Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Risotto

I'd been looking forward to trying this recipe for Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Risotto, which came from Kath Eats at http://www.katheats.com/celine-vin/ (one of the new food blogs I've been reading -- new to me, since I just subscribed to a bunch in the past few months) who got it from the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago:

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Risotto

½ onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 small pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and medium diced (can substitute with butternut squash or acorn squash)

½ can pumpkin puree

4 oz. goat cheese

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

5 cups hot chicken stock

½ cup white wine

1 T. grated parmesan cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

1-2 T. kosher or sea salt

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

2 T olive oil

1 bay leaf, dried

Chives, thyme or parsley, chopped

1. Steep the bay leaf in your chicken stock.

2. In a heavy bottom stock pot, sauté rice with pumpkin (not the puree) and onions over medium heat until onions are translucent and rice has a toasty aroma with a golden color. Add garlic and sauté briefly.

3. Deglaze with white wine, add bay leaf.

4. While stirring vigorously add stock one cup at a time. (It will take a few minutes to absorb the stock, so this is a labor-heavy task).

5. Continue adding the stock 1 cup at a time until it is absorbed. You will use almost, if not all, of the stock depending on how you like it, ale-dente or fully cooked. Before adding the last cup of stock, stir in your pumpkin puree.

6. Once your rice is cooked to your liking, you should season it with salt and pepper and add your cheeses while stirring.

7. Finish by adding in your butter, stirring until it is completely melted.

8. Stir in your chopped herbs, allowing it to sit for a minute before serving so it can allow all of the flavors to marry.

What does it say about our kitchen that fancy rice, pumpkin, and goat cheese are now staples here? Besides that we spend too much on groceries each month that we like to eat well. The only snag was we did not have enough chicken stock so ended up draining broth from two cans of chicken noodle soup.

I had absolutely nothing to do with the preparation of this meal, except the chicken broth idea which I came up with to avoid having to drive to the Sad Kroger on a Sunday night after a long day. I do have pictures of what was done, and I can tell you it was delicious! Even with us forgetting to add black pepper at the end. The only deliberate change was not adding chopped pumpkin, because believe it or not, we had no fresh pumpkin or squash; everything left was already pureed.

Even the leftovers were good -- which is the sign of a good meal. R. added sour cream and hot sauce to his leftovers.


Broth, measuring cups, goat cheese and leftover apple-cranberry crisp (not part of the recipe)

Steeping the bay leaf in the stock/broth

Adding the pumpkin puree

Cooking the rice and waiting for it to toast



The cooking putting it all together.

Still life with cheap Chardonnay, leftover Shiraz, and the cook's glasses

Risotto in my bowl!

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