Cooking with Dad: Creamy Risotto

Being back home for winter break was wonderful; I missed my family so much during the previous semester. Since my dad is such a wonderful chef, I took the opportunity to learn a few new recipes while I was back. This dish requires frequent attention to create, but is well worth it! The recipe I'm posting is enough to serve several people, so you may want to halve it.

You will need:
*olive oil
*1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
*2 shallots
*2 cups of risotto
*7-8 cups of vegetable broth
*1/4 to 1/2 cup of white wine
*1/2 cup of freshly-grated parmesan cheese

For the vegetable broth, we used a Better Than Bouillon vegetarian base (there are several that you could choose from) and followed the instructions for how much boiling water to add to dilute it properly. Put your vegetable broth in a pot to warm on the stove. You will be using it slowly throughout this process.

The Vegetarian Broth

Next add the butter and some olive oil to a shallow but wide pan.

Getting the Pan Ready to Begin Cooking Risotto


While those are heating up, finely dice two shallots and then add them to the shallow pan containing the butter. Mixing frequently, heat the shallots until they become nearly transparent.

Shallots Smell Amazing!

Cook these until they become nearly transparent

After the shallots are done, add the risotto. Stir and mix in well. Next, add between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of white wine. (The kind we used was an Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio.) Continue stirring constantly until the moisture is almost gone from the dish. Then you'll want to add enough of the vegetable broth to just cover the risotto.

Stir Until the Moisture Is Nearly Gone

Then Add Some Broth

Once the moisture from the broth is nearly gone, you will want to repeat the process of adding more to cover the risotto. This process should take about 45 minutes; you will need to be stirring constantly during this time. Once it becomes difficult for the risotto to keep absorbing more broth, you are done! This should happen after using about 7 or 8 cups of the broth.

Finally, stir the parmesan into the risotto. You are done and it is ready to serve!

Lots of Freshly-Grated Cheese!

Note: If this dish is too rich for you, you could dilute the broth more than specified and/or use less parmesan cheese. Try serving with green beans or other veggies on the side!

Homemade Ravioli

My first try making homemade ravioli. It turned out really well!

Filled with cheese, mushrooms, and spinach.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I felt like trying something totally new today, and it had to be coffee cake after seeing this recipe from Joy of Baking: Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Since I couldn't find blackberries at the farmer's market today, I used raspberries in their place and it was really good!

Four-Cheese Lasagna

I used a 10.5 x 14.5 x 2 inches rectangular baking dish, but this recipe would work well reduced if you have a smaller dish.


For the first time ever, I put all my ingredients together before I started cooking!

The Recipe:
64 Ounces of Pasta Sauce
14 - 16 Uncooked Lasagna Noodles
2 - 3 Baby Bella Mushrooms, Thinly Sliced
30 Ounces of Ricotta Cheese
4 Tablespoons of Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tablespoons of Shredded Romano Cheese
16 Ounces of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tablespoons of Fresh, Chopped Spinach
1.5 Tablespoons of Fresh, Chopped Basil
4 Tablespoons of dried Parsley Flakes (or 1/2 Cup of Fresh, Chopped Parsley)
1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
Fake Ground Beef (optional; I used Quorn brand grounds)


This was my first time experimenting with fake ground beef. I used a little over 1/3 of this package.


This first step is to fill the bottom of your baking dish with 2 & 2/3 cups of the pasta sauce. Spread the sauce evenly over the bottom.


Top with 7-8 noodles, making sure to press the lasagna into the sauce.


The next step is to made the cheese mixture. Combine all the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, parsley, basil, spinach, and garlic powder in a bowl. Mix well.


Spread only half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. This part is a bit difficult to do without messing up the noodles because the mixture is thick. Try to cover every bit of the noodles though and spread evenly.


The ground fake meat came out in a big lump. It doesn't need to be cooked first, only broken up into smaller crumbles.


I didn't know if I would like it or not (and you may not either) so I only spread it over half the dish.


Cover evenly with half the mozzarella cheese.


Now add another 2 & 2/3 cups of pasta sauce over the mozzarella cheese. Top with the sliced mushrooms.


Add another 7-8 uncooked lasagna noodles, again making sure to press the noodles into the sauce.


Find the other half of your ricotta cheese mixture (I mixed two batches separately)


and spread over the noodles like last time.


Add the rest of the pasta sauces (another 2 & 2/3 cups of sauce) over the cheese mixture.


Top with the rest of the mozzarella cheese.


Heat uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350˚. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting.


I ended up thinking that the fake ground beef was a great addition to the recipe although I really liked both sides. Since Romano cheese doesn't melt the same way mozzarella does, it gave the cheese-only side a chewier texture than traditional lasagna that completely made up for the lack of fake meat. I actually thought this tasted even better the next day. It made great leftovers for the week!

Goat Cheese Sandwich (Really, really good)

When I went to NYC with my mom last month, we found a wonderful cafe near our hotel. I was so good that we went back three times. She shared a sandwich with me the night we arrived that I loved so much, I've been wanting to recreate it since I got back. Tonight I finally did! This is really a perfect college student sandwich: easy, quick, and requires no cooking.

Ingredients:
*Goat Cheese
*Sun-Dried Tomatoes
*Baby Spring Mix (or your favorite mix of greens)
*French Baguette


The artisan bread at Target was perfect for this sandwich if you don't want to make your own (and I didn't)


The organic baby spring mix was so much better than I expected. I didn't want to spend extra on pre-washed, pre-cut lettuce, but there's so much variety (about 15 ingredients) and so delicious.


Spread the goat cheese on the bread, cut up the sun-dried tomatoes, add the greens, and it's done!

Blueberry-Banana Bread

After reading the blueberry banana bread recipe at Fat-Free Vegan (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/06/blueberry-banana-bread.html) I had to try it. I didn't have any rotten bananas, so the difficult part was buying delicious bananas and waiting for them to start getting rotten (but not too rotten, of course!) I also didn't have any vanilla soy milk or agave nectar on hand, but I usually have plenty of blueberries around.



The recipe:
3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries (make sure you remove all the stems and mushy berries)

The first part is to add half of the lemon juice to the vanilla soy milk and wait until it curdles. Actually that sounded a bit gross as I had no idea soy milk could curdle. I'm not even sure I did it correctly (and the first time, I just added all of the lemon juice by accident) but it turned out well so I'm not sure how much it matters!


What my possibly curdled soy milk looked like

Next, I put my three browning bananas in a large bowl and mushed them as well as I could. The first time I tried this recipe, I didn't mash them before adding the other ingredients and I was never really able to reduce the chunkiness of the bananas. (I ended up getting out my hand mixer and making a big mess)


After learning my banana-mushing lesson! (Mashed bananas)
Trying a Recipe I Found at Fat-Free Vegan!


I didn't feel like mixing the wet and dry ingredients in a separate bowl and making a big mess, so I threw everything in together and mixed well.


I did the wet ingredients first


Then the dry ingredients, and finally the blueberries to fold in

Before pouring the batter into the loaf pan, I coated it with olive oil and then flour.

Ready for the oven!

Preheat oven to 350˚ and cook for 55 minutes. Turn down to 250˚ and cook for another 10 minutes.

The bread came out with no problem!

So far, I have made this twice (which used up all of my agave nectar!), but next time I'll see if chopped strawberries might be an improvement over the blueberries.

New York-Style Cheesecake

Yes really, I am updating this blog! I've been doing a lot of baking for Mother's Day weekend, but his is the first time I've ever made cheesecake. With flour-covered fingers, I photographed the process to make it easier to follow. There are two parts: the crust and the filling. Let's start with the crust because it needs to chill before the filling is added. Note: several hours before starting, I left three packages of 8 ounce regular cream cheese (I have a friend that swears by the Philadelphia brand) and one stick of unsalted butter out to soften.

You may want to melt the unsalted butter if it isn't soft enough. I put mine in the microwave for about 15 seconds to save myself some difficulty of mixing it in. Other than that, the crust is extremely easy to prepare and only consists of three ingredients: 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar, and your one stick of unsalted butter. Wisk the dry ingredients together, then add your melted butter.


Before melting the butter


and after!



That's it! The crust is done! Refrigerate to allow butter to cool while preparing the filling. Using your mixing bowl, empty the three packages (or somehow your 24 ounces of cream cheese), then add one tablespoon of all-purpose flour and one cup of granulated sugar.


These are three squishy sticks of cheese with no sugar or flour yet

I used my stand mixer again but this time with the wire wisk. My fear was that everything would get stuck inside the wisk and be a horrible disaster.



That is exactly what happened (at first)! It worked out wonderfully though, because as the stand mixer worked its culinary magic, it softened nicely and became very fluffy.



Next add one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and one tablespoon of heavy whipping cream. I just happened to have the cream handy from making so much homemade vanilla ice cream for the kids this semester. It's great to have another use for that stuff!

The next step is to beat in four whole eggs, one a time, until fully incorporated. If using an electric mixer, I'd suggest mixing for about 30 seconds each. Afterward, the mixture became very liquidy.



Pour the filling into your chilled crust and preheat your oven to 350˚



Bake at 350˚ for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 250˚ and continue baking for an additional 60 to 70 minutes. When it is done, the center will be wiggly but the edges should be firm.



Allow to cool at room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Since I didn't allow mine to cool first, or remove my cake from the spring form pan side before putting it in the fridge, there is a good chance it will crack (the dreaded cheesecake dilemma) but I'll keep you updated on the taste when it's ready tomorrow!

Update: The cheesecake is perfect! It didn't crack at all and tastes completely delicious, although I would want to try a more exciting flavor next time.


Perfect!


Maybe raspberry cheesecake next?