Italian food's known for its variety, richness and taste.
Italian cuisine is popular throughout the world because of its ability to please everyone's tastes and its versatility.
The risotto is an Italian specialty that's universally famous for its creamy texture and delightful taste.
The essence of this dish is short-grained rice and saffron; the history behind this saffron rice is quite interesting.
Rice made an entry into Italy in the fourteenth century; Arabs introduced rice to Italians and soon rice became a part of the local cuisine.
In 1574, a young trainee, Valerius, was given charge of painting the stained glass window of Cathedral Duomo Di Milano.
The result turned out to be quite bright; this made people rib him saying he used saffron to get such bright colours.
This made him angry and as a prank, he threw in lots of saffron in the rice dish served at his master's wedding.
His prank backfired and everyone loved the flavoursome rice; this was the first risotto.
Cooking risotto is an art.
To get the right creamy texture, you'll need to know just how long to cook and what ingredients to add when.
If you cook for too long, the rice may become mushy.
Selecting the right variety of rice is also important; Carnaroli, Vialone and Arborio are good choices of rice to sue for your risotto.
You can make risotto with vegetables, seafood or any kind of meat; but according to me, lobster makes an ideal ingredient for risotto.
When rice is cooked with lobster stock, the flavour gets enhanced and the dish tastes exquisite.
Here's my recipe for lobster risotto- You'll need - * Olive oil- ¼ cup * Sliced Crimini mushrooms - 12 * Brandy - 2 tbsp * Lobster meat - cut into cubes and cooked - 2 cups * Chopped shallots - ¼ cups * White wine - 1 cup * Arborio rice - 2 cups * Lobster broth - 6 cups * Salt * Pepper * Chevre - 6oz * Crushed chive - 2 tbsp How to Proceed - * Take about 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet and heat it.
Add crimini mushrooms and sauté till they become brown.
Stir in lobster meat and toss around.
After the lobster's cooked for about 60 secs, increase the heat and add brandy.
Stir well for about a minute.
Turn off the heat and keep the pan aside.
* Pour in the remaining oil into a large pan.
Sauté shallots in the oil till they are soft.
Mix in the rice and keep stirring till the oil has coated the rice completely.
* Now, add the white wine.
Keep stirring and add 3 cups of lobster broth.
Keep on stirring while it cooks.
When the rice has absorbed the broth, pour in two more cups of lobster broth slowly.
When this is absorbed, mix in the lobster-mushroom mix.
Add the remaining broth, salt and pepper.
* The rice will absorb all the liquid and get soft.
When there's no more liquid remaining, transfer to serving bowl and add the cheese.
Garnish with chives.
Tasty, homemade lobster risotto is ready.
You'll find that this dish is better than the risotto served at restaurants because slow cooking enhances the flavour of the dish.