Risotto con funghi

Another visual shopping list. This time for Risotto con funghi (Risotto with mushrooms). For 2-4 people.



25 gram dried porcini
175 gram fresh mushroom
juice of half a lemon
75 gram butter
2 tbsp chopped parsley
900 ml chicken or meat broth (not too strong!)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
100 ml. dry white wine
3 tbsp Parmesan
275 gram arborio (rice)
salt & pepper

Preparation in 7 steps

Step 1 Soak dried mushrooms in 350 ml warm water for 40 minutes. Drain and reserve soaking water for step 3. Cut soaked mushroom finely.

Step 2 Slice fresh mushrooms and toss with lemon juice. Melt 1/3 butter and fry mushrooms. Stir in parsley after mushrooms begin to brown and set aside.

Step 3 heat broth and add mushroom soaking water. Simmer until needed.

Step 4 Heat another 1/3 butter with the olive oil in same pan mushrooms were cooked. Stir in onion until soft and golden. Add rice and stir for a few minutes. Add soaked and sautéed mushrooms.

Step 5 Pour in wine and cook until it evaporates.

Step 6 Raise the heat and add a little hot broth. Cook until the rice dries out. Add more broth. Repeat for 20 minutes. Taste and continue until rice is al dente. This may take 35 minutes.

Step 7 Remove from heat. Stir in remaining butter and parmesan. Whisk quickly and grind some black pepper. Rest risotto for 3-4 minutes before serving.

Update: this can be a very powerful risotto (taste-wise), depending on the strength of the broth. Use a more watery broth if you want to taste the rice, mushrooms & wine better.

Linguine with lemon

A simple tangy lemon-cream sauce.

Juice of two lemons
50 gram butter
200 ml panna da cucina
100 gram Parmesan, grated
salt & pepper

1) Boil and simmer for 5 minutes: lemon juice, butter and cream. Add salt and pepper. You can add some grated lemon rind as well.

2) Meanwhile cook linguine (or similar pasta).

3) Add Parmesan to cream sauce. Taste. Mix with drained linguine. Above quantities are good for 2 - 4 people. Serve as an 'in-between' dish.

Just 4 ingredients:

Norway lobster / langoustine / Noorse kreeft

Saturday September 26 I collected 1,5 kilo's of very fresh Norway lobster (caught on Thursday the 24th, cooled with ice, not frozen).


And here they are: caught at GPS-coordinates: 55.35.000 N, 005.50.000 E (45 meter deep, 265 km from the Dutch coast line) last Thursday by the Dutch owned PD126 Andrea.

Foto: H.Perdok OleC

Shopping list for grilled Norway lobster with Pernod-olive dressing:

Dressing:
2 small shallot
dragon (1/2 tablespoon)
parsley (1/2 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon soy sauce
6 tablespoons olive oil
1,5 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons Pernod
salt & pepper

Boil Norway lobster in court-bouillon for crustacean.

Court-bouillon for crustacea recipe:



Boil for 20 minutes: 3,5 liters water, 1 fennel bulb, 1 onion, 4 sticks of celery, mushrooms, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon whole black pepper, 2 bay leaf, fresh thyme (3 twigs), 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds.



After 20 minutes take pan from fire and add 300 ml white wine. Cool for 2 hours. Strain liquid through sieve.

Boil Norway lobster for 2 - 5 minutes in court-bouillon for crustacean. Cut Norway lobster in half. Spoon soft content of the head (including bright red eggs if you find them) from the hard shell and mix with ingredients for dressing.







Put Norway lobster on baking plate, brush some melted butter on lobster and grill for 1 or 2 minutes. Spoon dressing over Norway lobster. More photo's on my Flickr-account.

Nero d'Avola, red grape from Sicily

Nero d'Avola; 'black [grape] of Avola' is a red wine grape from Sicily. Makes an intense red wine suitable for red meat. I drank a 2006, Terre di Ginestra accompanied by fettuccine and a cream sauce made with: diced pancetta (fry in own fat for 5 minutes), butter (2 tablespoons), onion and garlic. Fry for 5 minutes. Add head of radicchio (a rather bitter Italian chicory). Fry for 2 minutes. Then add 150 ml. panna da cucina (lit: cooking cream) and 50 grams Parmigiano-Reggiano. Fry for 2 minutes and mix with fettuccine.

Ingredients


Dice pancetta


Fry pancetta to release fat


Shred the radicchio


Add butter, onion and garlic to pancetta and fry


Add radicchio and fry


Add panna da cucina and grated parmesan


Mix with pasta. The problem is that this dish doesn't look too good in color. You could add a table spoon of water to make the sauce a little less thick. The treat of this dish is the bitter taste of the radicchio offset by the rich fatty taste of cream, cheese and pancetta.

Martini

How To Make A Martini

Gin: Tanqueray London Dry Gin or Ten.
Vermouth: Noilly Prat

Use 60 ml of gin and 15 ml vermouth.

Fill mixing glass with ice.

Pour gin and vermouth in second glass. Add gin & vermouth to mixing glass. Stir for 30 seconds.

Prepare martini glass by chilling it with ice. Discard ice and strain gin & vermouth to martini glass.

Take a lemon or lime twist. Squeeze some of the oils over the martini and rub the twist on the rim of the glass.

UPDATE: I prefer to drink a martini in a good cocktail bar. At home it just doesn't work very well unless you're an alcoholic. Make one and you are left with a big bottle of expensive gin.

Dim sum dipping sauce

Deep frozen dim sums are handy to keep in the freezer. But they need a dipping sauce.

This one is easy and works perfectly for most dim sum:

50 ml. rice vinegar (I used a good quality Japanese white rice vinegar, there are many variations, some very strong, so taste and adjust the quantities)
50 ml. soy sauce (again, I used a standard Japanese soy sauce, you can use a Chinese 'thin' soy sauce)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix and store in fridge.

Optional: dress up with fresh ginger (julienned), spring onion or chili pepper.

Chateau Le Clou Monbazillac, sweet white wine

Sweet white wine Chateau Le Clou, 2005 Monbazillac, Dordogne, France. Organic wine producer, the vineyard was established in 1622.

Small 37,5 ml bottle (9,80 euro). The website hasn't been updated in a while. The last sweet wine mentioned (2001) is made of 70% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle and 20% Sauvignon Blanc.

Drank with old Roquefort cheese and chocolate-raspberry (birthday) cake. Excellent wine, beautiful golden color. Will certainly buy again.