Picnic Leftovers Risotto
Going in the "GEOgrub" collection.
Assess leftover situation post-caching picnic and find:
1 lb fresh sausages (chicken, buffalo-wing style, from Whole Foods)
1/2 lb (more or less) mixed stinky cheeses (some soft-ripened goat, some 3 Sisters "serenissima", some mizithra, something bleu...)
a bottle of pink wine from Catalunya
Assess pantry and find:
2 cups arborio rice, half an onion, some olive oil, a quart of chicken broth, some herbs.
Uncase the sausages into a hot skillet & fry them, breaking up lumps. Heat the broth and keep it hot. Chop the onion and add it to the skillet, cooking until translucent or just past that. Add the rice to the skillet, stirring to coat every grain with grease -- if there's not enough grease, add a little olive oil.
Pour 1/2 to 1 cup of the wine into the skillet -- and pour some into the cook. Stir the rice until the wine is all absorbed into it, then do the same with the broth, adding a cup or so at a time, stirring frequently, letting the rice absorb it before adding more. After adding the last of the broth, bite a grain of the rice to see how done it is -- you may need to add another cup of water & let it cook some more.
Once the last dose of liquid is almost entirely absorbed, add the cheese -- the soft cheese cubed, the hard cheese grated -- and stir it in well with some spices (I used savory and tarragon, but yours will depend on what the sausages were spiced with and what kinds of cheese you had). Let the rice finish cooking. You can even let it sit a little on the turned-off burner before you dish it up.
You might want to add salt, or else let people salt to their taste at table, depending on (again) what your sausages and cheese are like. Serve it with the rest of the wine (assuming it didn't all go into the cook!) Serves 4.
Assess leftover situation post-caching picnic and find:
1 lb fresh sausages (chicken, buffalo-wing style, from Whole Foods)
1/2 lb (more or less) mixed stinky cheeses (some soft-ripened goat, some 3 Sisters "serenissima", some mizithra, something bleu...)
a bottle of pink wine from Catalunya
Assess pantry and find:
2 cups arborio rice, half an onion, some olive oil, a quart of chicken broth, some herbs.
Uncase the sausages into a hot skillet & fry them, breaking up lumps. Heat the broth and keep it hot. Chop the onion and add it to the skillet, cooking until translucent or just past that. Add the rice to the skillet, stirring to coat every grain with grease -- if there's not enough grease, add a little olive oil.
Pour 1/2 to 1 cup of the wine into the skillet -- and pour some into the cook. Stir the rice until the wine is all absorbed into it, then do the same with the broth, adding a cup or so at a time, stirring frequently, letting the rice absorb it before adding more. After adding the last of the broth, bite a grain of the rice to see how done it is -- you may need to add another cup of water & let it cook some more.
Once the last dose of liquid is almost entirely absorbed, add the cheese -- the soft cheese cubed, the hard cheese grated -- and stir it in well with some spices (I used savory and tarragon, but yours will depend on what the sausages were spiced with and what kinds of cheese you had). Let the rice finish cooking. You can even let it sit a little on the turned-off burner before you dish it up.
You might want to add salt, or else let people salt to their taste at table, depending on (again) what your sausages and cheese are like. Serve it with the rest of the wine (assuming it didn't all go into the cook!) Serves 4.