Rice for risotto: varieties. How to choose rice for risotto?
Risotto at first glance may seem ordinaryrice porridge with fillers to taste. Of course, such an assessment is erroneous, and all consumers are convinced of this. Silky, inexpressibly creamy texture does not leave anyone indifferent.
Not so simple
It would seem that the difficult thing is to weldrice? However, in practice it turns out that this dish is one of the most difficult. Mastering the ability to cook risotto, the cook at the same time learns a lot of subtleties that affect his general ability to cook and raise the level of professionalism. This is not a rice porridge for breakfast, but a whole philosophy. Everything is important: what kind of rice for risotto you choose, what kind of vegetables you add, what kind of dishes you put in, with what mood you approach the process. The main thing is not only strict adherence to the prescription, add intuition and confidence in the correctness of your actions.
If we talk specifically about rice, then it ismust contain a large amount of starch (amylopectin, on contact with hot liquid forms a transparent "paste"), which will provide the final dish with a delicate creamy texture.
Rice "arborio"
The most popular and familiar variety for Russians. The birthplace of rice is Piedmont. The grains are large, loose, contain a large amount of amylopectin.
Rice "carnaroli"
A popular sort of rice in Italy.
Rice "vialone nano"
Find this variety in Russia is quite difficult, soas there are no official importers able to provide them with a retail market. Therefore, you should count only on gifts from Italy or online purchases.
Classic risotto recipe
Now let's move on to the recipes. Indeed, why figure out what rice is needed for a risotto, and not use knowledge in practice? Let's start cooking risotto bianco (base without additional flavoring accents):
- rice - 150 grams;
- butter - 25 grams;
- onion - 20 grams;
- crushed parmesan - 20 grams;
- vegetable broth - 500 ml;
- wine dry white - 50 ml;
- olive oil - 10 grams;
- pepper and salt to taste.
Preparation
Which rice is better for risotto, we found out, now tell you how to cook it. By the way, all products are given for 2 servings, if you want, you can increase them.
As for the dishes, the ideal is an old cast-iron frying pan.
In a cold frying pan pour olive oil and add finely chopped onions.
Put all this on medium heat and fry the contents until transparent.
Pour rice to the onions and fry it until the tips of the grains become transparent at the ends. It is at this point that they absorb the tastes and aroma of butter and onions.
Pour into the rice for risotto what you want alcohol (for example, optional white wine, it can be red), allow it to evaporate almost completely.
For 100 ml add vegetable broth, each time evaporating it. Constantly interfere.
To the last portion of the broth, your rice will be in the "al dente" state, i.e. have a gentle consistency, but a little hard middle. The whole process will take about 17 minutes.
At the end of the period, the seeds will swell, they will release the starch - then you need to remove the frying pan from the fire and let it stand for a minute, so that the rice rests.
Rub rice into parmesan and butter, gently stirring. You will get the marvelous consistency of a rice cream holding a shape. Serve immediately.
For those who have not finished. Aarcini balls inside out
Yes, and the Italians sometimes left a littlerisotto. Food should not disappear, decided brave gourmets came up with a new dish - aranchini. It comes from Sicily and represents balls of risotto stuffed with meat or cheese and fried in a lot of oil. We offer you a wonderful dish, which differs from aranchinia in that the filling itself is a risotto. Otherwise, the technology is preserved:
- ready risotto bianco - 200 grams;
- shrimps peeled - 250 grams;
- starch (better corn) - 25 grams;
- salt with pepper to taste;
- vegetable oil - 300 ml.
Doing
If, as luck would have it, you do not have the rest of the risotto, we strongly recommend to prepare a new portion (rice for risotto how to choose, we told you). Yes, it's troublesome, but it's worth it.
Grind the prawns with a blender in a homogeneous viscous paste, salt and pepper to taste.
From a cold risotto with wet hands, form balls with the size of a walnut.
From the shrimp paste, make a 0.5 centimeter cake and wrap a ball of risotto in it, leaving no gaps.
Sprinkle the starch on the saucer and roll balls in it, sprinkling the shrimp surface a little. Do not overdo it, you do not need a strong shell of starch.
Spread the vegetable oil in a sauté pan or deep frying pan.
On medium heat, fry the balls, periodically turning them over, until a firm golden crust. It takes about 6-7 minutes.
Lay the arancini inside out on a paper napkin to stack excess fat, and serve immediately!
Risotto with strawberries for dessert
We offer you a very-very non-standard version of dessert, which will make your taste even a festive table:
- lean milk - 750 ml;
- cinnamon - 1 stick;
- Strawberry fresh and frozen - 30 grams;
- dried strawberry - 50 grams;
- rice for risotto - 1 gram;
- sugar - 250 grams;
- butter - 30 grams.
How to cook
All products are given for 2 servings. If desired, proportionally increase all components.
Strawberry wash, drain and remove all the twigs.
Grind the berry, rub through a sieve to get rid of the bones, mix with sugar and put on a small fire. Bring to a boil and cook for a quarter of an hour, periodically taking off the foam.
Dried strawberries cut in half.
Milk warm, do not boil, add cinnamon. Keep warm.
In a frying pan with a thick bottom, melt the butter, pour the rice and fry over medium heat for 2 minutes.
Pour the milk into rice so that it only covers, intensively interfering. Add the next portion of milk when the previous one is absorbed into the rice.
After 10 minutes from the beginning of the rice preparation, add the strawberry syrup and dried berries.
Continue pouring in the milk until the rice is ready.
The dish is served both hot and cold, decorated with berries.
Taste variations
Above we gave the basic recipe for a white risotto bianca. Having mastered them, you can vary the taste of the dish at will, adding those or other products. Recall the step in which the rice is fried in oil with onions before adding broth. It is at this moment that it is the most "open" for all sorts of flavors and flavors, so treat yourself to the following combinations:
- chop bacon (100 grams), dried tomatoes (100 grams) and basil (5-6 leaves), add to rice;
- Sea cocktail (250 grams), defrost, rinse and dry, peel with one lemon sodium, add to rice;
- Chicken fillet (200 grams) chop along with fresh mint (5-6 leaves), add to rice;
- frozen green peas (200 grams), pour boiling water and flip on a sieve, fresh mint (6-7 leaves) chop, add to rice;
- mushrooms chop (300 grams), saffron (1 thread) soak in 1 tbsp. spoon of broth, add in Fig.
Import substitution. Varieties of rice for risotto from Russia
How to be, if the risotto really wants, but about"carnaroli", "vialon nano" and even "arborio" can only dream of? On bezrybe and Krasnodar - Italy. In other words, you need to find rice with a lot of starch. Under this description comes the Krasnodar variety. Of course, the effect will not be the same, but still you can try.
