Arthur in the Kitchen: Squash Risotto

Squash Risotto

I Love risotto. It is simple to make – for me, and I do not understand why chefs try to make it seem so difficult or out of reach. I use regular long grain rice and I have no problem with the rice releasing enough starch to make a creamy risotto.

These are my easy steps to make a creamy risotto with zucchini.

Ingredients:

3.5 cups boiling broth – I used vegetable stock made from bouillon cubes.

2 cups rice

1/2 a large onion – roughly chopped

A few cloves of garlic – roughly chopped

salt/ pepper

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1) Cover the bottom of the pan (I use a Dutch oven) in olive oil and place it on the stove on medium high heat. Add the onion and stir to coat with oil. Continue to move the onion around so it does not burn or stick to the pan. Once the onion is soft and translucent add the garlic and stir until well coated with oil.

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2) Add the rice and stir to coat with oil.

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3) Continue stirring the rice to coat with the oil. I threw in a bay leaf for flavor.

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4) When the rice has become translucent, turn the heat to medium and stir in half of the heated stock.

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5) Continue to stir. Once the stock has been adsorbed, add the squash, and the remainder of the stock.

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6) Stir constantly until the stock is absorbed.

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7) The rice should begin to thicken and the squash should have softened.

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8) My last step, once the remainder of the stock has been absorbed and the squash is cooked, is to add 1 cup of hot water. Continue to stir.

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9) Once the water is absorbed the starch in the rice should have been released and created a creamy risotto. Salt and pepper to taste.

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And with grilled corn and homemade buttermilk biscuits…its dinner!

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You can add any vegetables you wish. Broccoli would be nice, as well as, cauliflower, too!
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More fall bloomers and SPARKcon

The colchicums are blooming! They are wonderful Fall bloomers that remind me of a giant Fall blooming crocus. After they bloom they grow wide, thick leaves which die back in the spring.

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The hurricane lilies (lycoris) continue to bloom. After they bloom the foliage grows and persist through out the winter then dies in the spring.

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And the garden in general is very lush because of a wetter than normal summer.

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Of course, it’s best to begin the morning with an heavenly iced double mocha latte at Cup A Joe! Um, what does she have hand?

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This weekend is SPARKcon in Raleigh which is an celebration of all the arts. There are sub-festivals such as musicSPARK, fashionSPARK, danceSPARK, etc- all named after the respective class of art.

Last night was circusSPARK. Fayetteville Street was closed and circus-type performers were doing their thing. The cooler weather was perfect! http://www.sparkcon.com/

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Fall is just around the corner!

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Weekends….and Four-O-Clocks.

Weekend mornings at the coffee shop are busy with older adults which is in marked contrast to weekdays. The NCSU college students are all still sleeping.

The adults are discussing sports, politics, and trying to boast about the accomplishments of their children. Its funny… but I digress.

I like to people watch and catch up with those I only see there on such mornings and, of course, enjoy my iced mocha latte. I have always found the older adult’s viewpoint interesting for their different and varying experiences. The retired professors, especially, seemed opinionated.

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Its that time of the year when seeds are ripening in the garden and its time to collect and store them for next year or plant them around the garden.

The Four-o-clocks reliably produce small, black, hard seeds which germinate easily. Its early enough in the season they may germinate and produce a nice plant to survive over the winter. Otherwise, they would drop near the parent plant and produce large colonies.

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Four-o-Clocks are named after their habit of opening late in the evening and closing the next morning. They come in a range of colors from white, to hot pink, and pastel shades. There are a few species with long trumpets or fuzzy leaves.

Here in Central North Carolina they are perennial.

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They are very easy to grow and relatively pest free. I remember my grandmother in Beaufort, North Carolina always having a patch of them on the side of her house.

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Filed under General Gardening, Plants