Bon Pain

Rice is nice ... most of the time

Hello, babies. Adjusting to the promised land has taken its toll on me. I have not had tofu in ages and I've only listened to Beyonce, like, three times in the past week! Shameful. I hope she doesn't read this. Thanks to Ikea, my room and apartment have now been graced with modern, questionably built, furniture. We would also like to start gardening, providing the landlord puts aside some land for us meager surfs. He should, considering his dog/cat has eaten my yoga pants and napped in my roommate's sheets while they were drying. I digress real hard.

The beautiful Gen(beeb) came to visit me from Tuscany last weekend and it was a real treat. We made dinners, watched Frozen, did a little window shopping, and drank terrible Danish beer. All and all, a solid weekend. One of the nights, I decided to make risotto for my gluten-intolerant companion. In a moment of inspiration, I also decided to make it with red wine in addition to stock. Not gonna lie, I really just had some leftover red wine that was not doing it for me and I figured the power of carbs would magically transform it.

Red Wine Risotto

Ohhhhh, risotto, how may I count the ways in which I adore your simple cooking techniques? As a side note, I made my own veg stock for this recipe. To do so, I took about 6 cups of vegetable bits and ends and added 8 cups of water to the mix. After simmering for 3 hours on med-low, you got yurself some stock. Okay, to begin for real, saute 1 small onion in olive oil until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and toast for about 3 minutes.

Start adding the red wine slowly, stirring the risotto on medium heat pretty regularly. You should probably go through 4-6 cycles of the wine before it has be absorbed. Next, repeat the process with the stock. In between stirring, you may place a top on your pot if you find your rice is not yet tender. When the rice is fully cooked, I strongly suggest adding a large swig of olive oil before seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve with cheese and of course more wine. We also made rice pudding the next day for breakfast and by that time I was just ready for some long-grain, non-starchy goodness. I never thought rice and I would need to take a break.