Rating: 💋 💋 💋 💋 💋
A week or so ago, I asked Shannon if she would like to plan a special little risotto dinner. She agreed, and then asked me what we were celebrating. Life? The last Saturday of April? Saturday in general? I say, anything really. Sometimes, you just need to make things special for no reason. You're the reason. It may be true that nothing is really going on right now, but it is fun to at least try to spice up the calendar in little ways.
The morning of, I woke up to glorious sunshine and birdsong. It was a lovely reprieve from the relentless rain and gray skies we have had. I geared myself up for the grocery store and did my best to get through it in one piece. It is amazing how people have turned evil eyes into their resting face. I understand things are difficult right now and being in public can especially be scary, but we are all trying to get through this as best we can. No one person at your local grocery store is the victim or the perpetrator. Still, gloves on, scarf knotted tightly around my face, and bag held tightly to my body, I actually managed to get every item on my list (sort of). That was a miracle in itself. As I walked home, I enjoyed the spring scents that permeated my neighborhood. It reminded me of the rhododendrons blooming in my parent's yard, or the drives I used to take in high school along the Schuykill, by Boathouse Row. They were such lovely memories to have. I am going to be sticking my head out the window a lot more going forward, just to recapture that.
I spent the afternoon skyping my lovely friend Olivia while we watched Mansfield Park. We found the movie to be quite frustrating, but it was fun complaining about it together. I first met Olivia when I was thirteen years old, and I am so grateful to still have her friendship. She is charming and funny and amazingly perceptive. We have the best conversations. Many a time I have gone out to lunch with her and only returned home just in time for dinner because we get lost in our discussions. Time just dissolves with her. I cannot wait to make a trip back to Jersey so we can hang out and watch Pride and Prejudice together, in person, like people did in the olden days.
Soon after our call, it was time to get cooking!
I must confess that I did not follow the recipe exactly, but I did the best that I could.
For starters, they did not have any arborio rice at Key Foods, though they had every other kind. Spanish rice, rice pilaf, brown rice, three different kinds of quinoa, tabbouleh, this thing that looked like the shell of a tiny nut but was apparently a grain, garlic rice, basmati, blah blah blah. No arborio rice. What are the odds? Unsure what to do, I grabbed a small pouch of Carolina long grain white rice. It seemed the most generic offering, and therefore the best substitute.
Secondly, I used garlic salt instead of regular. I am not sorry. Flavor is always the number one priority, and garlic salt just knows what's up.
Also, I do not happen to be at a stage in my life where I own a Dutch oven. Those things are fancy! Does that mean I reject every recipe that asks for one? No! If I can figure out a loophole, I am totally going to go for it. If you don't have a Dutch oven, do not even worry about it. You can still make this risotto and it will turn out just as good. To solve the equipment problem, I started out sautéing the veggies and rice and broth in the largest sauce pan I have, which has a tall lip so I could stir without spillage. Then, when it got to the step where the last two cups of broth are added to the mixture and then the whole thing is popped into the oven, I took a slight detour. After lining a large casserole-style pan with foil, I poured the rice and vegetables from the saucepan on the stove into the casserole pan, added the broth, and popped that into the oven. It took maybe five more minutes in the oven than the recipe described in order to to absorb the liquid properly, accounting for the different dish material, but it still turned out as gorgeous as ever.
The recipe calls for a cup and a half of grated Pecorino. Well, after I added that to the risotto, there was maybe a tablespoon and a half of cheese left in the container. Call me wild, but I just threw that into the risotto as well rather than saving it in the fridge. Life is stressful, why not treat yourself to a little extra cheese?
The entire time, I was incredibly nervous about the rice fluffing properly. Was using the Carolina rice instead of arborio going to be the death of the dish?? As with the last time I made risotto, it took longer for the rice to absorb the liquid and plump up than the recipe suggested. I am not sure if I have a different idea of "absorbed" and "fluffy" than the chefs who write these recipes, but it seems their cooking time and my cooking time do not align. When I think fluffy, I expect a fluff rate that produces fat, creamy rice that globs together in a beautiful, cheesy, sticky mess. I do not think that is asking too much. When I put the rice into the oven, it was still way too skinny. I was very concerned. This happened the last time with risotto though, too.
The whole time I cooked, I listened to 80s music. I have such a soft spot for it. I went to high school in Pennsylvania, but I lived in New Jersey, so getting to school every day was a bit complicated. My Dad would drive me to the bus stop and a bus would pick a bunch of us up and drive us across the bridge into Philly, where we were offloaded at the all-boy school in the city. We hung out there for a while, sitting on the floor of the lobby, chatting, doing homework, studying, occasionally getting reprimanded by the security guard if we talked to any of our guy friends who might happen to walk by. Eventually a shuttle bus would pick us up and take us to our school, in a neighborhood just outside of the city. "Jersey Girls" were notably always late for first period, and we did not get in trouble for it because there was nothing to be done. It was perhaps an unusual experience, but it was fun in its own way. One of the best parts was the first leg, during which my Dad would play 80s on 8 (after an obligatory pop into Bloomsberg radio 🙁). There is nothing like blasting 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Buggles or 'She Blinded Me With Science' by Thomas Dolby at 5:45 in the morning. 80s music is absolutely ridiculous. We would try to guess the songs in the first couple notes, we would fill in the lyrics, and we would dance. Then I would go to school. All this is to say, I have a terrible affliction for 80s music. I love it. I now have a Spotify playlist titled 'My Youth!' filled with songs by Prince, David Bowie, Wang Chung, KISS, the PetShop Boys, and Kajagoogoo (yes, that is a band name). 'The Safety Dance' is a personal favorite. I am fairly certain the risotto tasted better because I was dancing along to those amazing songs while I stirred.
For our little dinner party, Shannon picked a bottle of wine from my Naked Wines case. She went with a Chardonnay from California, from a vintner called Provare. The label uses Italian verb breakdowns to explain that this wine urges people to try new things, and so we did. Shannon added Provare to her wine app she liked it so much. I found the wine to be dry, mild, and an excellent complement to the meal, cutting the cheese in the risotto. I did not like the wine so much as Shannon though. That Brothers Miller bottle from Easter is an exception to the rule - I do not think I am a huge Chardonnay person.
My favorite wine involved in dinner was the Chenin Blanc I poured into the rice, crowing to Shannon, "The rice is getting drunk!" It certainly did, and thanks to absorbing all that wine, the rice wound up nice and fluffy. Risotto is this beautiful dish with an evil twist - it psyches you out, taking forever to achieve greatness so much so that it fills your heart with doubt, and then at the last minute it blossoms into perfection. Better late than never, and it tastes so good it receives forgiveness every time. I ladled the steaming risotto into our bowls, sprinkled basil over top, and nervously waited for Shannon's verdict. Here it is:
Delicious success! It helps that Shannon and I are both passionate about sun-dried tomatoes. The whole thing was amazing though. Perfectly creamy and cheesy, piping hot, with the lovely, briny tomatoes melting into the dish, it was mind blowing. The first thing I did the next morning was transcribe the recipe into the binder I collect all my recipes in. I want to show this off to my family the next time we are all together. I was so so happy Shannon liked it, and I liked it, and we had ourselves an amazing night.
Over the course of our meal and cleaning up the kitchen afterwards, Shannon and I talked about both the lighthearted sides and the more in-depth aspects of romance and friendships and how those things evolve as we ourselves do. After dinner, we wound up watching Drive, with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. That led us to conclude our night discussing Hollywood genres versus book publishing genres, and how America relies on the idea of "The Spectacular" in nearly all ways, Hollywood has so imbued itself in our culture. It turned out to be a very fun Saturday night, with great company and the best meal I have had in all of lockdown.
I hope you are all having some bright moments despite these strange circumstances, and that you are staying sane out there! I am sending you all my love!
XX,
MK
P.S. I am very excited to have gotten the chance to work on a story with Eat, Darling, Eat. Please click the link to read the published article, and collect another pasta recipe while you are at it! https://www.eatdarlingeat.net/post/cooking-through-quarantine
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