For this Italian delicacy, you will need...
1 lemon
1 cup arborio rice
2 sprigs of thyme
approx 5 to 7 cups of chicken stock (can use vegetable stock to make vegetarian/kosher)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
handful of mushrooms
several handfuls of broccoli
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
Mise en place:
Slice mushrooms and cut broccoli into florets. Set aside.
Dice onion. Mince garlic.
Heat up olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.
In a small pot, put chicken stock in pan over medium heat. Once it starts to bubble a bit, turn it down to low.
Juice the lemon.
Cooking:
Add the onion to the olive oil with a pinch of salt. You want to sweat the onion, which means cooking it through until it's partially see-through and not browned. This will take approx five to eight minutes. Then add the garlic and cook one to two minutes more.
Toast the rice by putting it in the pot with the onion and garlic, stirring, and letting cook for a minute.
Add the lemon juice and cook for a minute. This is a good time to add a pinch of salt to bump up the flavor. I find that adding a pinch of salt two times throughout the cooking process is the optimum amount of flavor to not over-salted. Also add the thyme bundle.
Ladle in chicken stock to cover the rice and stir, taking breaks, over medium-low heat, until the rice has absorbed the chicken stock. Repeat until the rice is almost cooked through. You will probably do this three times.
Take out the thyme bundle. Then add the broccoli and mushrooms and make sure they are mixed in with the rice and as submerged in rice and stock as possible so they will cook through. Cook a couple more minutes. Keep tasting the rice because you want to catch it when it's perfectly al dente, just a slight bite left in the rice, without being raw. It's also important not to overcook the broccoli because no one likes overcooked broccoli. You don't want to add too much stock at this point because it might get too wet and then overcook or be watery. This to me is the hardest part. When you are happy with the texture of the rice, add the grated parmesan cheese and STIR, STIR, STIR until it's a homogenous mixture.
Buon appetito!
1 lemon
1 cup arborio rice
2 sprigs of thyme
approx 5 to 7 cups of chicken stock (can use vegetable stock to make vegetarian/kosher)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
handful of mushrooms
several handfuls of broccoli
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
Mise en place:
Slice mushrooms and cut broccoli into florets. Set aside.
Dice onion. Mince garlic.
Heat up olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.
In a small pot, put chicken stock in pan over medium heat. Once it starts to bubble a bit, turn it down to low.
Juice the lemon.
Cooking:
Add the onion to the olive oil with a pinch of salt. You want to sweat the onion, which means cooking it through until it's partially see-through and not browned. This will take approx five to eight minutes. Then add the garlic and cook one to two minutes more.
Toast the rice by putting it in the pot with the onion and garlic, stirring, and letting cook for a minute.
Add the lemon juice and cook for a minute. This is a good time to add a pinch of salt to bump up the flavor. I find that adding a pinch of salt two times throughout the cooking process is the optimum amount of flavor to not over-salted. Also add the thyme bundle.
Ladle in chicken stock to cover the rice and stir, taking breaks, over medium-low heat, until the rice has absorbed the chicken stock. Repeat until the rice is almost cooked through. You will probably do this three times.
Take out the thyme bundle. Then add the broccoli and mushrooms and make sure they are mixed in with the rice and as submerged in rice and stock as possible so they will cook through. Cook a couple more minutes. Keep tasting the rice because you want to catch it when it's perfectly al dente, just a slight bite left in the rice, without being raw. It's also important not to overcook the broccoli because no one likes overcooked broccoli. You don't want to add too much stock at this point because it might get too wet and then overcook or be watery. This to me is the hardest part. When you are happy with the texture of the rice, add the grated parmesan cheese and STIR, STIR, STIR until it's a homogenous mixture.
Buon appetito!