off with a final layer of the cheese sauce and top with some parmesan cheese and salt & pepper.

Place into the preheated oven for about 45 mins.

Lasagne is also one of those dishes that I make in the hopes it would at least last us for the next three to four days. And Yes, it does taste better the next day. Unfortunately, this one only lasted two days with the boys.