Risotto – First Attempt

All things blog have been quiet recently and I’d like to say it’s because I started gym, or palates or something equally “productive”.  But alas, it is due to a recently rekindled love for Sims3…  What can I say?  I’m addicted – I even dream in “Sim” related ways sometimes…

Other than that I often watch TV to relax after a hectic day.  I have also rekindled a love for cooking and have been watching the cooking channel a lot on DSTV.  Who better to teach you to cook than Jamie Oliver, now I know he wasn’t in the room but he guided me with his recipe on the internet.  I tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible, but I had to make a few changes.  This was mostly because I was lazy so I used the measurements at the back of the Risotto Rice bag (Tastic) thus this is not a totes Jamie only production, I’ll give him the credit and say that this is probs why I didn’t properly enjoy it.

* I used Zesty White Wine from Woolies, it was nice, but I totes didn’t realise how much of the flavour of the wine stayed behind.  I think I would use slightly less, maybe only 1 and 3/4 cups.

* On the Parmasan front I only had Parmezano or something which is the dairy free alternative…  This was only 60g of the amount needed so I topped up with grated Tussers cheese…  Like 3/4 of a block…  I love cheese and thought that you can never have too much cheese…  Boy was I wrong…  It was WAY too much cheese!!!

* I’m not sure if my version of “finely chop” are the same as Jamie’s but I liked a little bit of the crunch of the celery.

*  Although he actually says (quite explicitly) that you shouldn’t use button mushrooms for a mushroom risotto, I didn’t listen – again because of supply problems.  I thought it worked though…

So that’s that – the final product was too cheesy but other than that great.  Though I still don’t quite see what the awesomeness is about?