Mashed Potatoes

My mother expresses love in many ways, but two are a bit more involved in terms of production.

Christmas bounty

First, she gives gifts.  Every year, my sister and I listen to solemn warnings that this year Christmas won't be as present-oriented as it was in previous years.  This is fine with my sister and me because we are not spoiled brats and because a white Christmas in Maine with the whole family is more than enough.  Especially when pies and flan are wedged into two separate refrigerators while the desserts that do not quite fit line the steps in the garage, and your grandmother buys a two liter bottle of Bailey's for the next seven days.  Nevertheless, when Christmas Day comes, presents still blanket the floor beneath the tree and my mother listens to our protests with a kind of giddy mischievousness.

the heroic banana cream pie-cutting effort

Second, my mother expresses her love through food whether it is via a sympathetic text ("Poor baby. Eat some chocolate." eventually followed by, "Better yet, go for a run") or through every candle-lit dinner we have as a family.

This past December, my mother managed to combine these two tendencies perfectly: she gave me the present of a potato masher with which I could now make my own comfort meals! And it is ergonomically designed for ease-of-mashing.

Score.

Previously, I mashed potatoes and the occasional tomato with slotted spoon and a regular spoon.  It did not work very well.  Not counting the mashing effort however, making mashed potatoes is surprisingly easy and obviously tasty.  And you can make fried potato pancakes with the leftovers!

Mashed Potatoes

from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

3 russet potatoes
1/2 cup potato-cooking water
4 tbs olive oil
salt

Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into medium-sized pieces.  Cook them in the boiling water for about 15 minutes, or until the insides of the potatoes are dry and flakey, but tender.
Drain the potatoes and set them aside to cool.
In the same pot, heat the oil and potato-cooking water.  Add the potatoes to the pot and mash everything together.  Add as much salt as you want and eat.
Substituting milk for the potato-cooking water and butter for the olive oil will make the potatoes creamier.

boiled and drained

potato pancakes!

***

Right now I am going through a French pop music phase, mostly because my French teacher keeps introducing the class to new songs and I keep buying them.  My current favorite is Zaz's 'Je Veux':

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Mashed Potatoes." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 319. Print.

Soda Bread

I am on a bread stint.  Maybe it is because the soul-crippling doubt of junior year is setting in and I crave comfort food, or maybe it is because I lived off of soup for two weeks and now I need something solid.  So I cracked open a few cook books and started to salivate.  I opted to make soda bread because I was only missing one ingredient (the buttermilk), I had two hours free before work, and I did not have any soda bread at O'Flaherty's two weeks ago.

It turns out that soda bread is the official bread of Ireland, but it is also present in Australian, British, and Serbian traditions.  And making it requires so little effort.  Just mix all the ingredients together and stick them in the oven.  When the baking soda mixes with the acidic buttermilk, a chemical reaction occurs and creates little air bubbles so you don't have to wait for the dough to rise!

There are so many varieties of soda bread, and this recipe is about as simple as it gets.  That is why I like Alice Waters' recipes - they provide the perfect structure to show you the basics of the food so you can be creative and inventive later.  Next time I make this bread, I will probably use whole wheat flour and incorporate nuts and currants.  With this version, I recommend toasting slices of bread and drizzling honey on it for a scrumptious snack.  Nothing is better than homemade bread.

Soda Bread

from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda) in a large bowl.
Make a well with the dry ingredients and pour in about 3/4 of the buttermilk (or 1 1/2 cups).
Stir, slowly encorporating the dry ingredients.  The dough should be soft but not sticky or wet.  If needed, add more buttermilk.  I used about 1 7/8 cup before the dough became unbelievably sticky and I had to add more flour.
Knead the dough on a floured surface just until it comes together.  Do not over mix though because then you'll pound out the air bubbles and your bread will be denser.  Pat it into a round loaf that is about 1 1/2 inches high.
Put the dough on your baking sheet of choice and cut a deep X in the top.  Make sure to cut deeply and all the way to the edges, as this will help the bread rise uniformly.
Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees F.  Then lower the temperature to 400 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes, or until done.  Check the bread's readiness by tapping on the bottom.  If it sounds hollow, it's done.

***

This song was not actually written by an Irishman, but I love it anyway.  Someday soon I'll traipse my way through the Irish countryside.  Steven Earle's 'Galway Girl':

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Soda Bread." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 274. Print.

Roasted Sliced Cauliflower

There are so many things you can buy for less than a dollar per pound: carrots, potatoes, rice, lentils, bananas, oats, eggs, kale, beans.  If you're willing to shell out an extra quarter per pound, the possibilities are endless: apples, milk, tofu, coffee, almost any in-season vegetable, squash...  These are my options for dinner tonight because I just bought a song for 99¢, which brings my savings account to a stunning $2.78 for the next 11 days.  Twenty-five cents per day?  Challenge accepted.

My current solution is to buy a single head of cauliflower and slowly consume it until I refuse to even look at cauliflower.  It turns out that this weird mass of flower stems is packed with vitamin C, vitamin K, choline, and folate.  In other words, if you passed on fruits one too many times and are fighting scurvy, drank too much, can't stop your bones from fracturing, and are now feeling a little blue, cauliflower might just be your solution!  Right now, a single head is about $1.67.  Live it up people.

Roasted Sliced Cauliflower

from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

as much cauliflower as you can handle
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim and wash the cauliflower and cut across the whole head into slices of about 1/4-inch thickness.  Lay the pieces flat on a baking sheet without overlapping.  Drizzle or, if you're like me, slather with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast the strange vegetable for about 20 minutes or until it is tender and starts to brown.

***

My sister's gentleman's mother burned her (my sister) a CD of anthems.  You know, songs to get fired up.  In short, the perfect driving CD.  I would like to take this opportunity to note that I have a whole arsenal of incredible dance moves that I can perform while simultaneously keeping a steady foot on the gas pedal.  This is Rusted Root's "Send Me On My Way":

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Roasted Sliced Cauliflower." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 299. Print.

Salsa Verde

So I have a ton of chicken leftover from making the Chicken Noodle Soup, even after putting half of it in the soup.  Here is a recipe for Salsa Verde that goes perfectly with some chicken.  I suggest drizzling a bit on a cold piece of poached chicken breast.  (The sauce is meant to be served cold.)

chicken and salsa verde

Salsa Verde

from The Art of Simple Food

1/3 cup coarsely chopped parsley

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tbs capers, coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

ground pepper

Mix everything together and then let it sit for awhile so all the flavors can meld.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

"meld" is such a great verb

***

This is actually the first time I have ever tried, let alone made, salsa verde.  I have no idea how I let that happen, but it adds a whole dimension of flavor to the chicken as I imagine it would to any simple dish.

It turns out that salsa verde is (another) green Italian sauce made with olive oil, but unlike pesto, this one is usually also has capers, garlic, and parsley.  It is not just Italian as there is a French version and a German version.  ALSO, in case you were wondering, like my sister and I were, capers are actually flower buds that are not ripe yet.  They come from this prickly plant that is native to the Mediterranean (among other places).  Capers are even mentioned in ancient Sumer's Gilgamesh.  Yay mythology!

I am currently watching Saved!, a classic for anyone who has a decent sense of humor (actually some people reeaaallllly don't get it...), and its soundtrack seriously impacted me during my years of musical development.  Here's one song called "Flowers in the Window" by Travis:

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Salsa Verde." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 45. Print.

Apricot Scones

Lately I've been seriously conflicted about what to eat for breakfast.  Do I want oatmeal?  But then there are so many options.  There are steel-cut oats and instant oats, cinnamon powder and honey, cut up fresh fruit (like bananas and apples and dates) and dried fruit (like apricots and figs).

Toast?  Then I have to face the variety of cheeses in the house.  (Please do not in any way interpret this as complaining.  I am in NO WAY complaining about all the cheese.) We're running out of cheddar, so there are all the soft cheeses that really seem more appropriate for hors d'oeuvres.  Plus we only have the butts of bread left.  There is always the cereal that costs about as much as crossing the Golden Gate Bridge (it's SO EXPENSIVE).  The take home message from all these may be for me to just go grocery shopping.

Point is, I made scones.  Fantastic scones that were just sweet enough and not the sour-ish scones that are also good, but not exactly what I was craving.  I think these scones are buttermilk...?

Apricot Scones

from The Art of Simple Food

2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 sugar
1 1/3 cups cream
2 tbs melted butter
1 1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 cup chopped dried apricot

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup of the sugar.  Stir in the cream.  (We ran out of heavy cream, so I added as much cream as I could - maybe 1 cup - and added milk for the rest.)  Add the chopped apricots.

The dough is going to be really sticky, so stir the mixture together as much as possible and then knead on a floured surface just enough to bring the dough together.  Pat it into a circle/disc thing that is about 8 in. in diameter.  Brush the melted butter on the dough and sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 tbs sugar on the top.  (I don't know why the cookbook used this measurement.  A tablespoon is equal to three teaspoons, so basically you are adding one tablespoon, one teaspoon, and one-half teaspoon of sugar or 4 1/2 teaspoons but anyway...)  Cut the disc into eight wedges and place each wedge on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  They should be at least 1 in. apart.  Bake for 17 minutes or until golden brown.  Brew some tea and serve.

***

Making the dough takes a shockingly small amount of time and they really were perfect with hot tea because when is summer coming?!  Regardless, scones are a British thing, apparently with a Scottish origin.  But more interestingly, although maybe I'm the only person who doesn't know this, the proper pronunciation of the word "scone" is such a point of controversy for the English that there have been academic studies concerning the etymology and modern Brits' pronunciation preferences.  Most civilized folk pronounce "scone"with a short "o" so that it rhymes with "fawn."  The sentence, "She fawns over scones" could then practically pass for a couplet.  The rest of the population rhymes "scone" with "grown" as in, "With the help of the oven, the scone has grown."  There is actual poetry devoted to exploiting this issue, so I'm not alone in my rhyming.

Other than my quest for the perfect breakfast, I'm also continuing my attempt to move from simply owning a guitar to being able to play a guitar.  To that end, I am in the process of learning the rest of The Beatle's "Blackbird."  So here it is, folks:

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Scones." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 275. Print.

Ricotta and Herb Ravioli

This was how the fresh pasta started.  It was kind of a project.

Ricotta and Herb Ravioli

from The Art of Simple Food

1 cup ricotta

2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil or softened butter

1 egg

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons mixed chopped herbs such as marjoram, basil, thyme, savory, parsley, or sage

salt

fresh-ground black pepper

plus 1 recipe of the Fresh Pasta

To make the ravioli filling... mix everything together in a bowl besides the pasta dough.  That's right.  Then you're done.  Oh but wait, now you have to roll out the pasta dough.  

ricotta and herb filling

Roll out all the dough until it's fairly thin and cut it into sheets that are about 14 in. long.  Keep the stack of well-floured pasta sheets under a towel to keep them from drying out as you work with one sheet as a time.  

Spoon 1 tbs of the ricotta and herb filling.  Keep about 1 1/2 inches between each blob of filling.  

Spray lightly with a fine mist of water.  Fold the upper half of the pasta over the lower half and then gently press the two layers of the pasta together, making sure to squeeze the air out of the little pockets.  Use the zigzag roller to cut the ravioli apart.  

Separate them and lay them out on a sheet pan sprinkled with flour.  Make sure they aren't touching each other because apparently the ravioli filling with seep through the pasta and everything will stick together.  Cover them with a towel or something and refrigerate them until you are ready to cook them.  

Cook the ravioli in salted simmering water for 5 to 6 minutes or when the pasta is done.  Drain and serve, with 1-2 tbs of butter and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Eat!

***

Everything was actually pretty easy to do, but I did over stuff some of the ravioli.  It worked out alright though.  However, I did put all the ravioli in the pot at once and they all ended up floating to the top and some of them didn't cook evenly.  I had to use a strainer to submerge the ravioli so they would actually cook.  So I would suggest only putting a few ravioli in the pot at a time and that way they'll cook without too much effort on your part.

Here's another guitar song.  Last summer I went to an amazing concert, courtesy of my lovely friends.  Rodrigo y Gabriela are two guitarists that... well, you'll just have to listen to it.  This is called "Hanuman":

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Ricotta and Herb Ravioli." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 271. Print.

Fresh Pasta

I don't know why I did this.  Don't get me wrong, the pasta was good and not that difficult to make, but what was I thinking?!  I'm mostly asking myself this because I did this not once but twice.  Later, I used some of the pasta to make homemade ravioli.  Here's the recipe for fresh pasta:

Fresh Pasta

from The Art of Simple Food

2 cups flour

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

Mix the eggs together in a bowl.  In another bowl, measure out the flour and make a well (LIKE MASHED POTATOES AND GRAVY) to pour the eggs in.

Mix with a fork like you're scrambling an egg and incorporate the flour bit by bit.  If the dough becomes too dry (as in crumbly), then add a few drops of water.  Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic.  Let it rest for at least an hour before rolling.

Roll the dough out by hand on a lightly floured board or using a machine.  I didn't use the machine, so don't ask me.  But I did roll it out with a rolling pin until it was fairly thin.  Cut it into noodles.

***

I actually made herb pasta by adding about 2 tablespoons of sage to the flour before adding the egg.  I also got the little crinkled edges on the end with a pastry roller thing, but you it also works with just a knife.  Also homemade pasta uses a lot more water than store-bought pasta, so make sure there is a lot of hot water and that it is a rolling boil.  It also cooks a lot faster, so depending on the thickness and how al dente you want the pasta, it should boil for about 3-6 minutes.

In other news, there's a storm here!  Which is really sad because the Marin County Greek Festival is coming up and we NEED it to be sunny and nice.  On the other hand, Marin looks really dramatic... and I saw a rainbow!

This is Andy McKee's "Drifting".  We love Andy McKee:

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Fresh Pasta." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 89. Print.

Chocolate Truffles

My parents have been married for 21 years today!  And I'm also making truffles!  I've been waiting to make these truffles for SO LONG.  Get excited.

Chocolate Truffles

from The Art of Simple Food

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate

10 tbs (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter

6 tbs heavy cream

1-2 tbs brandy (optional)

Sift the cocoa powder into a small bowl and set it aside (I actually sifted this time).  Put the chocolate and the butter in an medium heat-proof bowl and put it in a pot of simmering water.

Once it melts, stir in the cream and the brandy.

oh it is so perfect

Refrigerate the mixture until it's firm.  Use a melon-ball roller or some really small spoon and scoop 1/2-inch balls onto a baking sheet.

Smooth the balls with your hands and drop them a few at a time into the cocoa powder to coat them.  Then, put them back in the refrigerator until they are firm.

When you're ready to eat them, bring them back to room temperature for the best flavor.  Viola.  C'est magnifique.

***

And now that I've employed one of the five French phrases I have in my arsenal, I have to add this song: "La Vie en Rose".  I realize that Edith Piaf did it first and did fantastically well (and did it French, for that matter) but I just love Louis Armstrong's version.  His voice and his trumpet just make it an entirely new song for me:

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Chocolate Truffles." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 382. Print.

Roasted Asparagus

I love Alice Waters.  (And Ira Glass... Unrelated, but I've been listening to him all day.)  This book (The Art of Simple Food) explains easy ways to prepare basically everything, and it doesn't assume you know too much (except maybe how to caramelize sugar).  But all in all, my experience has been that if you trust Alice, she will not lead you astray.  Tonight we had some ravioli, steak, and asparagus.  More on the ravioli later, but here are some notes on the asparagus.

Roasted Asparagus

from The Art of Simple Food

asparagus

olive oil

salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Snap the ends off the asparagus (remembering to let the asparagus snap where it may).  Lay the spears out on a baking sheet, side by side.  Drizzle olive oil on them and then sprinkle some salt.  Then roll the asparagus around so that they are coated in olive oil and salt.  Roast the vegetables in the oven until they are tender, which should be about 9 to 11 minutes.  Make sure to flip them over about halfway through their roasting time.  Serve from the oven or cooled to room temperature.

they are so green!

I didn't hate asparagus growing up - I definitely didn't love it - but I find that in New York I gaze forlornly at the bundles of deflated-looking asparagus that is $5/lb.  In other related news, it was almost summer-like today!  If you look dead-center on the horizon, you can just make out San Francisco:

San Francisco Bay Area, folks

While I love Alice and Ira, I also love Sam.  Here is Dooley Wilson singing Herman Hupfeld's "As Time Goes By":

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Cooking Asparagus." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 289. Print.

Flan

My sister got her driver's license.  Yes, this did happen a good 6 months ago, but it's really only affected my life now.  Sure, I no longer have to ferry her around the Bay Area, but apparently going to school (even during post-AP season) is more important than not being stuck at home until a friend can come and get you.  Thankfully, my father has prepared a list of things I can do to stave off the boredom: walk the dog (which is nice), clean the kitchen, do the laundry, glue together that ceramic bowl, take photos of the house so we'll have some kind of document of our belongings in the case of a natural disaster...

it's pretty much winter here

Instead I made flan.  Mostly because it's made with really basic ingredients that I didn't have to go shopping for.  But also because it is delicious.  You'll need a 9-inch round dish that is ovenproof.  And something bigger than that that can hold the dish and enough water to partially submerge the contained flan.

Flan

from The Art of Simple Food

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 3/4 cups milk

1/4 cup cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

3 eggs

In a small pot, pour 1/4 cup water and then sprinkle 3/4 cup sugar in an even layer.  You're going to want to have the rest of the water (another 1/4 cup water) at the ready.  Cook the water and sugar over medium-high heat until the sugar caramelizes.  DO NOT BE AFRAID.  I was terrified.  I've never caramelized anything except maybe onions and googling images wasn't helpful either.  My problem was that I used some raw sugar that was kind of brown to begin with.  But you'll know when it has finished.  Just be a little wary of the bubbles.  Anyway, here's what will happen: the whole thing will start to bubble violently.  If it's not heating evenly, swirl everything gently in the pot but don't stir it.  

this is when I took it off the stove...
you can't really tell, but it's golden brown

When the sugar caramelizes, it will turn a rich golden brown color.  When it does this, take it off the heat.  It will keep cooking with the heat of the pan.  Have a wooden spoon or something nearby, plus the 9-inch round glass or ceramic ovenproof dish.  When the sugar and water has turned dark golden brown, step back and pour in the measured water.  It will be a little violent, but have courage.  Stir everything together with the spoon and then immediately pour the mixture into the dish because it's going to start to harden really quickly.  (Side note: IMMEDIATELY after pouring the caramelized sugar from the pot, run it under hot water a couple times because it is going to be ridiculously difficult to clean.  As will that wooden spoon.)  

ready for the water

all the goodness is hardening

This is a good time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees if you plan to bake immediately.  In another pot, heat the milk and cream over medium heat, but do not let it boil.  Once it is steaming, add 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla and remove the pot from the heat, making sure to stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved.  Let it cool until it is lukewarm.  In the meantime, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks.  Tip: when separating the whites and the yolks, use two different bowls and do each egg one at a time.  That way, if you drop the egg and the yolk breaks, you won't waste all the egg whites that you've already separated.  

Whisk the eggs into the cooled cream mixture.  Pour the custard mixture into the prepared dish.  Place the dish inside a larger oven proof pan and fill with warm water to a depth halfway up the side of the dish.  

ready for the oven

Cover the larger pan with foil, place in the oven, and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until the custard is just set around the sides, but still jiggly in the center.  Take the flan out of the water bath and let it cool.  Run a knife around the flan to release it.  Cover it with a platter that is large enough to hold the flan and retain the caramel sauce.  Quickly invert the custard onto the dish.  Top the bottom of the baking pan and gently lift it off.  Serve the flan in slices with its sauce spooned on top.

FLAN

***

So here's the deal: do you see how little of the bowl is taken up by the flan?  (The smaller of these two dishes cracked so I had to use the larger one.)  So when I inverted the flan... shit went down.  It was definitely delicious and perfect, but it was destroyed.  This is the final product, minus the bits that we ate in order to make it look better...

yeah... but it was really good!

Use a size-appropriate dish if you care about aesthetics.  (But would you really reject aesthetically-displeasing flan?)  Also, this recipe was a little egg-y, or so some people thought.  But all in all, it was fairly easy.

There's a whole convoluted history of flan, the origins of flan, and the etymology of the name(s), but I associate it most closely with Latin America.  And since Cuba is culturally kind of considered Latin American, here's Buena Vista Social Club's "Chan Chan":

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Flan." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 372-3. Print.

Risotto

So I'm a little behind, folks.  My darling younger sister Victoria visited me this week which means we ate our way through the city, but also that I have like nine blog drafts to finish and post.  Plus my brain is taking its time returning to normal.  But instead of working on any of those posts, I'm going to post a recipe for Asparagus and Lemon Risotto because Westside Market (at 110th St. & Broadway) is currently selling asparagus for $1.69/lb.  For all of you asparagus fans, GO.  Good asparagus is hard to find on this side of the country for less than $2.00/lb (it usually sells for around $4.00/lb).  This is a great meal to cook with friends, especially the first time around.  For the record, this recipe makes about 4 servings.  For four people, I recommend doubling the recipe.  That way people get seconds and YOU get leftovers.  (As long as you're willing to brave the microwave.)

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto

from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

1 lb asparagus

1 lemon

3 tbs butter

1 small onion

1 1/2 cups risotto rice (I usually use Arborio)

5 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring the chicken broth to a boil then take it off the heat.  If the timing isn't working out, cover the pot.

Meanwhile, snap the ends off the asparagus.  (Let the asparagus snap where it may.  It knows which part is tender enough to eat.)  Cut the spears diagonally into 1/4-inch pieces.  (Suck it up and cut the pieces diagonally.  More surface area releases the flavor and all that jazz.  And it looks pretty.)

Once that's done, remove the zest from the lemon.  Remove the zest before cutting the lemon because otherwise it sucks zesting.

stirring, stirring, stirring

This is the part you need to pay attention to.  Whoever is manning the stove is pretty much going to be stirring from here on out.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in the pot you intend to make the risotto in.  It should be at least 2 1/2- to 3-quarts, unless you're doubling the recipe.  

While the butter is melting, finely dice the onion.  Add it to the pot and the melted butter and cook it until the onion is soft and translucent.  Should be about 10 minutes.  Make sure the onions don't burn!

After 10 minutes, add the risotto rice.  Cook the rice, stirring now and then, until they are translucent, about 4 minutes.  If they burn, cry.

Stir in the lemon zest and pour in the wine.  Keep stirring until all the wine is absorbed.

Add a cup of the chicken broth and cook at a vigorous simmer, stirring occasionally.  When the rice starts to get thick, pour in another 1/2 cup of the broth.  Keep adding broth, 1/2 cup at a time, every time the rice thickens.  Don't let the rice dry out!  After 12 minutes, stir in the asparagus.  If you're doubling the recipe, pretty much wing it.  Don't add the asparagus after 12 minutes because then it will be overcooked.  In this case, I usually add the asparagus when there's about 2-3 cups of broth left.

Cook until the rice is tender but still has a firm core, 20 to 30 minutes in all.  When the rice is just about done, stir in half the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of butter, and the parmesan cheese.  Stir vigorously to develop the creamy starch.  (The cheese and the rice react to get the delicious starchiness that is beautifully creamy.)

Add salt and more lemon juice if you want.  Turn off the heat and let the risotto sit uncovered for 2 minutes.  Feast.

lemon and asparagus risotto... jeebus

Thoughts on this recipe:

• Use a cheese grater to zest the lemon.  Try to make sure it's on that side that has the tiny little holes that are absolutely impossible to clean without shredding a sponge.  To get the little zests free, bang it on the cutting board a couple times.
• It is fairly obvious when the rice is ready for more chicken broth, but I have a method you should use nonetheless.  If you stir the risotto, scraping the bottom of the pot, and the rice parts without liquid flooding to the bottom, add more broth.
• Salt and freshly grated black pepper add a whole new level of deliciousness.
• If one of the friends you've impressed into service is a vegetarian, go ahead and make this with vegetable stock.  It's still amazing.
• If you only have red wine, it's not totally necessary to go get a bottle of white.  As long as it's dry, you should be alright.  However, it will stain the rice and make the risotto a lot darker but still delicious.
• The red wine works best in a Winter Squash Risotto because the red wine naturally complements the squash better than the asparagus and lemon.  MAKE THIS.  It's to die for.  Forget the lemon and the asparagus.  Peel half a small butternut squash and remove the seeds and strings from the inner cavity.  Cut into small dice.  Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and add the squash with a few leaves of sage.  Cook over medium-low heat until the squash is just barely thoroughly cooked (meaning a knife goes through the squash easily).  Take it off the heat and add it to the rice right before adding the parmesan cheese.  I like to overcook the squash because then it mixes into some just-cooked pieces and some mashed bits that mix fairly thoroughly into the risotto.  I realize summer is approaching, but try this next fall or something.  So good.
• Other risotto variations include everything from mushrooms to scallops to turnips and parsley.  Oh they are all so tasty.

Some dancing music as you work those biceps (STIR, baby, STIR).  Here is Ray Charles and Nat Cole singing "Fever":

Waters, Alice, Patricia Curtan, Kelsie Kerr, and Fritz Steiff. "Asparagus and Lemon Risotto." The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 290-91. Print.