(Italian instrumental music) - This is the green one
that my brother has made especially for you. - This is pesto, this is risotto, and this is a seafood risotto. - Hey, what's up guys, welcome
back to Binging with Babish, where this week we're taking a look at the risotto tricolore from Big Nights. But wait a minute, we have
some sloppy Joe ingredients here in front of us. This must mean that I forgot to record my walk-on
for this week's episode. So this is a preview
of next week's episode, sloppy joes from Billy Madison, a totally on-purpose preview. Ah, there we go. Here are all the ingredients
for a basic risotto, a little bit of butter,
a little bit of onion, some garlic, Arborio rice,
wine, stock, more butter and olive oil, salt, pepper,
and a whole lot of cheese. Now to make these three
different kinds of risotto, we're going to have to make
three different stocks. First up, a seafood stock
for the red risotto. I've got about a pound
of prawn shells here that my toss is a little bit of olive oil and roast in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 10 minutes
or until nice and red. Meanwhile, in a large
stock pot, we are sauteing some carrots, celery, and onions in a bit of olive oil
until lightly browned. At which point, I'm going to add a whole lot of tomato paste. This is primarily where
the risotto is going to get its red color. Saute that for a minute and
de glaze with a bit of wine and cover with like two quarts of water. Then, out come our prawn
shells that we're going to dump in there along with some parsley
for a nice parsley flavor, a whole head of garlic,
cloves cut in half, a generous sprinkling
of whole peppercorns, and a pair of Bay leaves. Bring the whole thing to a bare simmer and let it go for at least 45
minutes, tasting to make sure that it is seafoody,
straining, and setting aside. Additionally, we're going
to make a chicken stock and a vegetable stock. We've covered this
extensively on the show, so I'm just going to skip through that and instead show you how I'm
going to make a lobster butter to amp up the seafood
flavor in our red risotto. I'm going to start by steaming
and immediately chilling two medium lobster tails, which I'm going to shell and devein. Hang onto those shells. But first, we'll deal with the meat. I'm going to chop the meat
up into manageable pieces and then puree and set aside. Then, we're grabbing our lobster shells and chopping them up into little bits and bringing them over to the stove top, where I've got one stick or
just over a hundred grams of unsalted butter melting
in a double boiler. We're gonna add the lobster to that and gently cook for about 10 minutes before removing from
the heat and straining through cheese cloth
or a clean dish towel, making sure to squeeze
out all that lobster, buttery goodness in a painful process that is both sharp and hot. Now I've got our butter chilling over ice. And once it's cooled off a bit,
we're going to add a couple of tablespoons of our cooked lobster meat. And there you have it, lobster butter. Set that aside in the
fridge because we need to make a pesto for our green risotto. In the bowl of the food
processor goes about one cup of packed, basil leaves, two
or three cloves of garlic, maybe three tablespoons worth of toasted and cooled pine nuts, and
a generous quarter cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, a big pinch of kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper. And then, we need to add extra
virgin olive oil to taste. I want this to be a
relatively fluid pesto, but not too liquidy. Start small and add more as needed. I probably about a quarter cup. Give it a taste for seasoning. And then, we're ready to start
making risotto in earnest. Since we're making three
different kinds of risotto, I thought that this would
be a nice opportunity to try a few shortcuts
I found on the internet. Don't worry Italians, the legit version is coming at the end. First, the oven method. We're sauteing half a large onion in a high walled Dutch
oven using two tablespoons of butter and sweating
for about three minutes until translucent,
adding two crushed cloves of garlic and sauteing
for about 30 seconds before adding our rice,
one cup of Arborio rice, sauteing that along with the
onions for about three minutes, until the edges of the grains
of rice become translucent, like little ice cubes. Then, we're adding about a
half a cup of dry white wine and cooking until it's mostly
evaporated about five minutes. Now, this is the point
where normally you'd start to slowly ladle in you're
stock, one little bit at a time. But for the oven method, all in one go, we're going to add three and a half cups of hot chicken stock, covering and placing in a preheated 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 20 minutes until
the liquid is absorbed and the rice is fully cooked. Now, I haven't yet added
any cheese or butter or any of the risotto finishing moves, but this one came out gross. The rice was broken and
overcooked and mushy and a little dry and no amount of stock, cheese, or butter could save it. Now, I know that
traditional risotto can be an intimidating dish and
it's very tempting to try to find hands-off shortcuts,
but this ain't it. One method that does
work a little better is using a pressure cooker. It's essentially the
exact same method right up until the point where you add the liquid. Instead of stirring constantly
or plopping in the oven, we are pouring in our three
and a half cups of stock. Trying to get the lid on
our pressure cooker here. How do we do this? Here we go. Come on Andy, people are watching it. There we go. Fastening the lid and cooking under high pressure for four minutes. Manually releasing the pressure using the very scary pressure valve, taking off the lid, and
stirring vigorously. It's going to start out
by looking kind of soupy, but as you stir, it's
going to come together, especially once we add the
requisite half cup Parmesan, tablespoon of butter,
tablespoon of olive oil, and since this is our
green risotto, our pesto. And while it's definitely not
as good as the real thing, this creates a much more passable risotto. It's nice and creamy, and
the rice is not over cooked. That being said, nothing
really quite compares with the real thing. So, for our seafood risotto, we're starting out very much the same way. Sauteing our onion in
butter and olive oil, crushing in a clove of garlic
and sauteing for 30 seconds. Adding the rice sauteing
for three minutes. Adding a half cup of white
wine, letting it cook off. And then, slowly starting
to add our stock, two or three ladlefuls to start, but then after that,
one ladleful at a time. Whenever you scrape your spoon
across the bottom of the pot and you can leave a trail,
throw in a ladleful of stock, keeping the whole thing
at a very gentle simmer over a medium low heat,
rinsing and repeating for 15 to 20 minutes
until the rice is cooked to a beautiful al dente. Then, we're killing the heat,
adding about a half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese,
salt and pepper to taste, and then normally, we'd add a tablespoon or two each butter and olive oil. But in this case, we're
gonna use our lobster butter, a generous three tablespoons worth for extra lobstery goodness. And then for Venetian bonus points, you can toss it in the air like this, which apparently aerates
the sauce a little bit and makes it even creamier. Give it a taste for seasoning. It's really, really good. It hits, as my buddy Sean Evans would say, and with that little name
drop, we're ready to serve. Now in the movie, the three
risottos were spread out on a large platter to
resemble the Italian flag. So I'm gonna lay down
three sort of large strips of our tri-color risotto,
which I will be the first to admit it doesn't look quite right. These all tastes very
nice, but as I mentioned the textures are a mixed bag
and the color just ain't there. Everything's too pale and
the white is too Brown. Especially given that this is a film about real Italian chefs,
I think the only way to make it is the real Italian way. This time with a redder seafood stock, vegetable stock unchanged,
and a chicken stock made clear by not roasting anything beforehand. And hopefully, making three
of these at one time is going to prove to you that it's not that hard to make risotto the traditional way. You definitely don't need
to toss it like this, but as long as you keep an eye on it, stir it frequently, and
add the stock slowly, you're gonna end up with a creamy, luxuriant, flavorful risotto. Just make sure you finish up
with lots of butter and cheese, salt and pepper taste, and
plate up like an Italian flag. And yes, I will be the first to admit this looks more like an Irish flag. So, um, happy St. Patty's Day, I guess. It's not for a few months, but it's never too early to get started and dig in. And all three of these guys
are absolutely fantastic. So thanks luck of the Irish. (mellow music)
Well, as always, some awesome “HOLY SHIT THAT’S GOOD” dance moves!
And the 6 burner finale was badass!
That absolute badass flex with six pans at the same time was pure hype.
I mean its great and all but it needs a side of pasta or maybe mashed potatoes.
Also Big Night is one of my favourite movies. There is a restaurant in my neighbourhood that does one once or twice a year.
Edit: Here is the clip I'm referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWy9Wp_RWY
Once, in Kalamazoo, MI, a restaurant named Bravo! had a movie night - we went to a local theater and watched 'Big Night', and then, we all went back to the restaurant and enjoyed the entire spread from the film. It was glorious, and Louis Prima missed out.
As an aside, my mother and I made TWO Timpanos one year for Christmas - one had a wine-based sauce, and the other didn't - tons of work, glorious result.
*raises gun*
*lowers gun*
I want to stir up some competition and say that Sohla could do the same using only one pot ahah
I hope that “luck of the Irish” at the end was a tease, I’d love to see Babish tackle some Disney channel movies!
I was inspired by the basics episode to make risotto over the summer and it's really not that hard, and so fun to make. Your arm will get tired but it's so worth it.
if next week's episode doesn't start with a walk on for risotto then the imbalance in the universe will literally kill me.