It has been quite some time since we last had rice. So today’s plan was to make risotto. Risotto is a northern Italian dish. It’s a rice dish with a creamy consistency. I like to watch cooking shows and every time someone is making risotto, they say it is a difficult dish to make. It is said that it takes a lot of time, quite some skills and it does not always turn out well. Let’s see how much skills we have and make this risotto with prosciutto and mint.
Ingredients for 4:
- 350 g of rice
- 2 medium red onions
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 125 g of prosciutto
- 1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
- 50 g butter
- cheese
- mint leaves
- salt and pepper
How to make it:
Start preparing everything you are going to need. Chop the onions and garlic. Cut the prosciutto into small pieces. No matter if you have slices; just make smaller pieces, or if you already have it in cubes it will work well too. Prepare the chicken stock or vegetable stock (onion, celery, carrot, parsley, ripe tomato). Whichever you prefer or is easier for you. Maybe you already have one in your freezer. Now would be a good time to use it. Heat the stock up and keep it very hot.
In a large pan preheat some oil. Add the onions, garlic and prosciutto. Cook them until they get glossy and a little transparent. Then add the rice. You have to stir so that all the rice grains get to the same temperature. You will notice the colour change and the rice will also become shiny. But don’t let it burn. Brown colour means burned rice.
Now, the chefs say you should deglaze the rice with some wine. I skipped that step. I went straight to the stock. First add enough stock to cover the rice. Add some salt and give it a minimum stir. The chefs also say keep to a minimum stir. But I think you should stir every time you add the stock. When the stock has evaporated, add a little more of it (half of what you added the first time). Give it a little stir again. Continue like that until the rice is cooked. It should take about 15-20 minutes.
Then remove the pan from the stove and leave it for a couple of minutes. After that add the cold butter and cheese and stir well. Normally parmesan cheese is used, but you can also use some other cheese. Just pick some cheese that melts well.
Risotto is done! In conclusion, I can say that we have skills. Serve the risotto with prosciutto with some mint leaves on top. Also a yoghurt-mint sauce goes great with it.
Enjoy!
