Food-TV
On Monday, I prepared another meal from HelloFresh. It was a Autumn Risotto with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Pepitas. I was kind of crazy, saw risotto, and requested it without actually seeing what was in it. I didn't know it didn't have meat but it turned out okay.
Cooking
Here is a stock picture:
And this is the box that I started with. It was nice that the squash was pre-cut.
So I used this vegetable concentrate to make a vegetable stock for the risotto:
While that was warming up, I got the squash ready for roasting by adding olive oil, salt, and pepper. Again, the recipe was 400°C for 25-30 minutes so I did 300°C for about an hour to walk the dogs.
Before:
And after:
So now, the actual risotto making process. I cut up some garlic and shallots (HelloFresh seems to love shallots) and fried them in oil. Then I added the rice and cooked them briefly. Then I started the risotto process of slowly adding the vegetable stock (a couple of ladle fulls) then stirring until the stock absorbed/evaporated. Then more stock was added and this process was continued until all the stock (about 2.5 cups) was used.
Afterwards, the squash, chopped sage, and parmesan cheese were added and mixed. Added some sage and pepitas to the final product and there you go:
Close-up:
Overall, it was better than I thought it'd be. I actually enjoyed the butternut squash a good amount along with the pepitas. I'm not sure about the sage though. It was kind of scary in texture (velvet like) and a bit strong tasting. Maybe I could have cooked it longer. And I always thought it was "proper" to cook risotto in a pot (for max collisions), but cooking it in a pan seemed to make it pretty fast. Maybe I'll try it next time I cook risotto.
In other news, I thought last night's Agents of SHIELD was pretty good. I do like how they didn't stretch this plot point (either her being lost or what happened) for a super long time. I could have easily seen Simmons being lost for a whole season OR after her return, the rest of the season with her being shifty. But it was nice to get pretty much the whole story at once.
This week's Gotham was also okay. The story with the girl was good, although fairly unbelievable (how did people not just shoot her?). And like usual, I could do with less Riddler, who just wastes time with story that no one cares about.
And go Royals! I both like them and dislike the Mets so it works out (if they win)!
Cooking
Here is a stock picture:
And this is the box that I started with. It was nice that the squash was pre-cut.
So I used this vegetable concentrate to make a vegetable stock for the risotto:
While that was warming up, I got the squash ready for roasting by adding olive oil, salt, and pepper. Again, the recipe was 400°C for 25-30 minutes so I did 300°C for about an hour to walk the dogs.
Before:
And after:
So now, the actual risotto making process. I cut up some garlic and shallots (HelloFresh seems to love shallots) and fried them in oil. Then I added the rice and cooked them briefly. Then I started the risotto process of slowly adding the vegetable stock (a couple of ladle fulls) then stirring until the stock absorbed/evaporated. Then more stock was added and this process was continued until all the stock (about 2.5 cups) was used.
Afterwards, the squash, chopped sage, and parmesan cheese were added and mixed. Added some sage and pepitas to the final product and there you go:
Close-up:
Overall, it was better than I thought it'd be. I actually enjoyed the butternut squash a good amount along with the pepitas. I'm not sure about the sage though. It was kind of scary in texture (velvet like) and a bit strong tasting. Maybe I could have cooked it longer. And I always thought it was "proper" to cook risotto in a pot (for max collisions), but cooking it in a pan seemed to make it pretty fast. Maybe I'll try it next time I cook risotto.
In other news, I thought last night's Agents of SHIELD was pretty good. I do like how they didn't stretch this plot point (either her being lost or what happened) for a super long time. I could have easily seen Simmons being lost for a whole season OR after her return, the rest of the season with her being shifty. But it was nice to get pretty much the whole story at once.
This week's Gotham was also okay. The story with the girl was good, although fairly unbelievable (how did people not just shoot her?). And like usual, I could do with less Riddler, who just wastes time with story that no one cares about.
And go Royals! I both like them and dislike the Mets so it works out (if they win)!