The Risotto That Changed My Mind (…and How to Make It)

hey guys so i have a question where do you stand on classic italian risotto i always feel like it's one of these dishes that's really really famous everybody knows it but not too many people actually love it except for the lucky few who have had the chance to try the real deal well i just came back from a little summer break where i spent a week in northern italy and i believe i've been converted into a risotto lover i am one of them now guys so in this video i'll show you what the original risotto is all about then we'll try to make it in the traditional style which is infamously tedious so we're also gonna see what types of hacks we can use to make cooking perfect risotto at home a little bit easier but first let me take you to the northern italian region of lombardy guess what pizza pasta tomatoes olive oil all these beautiful italian things are actually home to the more southern parts of the country but northern italy at least traditionally speaking is all about rice and corn actually but that's for another video today we're talking about rizzo so together with my buddy wei xiang who you might remember from the channel we took a little road trip through the beautiful lombard countryside to find a famous local risotteria which as you can see is actually a real thing even though yes even in risotto country these are pretty rare we actually got a bit over excited and tried four different types of results to that day working our way up from easy mode to the most decadent this one is definitely with pistachio you want to try the pistachio first yeah okay let's try pistachio risotto okay let's start with this cheers um actually very good this is very traditional i would say cheesy creamy with a hint of pistachio with a hint of pistachio rice is really chewy the al dente thing they do it well with pasta they do it just as well with rice and now let's do go for cachoe pepe it's just treats and pepper cheese and pepper i thought the first one was cheesy i stand corrected this one is cheesy for some reason this one is really special as well it's not basic at all very unique flavors i'm pretty sure that some really fruity white wine wow okay i think i could eat this like just just add this is hard to beat like how do they do it it's so creamy amazing anyway should we we haven't even gotten to like did those were like the sampling plates and also what happens to us every time we go on a food tour we eat much of the first things you try that's true this right here whoa interesting red wine i think for sure so what you see here is fondue cheese and it works really well yeah you can really see that oh there's a hair yeah it looks i think it's me yeah it looks like yours something very different red wine amazing should we go for the crown jewel let's try the crown jewel that's for you alora are you going for the straight for the meat i think so i think the first bite should be the best bite wait hold on must take close-up this is what i came to italy for risotto milanese delicious bite with veal shank and rice are you ready to try it i am so ready hold on i need to refocus that's just how it goes okay cheers [Music] [Music] he's very good i think saffron and risotto is like a match made in heaven it's fantastic i think it's really delicious i'm not crazy about the bone marrow but the beef shank itself i think is really really tasty all i can honestly say is all four varieties are amazing no exaggeration my mind was completely changed on risotto and somewhat unsurprisingly the key to a great risotto is the texture you want firm individual grains of rice with a good bite but they must be covered in their own starchy sauce that is creamy and luxurious without getting slimy and at the same time this unique mouth feel is being paired with rich buttery cheesy decadent flavors a perfect example and perhaps the most impressive of the for risotti that we tried was the kacho e pepe like most of us i am a big big fan of the original pasta version right it's beauty lies in its simplicity it's pretty much just lots of pecorino cheese and pepper and that's it but this risotto you guys i know you can't really see it but trust me this was by far the cheesiest thing i had ever put in my mouth and it was glorious one thing i didn't even know back then and only found out later it was actually invented by culinary god massimo butura in 2012 after an earthquake hit the region that produces parmesan cheese and then damaged hundreds and hundreds of wheels of this highly treasured cheese and so to save what was left of the cheese massimo butura started like playing around and experimenting and he found this like really cool way of grating parmesan boiling it down and then extracting both a parmesan cream and also an extremely thick and ultra cheesy broth oh and then of course you use those two to make a risotto that basically just becomes the cheese and yeah that's exactly what weishan and i were eating so you know no wonder we were both like and you know i don't want to be disrespectful or anything but if i'm allowed to have one tiny complaint about this it was that that was some intense you kind of want to take a nap after you've had this risotto but inspired by this i had another idea what if we try turning another classic italian pasta dish into a risotto and i shall choose [Music] pasta pesto i don't know can it be done spoiler alert it can be done but first we need to actually learn the basics how do you even make a traditional risotto well let's follow the traditional recipe but let me warn you it's pretty annoying now the og recipe doesn't actually start with rice it starts with heating up some stock i'm using veggie stock here but any type will do cooking the rice in stock rather than water is what gives it its trademark deep umami richness once at a simmer it's usually kept on a low flame next to your risotto pot because we will be adding it gradually to the risotto and it has to be hot for some reason but i will just go ahead and add it to a thermos seriously italy the country of great minds like leonardo da vinci and nobody has thought of putting the hot stock in a thermos before really but now before i overheat here let's talk about rice this is carnaroli rice it is grown in northern italy and considered by many to be the king of risotto rice it has a pretty long and very plump grain and contains just the right type of starch now i just happen to have been in italy so i bought that rice there you can find it online but you know what there are definitely other options we'll get to that later for now let's try sticking to the traditional recipe so i'll be using one cup of carnaroli rice in a medium saucepan i'll melt a knob of butter and also some olive oil i was gonna saute a shallot here but i forgot it's okay it won't affect the final result too much now we're adding the rice and this is a really important step watch saute the dry unwashed rice in the fat until it just begins to get toasty set your flame to medium low pour yourself half a cup of dry white wine cheers to italy but this will of course go into our rice and you want to stir that in immediately it only takes a quick minute or so for the wine to get absorbed and that's when we'll begin adding our hot stock bit by bit stirring at least every 30 seconds and only adding the next batch of stock when everything has been absorbed by the rice and oh you have to use a wooden spoon to do this many italians will actually insist and so this whole spiel will go on for roughly 17 to 20 minutes until you've added about two and a half times the volume of the rice in stock apparently the constant stirring here causes starch to release from the rice and thicken the sauce can you tell why i'm calling the traditional recipe annoying yet the rice should have a good firm bite to it but if the center is still grainy and hard then just go for another minute and repeat this is what my risotto looked like at this stage just a tiny bit soupy but that's actually okay because now we're adding a bit of cold butter from the fridge it's gotta be cold for emulsification and a generous grating of parmesan cheese and now we're stirring everything in vigorously this process will let things blend together and thicken into one homogenous heavenly creamy sauce and honestly all this needed were a few slabs of pepper a little sprinkle of chives and all i had to say was [Music] whoa the texture was perfect the flavor deep and rich so yeah the traditional method of course works but as i enjoying it i was also contemplating a few important questions does it really have to be carnaroli rice do i really have to constantly keep adding new stock and stirring for like 20 minutes and most importantly do i really have to use a wooden spoon well actually a little bit surprisingly the answer is a half a yes to the wooden spoon and a clear no to the rest let's start again and first discuss the rice conundrum you see rice is mostly made up of starch but if you break that down even further there are two different main types of starch in rice amylose and amylopectin because of their molecular structure these two behave quite differently when they're cooked and that actually explains why different types of rice which all have different ratios between amylose and amylopectin will have different textures most long-grain rice like basmati for example is fairly high in amylose which makes it fluffy and crumbly after cooking that is pretty cool but a no-go for risotto because we need creaminess and that brings us to the other end of the spectrum short or round grain rice which is usually low in amylose and therefore tends to be creamy and sticky after cooking remember that perfect carnaroli rice well it actually happens to be more on the short grain spectrum even though it has a fairly long grain but then also the ratio of amylase and amylopectin is just right and that's what gives you this perfect risotto but you know what and i know i'm gonna make a lot of italians mad with this but this is definitely not the only type of rice that can give you good risotto so i did quite a bit of testing and i found that pretty much most regular short grain or sushi rice will get you at least 90 percent of the way to perfection and you know even those last 10 percent i got a trick up my sleeve for those so my preferred and much much simpler method begins with a skillet ideally a non-stick skillet they work beautifully for this add some olive oil no need for butter we're gonna add enough later and this time i will not forget to add a finely minced shallot which i like to saute until nice and caramelized now i'm gonna add one measure that's one cup in my case of generic brand short grain rice and doing the whole toasting thing this step is really important it keeps the risotto from getting soupy then add half a measure of white wine and stir that in just like you would in the traditional method except that now we're gonna completely go off the rails and add one full measure of stock give everything just one very quick stir then cover the rice with a lid the lid is very important and then turn the heat down to low and let the rice steam about 18 minutes later you should have perfectly cooked plump grains reminiscent of rice pilaf or something like that if they're not cooked through yet add a splash of stock and steam for another two minutes now this is obviously not a risotto yet right it needs to be a lot more creamy which means we need to add more liquid and we're going to take care of that now the thing is if we had added more stock in the beginning we'd just end up with a slimy mess but if we simply add more stock now the sauce would get way too soupy because there's just not enough uncooked starch left to thicken the sauce up unless we add it in so in the food lab by kenji lopez there's a pretty cool article on rosado in there and he suggests actually washing the dry untoasted rice in the stock that you're gonna be using for the cooking the surface starch from the rice gets into the stock and you get like a self-thickening liquid i love the idea i've tried it and it works but to be 100 honest i'm a little bit too lazy and i think that's just one step too much instead here's another idea how about you hit your asian grocery store you might be familiar with asian sticky rice also called glutinous rice and guess what it happens to have virtually no amylose which makes it quite similar to risotto rice and you can simply pick up a bag of conveniently pre-ground sticky rice flour this is totally my secret ingredient for making risotto simply add one teaspoon of it to another full cup of stock and whisk it in oh and between us while that sticky rice flour is perfect you can totally use any other type of starch now add the starchy broth to the rice and bring to a simmer on medium-low you should see it thicken pretty much right away now finish with a good knob of butter and parmesan so at least the beginning and end of this process are reminiscent of the traditional way and oh let's get back to the wooden spoon here i actually do recommend using a wooden spoon most other tools would either be too sharp or too hard and you would smush the rice and out of all the weird old school tips the wooden spoon is indeed the one i'm gonna pass on to you now you can't tell me that does not look like the creamy risotto of your dreams i fixed myself another tiny sample and let me tell you to me this is every bit as good as the original but don't forget we just learned all of that technique because we are actually on a mission right to create a pasta pesto inspired risotto and we're getting close all that's missing is the pesto so let's clarify this plant of basil might be a hint we're aiming for something reminiscent of the classic pesto genovese but keep in mind that pesto is a category and there are a million different varieties so you're gonna need a lot of basil leaves around 50 grams and here's why when you scrunch them up you can see how little that actually is in terms of volume but fyi this scrunching is actually a heck to bruise the leaves which will help with flavor extraction speaking of which i know a lot of people insist that only a mortar and pestle can be used to make a good pesto which i will respectfully disagree with bruising the leaves and using any type of food processor is completely fine with me but that's just my opinion now i'm also going to be adding a few toasted pine nuts for texture and flavor a small clove of garlic a few cracks of pepper and one freshly shaved piece of lemon zest which is a game changer for this pesto now just a little splash of both olive oil and optionally some of our stock just to help the food processor along and here we go blend until somewhat smooth don't overdo it and you should get a pesto that is pretty good but also a little bit underwhelming but why you might be asking well it's the salt my dudes or the absence of it and guess why i didn't add any because this is not a standalone pesto but in addition to our risotto which is already plenty salty so same goes for the parmesan cheese it's already in there but now the biggest weakness of any risotto is always its appearance sorry not sorry but it's the truth green color definitely helps here but even though i am the worst at plating i think we can do better let's finish this with a fresh grating of parmesan cheese three charred cherry tomatoes and a handful of pine nuts signori aragatzi this is my take on the classic italian risotto it's fresh it's lemony and yet it's ultra rich and creamy i really hope you give this one a try and maybe just maybe you as well can become a risotto convert

Channel: My Name Is Andong

Views: 217,873

Rating: 4.9095235 out of 5

Keywords: My Name Is Andong, andong, lear nine tiny, risotto, risotto recipe, italian risotto, how to make risotto, how to make risotto at home, easy risotto, easy risotto recipe, risotto milanese, risotto milanese recipe, perfect risotto, homemade risotto, basic risotto, arancini recipe, risotto ball recipe, how to make arancini, butternut squash risotto, how to make risotto cakes, andong risotto, classic italian recipe, italian recipe, italian food tour, risotteria, babish risotto

Id: YgB_DWfESYg

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2020