Daring Cooks Challenge: Risotto (w/ Homemade Vegetable Stock)

I may just have a new favorite comfort food.

It used to be baked macaroni & cheese before I had to become gluten & dairy free. I hadn't been able to find something to replace it...until now! The host of this month's Daring Cooks Challenge called it a comfort food but I was skeptical. I mean, rice as a comfort food?

So last week, I made risotto for the first time, and it was a-mazing. So creamy, succulent, ridiculously satisfying. The best part is, it's easily made dairy free, and rice is always gluten free! Delirious happiness is putting it mildly.

The challenge was to make not only risotto, but also your own stock for it! I made vegetarian rather than chicken stock since I made extra to use at a later time. It's really easy--throw a whole bunch of vegetables in a pot (I sauted the onions and garlic first), add 8-12 cups of water, then let it simmer until it has reduced at least by half; I reduced it to 1/3 the original amount of liquid for a super concentrated flavor.

I kept my stock flavors really simple because I like to do a lot with flavor when I'm using it for other things--just a mirepoix, water, salt, pepper, & 2 bay leaves. A lot of stock recipes say to discard the leftover veggies, but they served as a delicious snack for me :) I used most of my stock, but I would have stored the remainder in 1-cup servings (either in a container or freezer ziploc bag) in the freezer.

Now the risotto. I was a little intimidated but it's actually not that bad! You just need to be careful about adding the liquid a bit at a time, and then waiting until it is absorbed to add more. I can't eat dairy so I didn't use butter, but it still came out nice and creamy. I think I shall be making risotto more often :)

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.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

Ingredients:

4 tsp vegetable oil
4 small onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, cracked and peeled
4 carrots, scrubbed and cut into chunks
3 celery stalks, cut into chunks
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
12 cups water

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large stock pot and saute onions and garlic until soft, 5-6 minutes. Add carrots and celery and cook 4 minutes more.
2. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for 2-3 hours or until liquid has reduced by at least one half.
3. Pour through a fine sieve to strain out any vegetable pieces. Store stock in the fridge up to a week, in the freezer pretty much indefinitely :)

Vegan Onion Risotto

Ingredients

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in dutch oven. Over medium flame cook onions until soft and translucent.
2. Add rice and brown 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add white wine, stirring to combine. Allow a low simmer, stirring occasionally until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Add remaining liquid 3/4 cup at a time, waiting until it has been absorbed to add more.

Note: I liked the creaminess of the risotto; if you like it dryer, add less liquid; creamier, add more!

The cost:
veggies: leftover, or about 5.00 to buy new
rice: 5.99
onion: .35

Grand total: $11.34; serves 4

Daring Cooks Challenge: Mezze

I know I don't usually post on a Sunday, but I recently became a Daring Cook through a very cool group called the Daring Kitchen, which brings together thousands of food bloggers from around the world and challenges them to cook one new thing every month, and today is the reveal day!

This was my first challenge, and I had a ton of fun with it. The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I served my mezze as the first course of my first dinner party.

The pita was certainly a challenge as I couldn't get it to puff, but it was still delicious (came out kind of like foccacia).

For dips I made topped the chumus topped with olive oil, toasted pine nuts, and za'atar, and also a roasted red pepper spread (see recipe below).

Being a Daring Cook is fun--looking forward to the next challenge!

Roasted Red Pepper Spread

Ingredients:

3 red peppers
1 tsp olive oil
1 small garlic clove
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Broil red peppers, turning occasionally until the skin is blackened. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 5-6 minutes. Cool slightly, peel off skin and remove stem, seeds and ribs.
2. Blend peppers with remaining ingredients until smooth.
3. Serve with pita, pita chips, crackers, crudite or other item conducive to dipping.

The cost:
red peppers: 3.00 (on sale for $1 each)
other ingredients: <.50

Grand total: $3.50ish; serves 8-10 as an appetizer