Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Improvised Beef Risotto

I made something reminiscent of a risotto today and it wasn't half bad. Initially I was asked to cube a block of beef that was defrosting in the sink, and make broth with it. I did that, but there was still a lot of meat left. Today is my day off (HA!) and instead of being a lazy blob as usual, I decided to have some fun in the kitchen. Plus I was hungry for something not made by my mom. She's a good cook and all, but everything she makes is too...simple for me, I guess.

So I made two ~5'' x 5'' x .5'' slices of meat. Then I cubed those into cute little pieces. I found a half of an onion in the fridge and chopped that up. Sautee in process



I wanted to make mashed potatoes with sauteed beef and onions. Halfway through the sauteing process I realized that I only have Russet potatoes, and I like my mashers made from Yukon Gold. While I was making that realization, my meat was almost ready.





So I looked in the fridge for some options and found 2 ribs of celery, a medium-sized carrot and half a large tomato. More chopping was done. Celery went in first. Carrots went in 5 minutes later. Tomatoes got the latest start, about 15 minutes after the carrots.
I still wasn't sure what I would be doing with all of this aromatic stuff. I looked around my pantry and found my answer. Rice! And not just any rice, I had my eye on Basmati rice. While that was cooking, I threw in some sweet green peas, dry oregano, salt and pepper in the mix to simmer on very low.

After about 20 minutes my rice was ready for its final destination. Coincidentally, my broth was finished at that time too. So the rice went in to lay with the veggies and meat.
And I mixed about 1.5 cups of broth with half a spoon of tomato paste. This broth mixture and some paprika went in to moisten and add more flavor to the final product, which looked like this
 The End.

3 comments:

  1. i think peas is a little too much? how would that dish be without sweet peas?

    ReplyDelete
  2. of cause every cook is his own artist

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peas and carrots added sweetness, a nice contrast to paprika and pepper.

    ReplyDelete

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