Rookie at Risotto
I followed Tyler Florence's recipe. My red Le Creuset was filled with oodles of Arborio rice, lots of chopped mushrooms, and several types of leafy herbs that awakened my senses. This dish requires a handful of fresh sprigs of thyme, bay leaves, and flat leaf parsley. Believe it or not this was my first time cooking with thyme and bay leaves!! Oh, the smell was wonderful and the flavors really came out alive with the use of these herbs! The recipe only calls for 2 cloves of garlic. I laughed at that. I love garlic, so I cut up 4 big cloves of garlic instead!! Risotto takes a lot of time. I catagorize risotto as "high maintenance" food due to the fact that you have to constantly stir and pour in "heated" stock a cup at a time until the risotto is slightly firm but creamy. Mine came out a little bit on the softer side, but tasted pretty good nonetheless. Now I have all these left over thyme sprigs and bay leaves and don't know what to do with them... any suggestions?
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7 Comments:
i usually wrap extra herbs and freeze them, then when i make stock just toss em in, that way it dosent matter if theyre limp wilted or brown on the edges, just break off any nasty bits and toss the whole mess in.
huneybumper at 7:26AM on 07/09/08
yep I freeze them too, they come in handy when cooking last minute dishes.
joanpieroni2 at 7:56AM on 07/09/08
Both thyme and bay leaves go well with chicken...what about marinating in olive oil, white wine, garlic (lots) and the herbs, then grilling? Could then be sliced and served over pasta with butter and more herbs...
akk328 at 11:31AM on 07/09/08
I use both when I make chicken stock. You could then use the stock to make..... more risotto. It's the culinary circle of life!!
agemme27 at 12:07PM on 07/09/08
If the bay leaves weren't fresh they'll hold up for soups or stock . With respect to the thyme you can make what they call a compound butter by adding the thyme leaves,some chopped italian parsley and some lemon juice and mix it with salt n pepper in about a lb or 2 of soft (NOT MELTED) butter and roll it up in parchment paper into a roll the shape of cookie dough and just freeze it . it goes great with fish ,chicken and grilled veggies ...just to start !
grizz518 at 12:17PM on 07/09/08
I always use bay leaves in any stewed dish... like when I make my stewed potatoes ,or my tuno antipasto...
But if you want a less time-consuming way of making the same rissotto - try using the Archer Farms 4 cheese risotto mixture available at Target and then season the components with your thyme, bay leaves and any other seasoning of your preference. I use it as a base and embellish it a 1,000 different ways. It may sound a bit Sandra-Leeish, but when you're hungry in a hurry, it works!!!
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 2:33PM on 07/09/08
Those are all great suggestions. Thank you, I can't wait to try them all!
~ Leeya
http://www.leeyagreetings.com
Leeya at 8:58PM on 07/09/08