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By J.Ho, February 21, 2007 3:57 pm

I absolutely love risotto. I’ve never tried to make it before. I wanted a delicious side to the Korean BBQ Chicken I made last weekend. I took a nose dive into some of my Italian cookbooks and cruised around the web a little for information on risotto ingredients and preparation techniques. Here’s what I found …

A quick read on risotto history and recipes can be found here. Most of my cookbooks really didn’t explain what risotto really was and the caveats on preparing it. One recipe I found in Lidia Bastianich’s cookbook Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen really caught my attention. It explained that once you understand how to prepare a basic risotto, you can parlay that skill into making any type of risotto you could imagine. The basics are the key to pretty much all cooking and just about everything else in life.

I followed Lidia’s “master plan” for preparing risotto and made a few of my own changes along the way. Nice!

4½ cups hot chicken stock
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium white onion, minced
1 leek, white parts only, trimmed, cleaned and chopped
6 scallions, white and green parts chopped separately
2 cups Italian Aborio rice
â…“ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter, cut into four pieces
â…“ up freshly grated Parimigiano-Reggiano cheese
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Pour the chicken stock in a small sauce pan and keep it hot over medium heat. In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat and stir in the onions. Sauté the onions until softened, about four minutes. Stir in the leeks and white parts of the scallions and sauté for another six minutes. The onions should start to brown. Stir in the rice making sure all of the grains get covered with the oil. Keep stirring often for the next two to three minutes until the edges of the grains become translucent. Pour in the wine and let it boil. Keep stirring the rice till the wine has evaporated.

Season the rice with salt and ladle enough of the hot chicken stock into the sauté pan until it barely covers the rice. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to maintain a lively simmer. Continue cooking while stirring constantly until all the stock has been absorbed and you can see the bottom of the pan when you stir. Continue cooking, pouring the remaining hot stock in small batches. Each addition of stock should be only enough to completely moisten the rice. Continue doing this until the stock has been absorbed. All this should take 15-20 minutes from the time you added the wine.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and green parts of the scallions until the butter is completely melted. Stir in half the grated cheese. Taste the risotto and add more salt if you like and then add the freshly ground black pepper. Top with grated cheese and serve immediately.

I like a creamy risotto so I used another two cups of chicken stock. This also added to the cooking time since I had 50% more stock to absorb. I also squeezed a little lemon juice at the end. This basic recipe can be taken into an infinite number of directions. Try adding some smoked chicken at the end. I’d like to add some saffron to the chicken stock next time I make it. Shrimp risotto should be good. Maybe I’ll try making an asparagus risotto. I’m guessing all I would have to do is add some steamed & chopped asparagus tips to the risotto at the end of the cooking. Yeah, that’s the ticket! Arrivederci! Yankees suck!

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By J.Ho, June 5, 2006 11:49 pm

Probably the most prominent dishes in German cuisine is the schnitzel. I lived in Germany for four years and I can tell you there isn’t much to choose from when it comes to good German cooking. However, what they do well, they do REAL well. I ate schnitzel every chance I got.

There are three basic varieties of schnitzel: Schnitzel is a thin pork cutlet, breaded and fried. Weinerschnitzel is a thin veal cutlet, breaded and fried. Jägerschnitzel a thin pork or veal cutlet smothered in a rich brown mushroom gravy.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t too fond of jagerschnitzel since I didn’t like mushrooms all that much. Luckily my taste buds grew up along with me. When my family and I went out to a German gasthaus (neighborhood restaurant) I would usually order a weinerschnitzel smothered with krauterbutter (a German garlic-herb butter) and a side of fries. Schnitzels were also often served with spaten (German noodle dumplings) or potato croquettes.

I’ve tried jägerschnitzel in several German restaurants in the US, but most places I’ve been to really suck. The only good German restaurant I’ve been to in the US is the Zum Rheingarten. It was just down the street from where I lived near MCB Quantico. It is a GREAT restaurant. Innovative menu, awesome selection of rare German beers & wines all housed in a quaint Bavarian-style building. I ordered the jägerschnitzel but it wasn’t breaded. Every restaurant I’ve ever been to in Germany breaded their jägerschnitzel. I’ve read up on it and “traditional” jägerschnitzel isn’t breaded. Culinary tradition is usually for the birds anyway.

Jägerschnitzel is German for the “hunter’s cutlet.” Served with potato pancakes, jägerschnitzel is the typical meal the hunter would have the night before an early morning hunting excursion. Of course it’s always good with a few swigs of Jägermeister!

Last year I was thinking how much I missed out on good jägerschnitzel while I was there. I figured it couldn’t be that hard to make. After several trials and errors, here is the recipe I’ve come up with:

4 boneless pork or veal cutlets
½ cup light olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 8oz packages fresh white mushrooms, stemmed & sliced
2 ½ cups beef broth
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
2 heaping tablespoons flour
¾ cup heavy cream
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 teaspoons liquid Maggi seasoning
Small handful flat leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 cup plain Progresso brand bread crumbs
Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat oven to 200. Place the boneless cutlets in a large zip-up plastic bag and pound thin with a meat mallet. Mix the eggs and the milk in a wide, shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs in another wide, shallow bowl. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Dredge the cutlets in the bread crumbs, then in the egg wash and then in the bread crumbs again. Place the coated cutlets in the hot oil and sauté for 5-7 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown. You may only be able to cook one or two cutlets at a time depending on how large of a pan you have. Add a little more oil if the pan gets too dry. As they are done, transfer them to the oven to keep warm.

When all the cutlets are done add the minced onion to the pan and sauté for a couple minutes then add the minced garlic, salt & pepper. Sauté for another five minutes or until the onions begin to appear translucent. Add 1 cup of the beef broth and turn the heat up to high. Let the broth boil down for about 10-12 minutes. Add the mushrooms, the other cup of beef broth, the cream and the Maggi seasoning. Let it boil down for a few minutes while stirring. Take the three teaspoons of flour and mix it with the last ½ cup of beef broth in a small bowl or measuring cup. Mix it well with a fork till it is all dissolved. Slowly stir in the flour/broth mixture while the pan is boiling. This will thicken the sauce up pretty good. Use your judgment on how thick you want it. It will continue to thicken for a minute or two after you stop pouring in the flour/broth mixture. Reduce heat to medium and cook slowly for five minutes while stirring.

Take the cutlets out of the oven and transfer to your serving plates. Smother them with the mushroom sauce. I typically make this with egg noodles & boiled carrots. Enjoy and let me know how it turns out! Yankees suck!

Comments (1)

By J.Ho, May 24, 2006 2:34 pm

I lived off 29th Ave & Clement Street in San Francisco for three or so years. On the stretch of Clement between 26th & 22nd Aves reside some of San Francisco’s best neighborhood restaurants. Ernesto’s was one of my favorites. Everything I ever ate there was outstanding. Baked stuffed clams and sautéed calamari are excellent appetizers. The seafood pasta is a delicious dish: linguine with shrimp, scallops, garlic and green onions served with a butter-lemon sauce. Veal Saltimbocca, grilled veal chops, pizza, grilled swordfish, fettuccine alfredo … I can go on and on. If you’re lucky, the smoked chicken risotto and/or the filet mignon marsala may be on the list of daily specials.

The know-all, be-all of dishes at Ernesto’s is the Chicken Ernesto. Lightly sautéed chicken breasts smothered with a lemon-butter-wine mushroom sauce served with either the daily vegetable or a side of pasta. I live near Boston now, but I never stop thinking about Ernesto’s and all the great restaurants on Clement Street.

I tried for four years to reverse engineer this recipe since they would never tell me how to make it. I even considered getting a part-time job as a bus boy just so I could learn how it was done. I dropped that idea pretty quick. Eventually I got the recipe close enough to brag about it. As it turns out, it’s a lot like making veal or chicken piccata, just without the capers.

½ cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts, about ¾ pound, pounded to a thickness of ½-inch
1½ tablespoons light olive oil
2 packages of white mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and diced
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup dry white wine
½ cup chicken stock
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 lemon, juiced, or more to taste, (about 2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf Italian parsley leaves

To pound the chicken thin, place one chicken breast in a large Zip-Lock bag, underskin/membrane side up and pound with the smooth side of a meat mallet. Don’t pound too hard because you can easily ruin the meat by breaking it all up.

In a shallow bowl or plate combine the flour, 1½ teaspoons of the salt and pepper and stir to combine thoroughly. Quickly dredge the pounded chicken in the seasoned flour mixture, shaking to remove any excess flour. That’s something I do differently. Ernesto’s doesn’t dredge the chicken in flour first. I like the taste and texture of a bit of crusted flour on sautéed chicken.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Add 1½ tablespoons of the butter and, working quickly and in batches if necessary, cook the chicken until light golden brown on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a warm plate and set aside. increase the heat to high and sprinkle about two tablespoons of the seasoned flour into the oil and whisk rapidly till it’s dissolved. Add the wine and bring to a boil. De-glaze the pan with the wine by scraping to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

When the wine has reduced by half, add the mushrooms, chicken stock, chopped garlic and lemon juice and cook for about five minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Whisk in the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, remaining 3½ tablespoons of butter and the chopped parsley. When the butter has melted, return the chicken to the pan and cook until heated through and the sauce has thickened, about 1 minute. Serve immediately. Yankees suck!

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By J.Ho, April 18, 2006 12:44 am

Ham in a rich cream sauce – a French thing …

Alright, here’s something I think you’ll like. What are you supposed to do with the extra tonnage of ham you may or not have left over from Easter?

My father bought a French cookbook while we lived in Europe. I loved the stuff he made from this cookbook. I thought he would give me this cookbook since he loved me ‘n stuff. He refused to give it to me. He gave me his 70-inch screen Sony television, but sweet feathery Jesus, not his French Provincial cookbook. Thank the culinary gods for eBay. I went online and got the same cookbook my father bought in 20 years ago for $6.67! They even threw in a cookbook titled “Traditional English Cooking” for free, like I am EVER going to read that!! Puuuulllease! Bangers suck, by the way!

This French cookbook is one of my bibles. Below is one of the better recipes in the book. The first time I had it was when my father made it when we lived in Germany. Only he made it with pork chops instead of ham. I figured this would be a good time to introduce it since some people may have a slab of ham leftover from this weekend.

Jambon à la crème de Saulieu

10oz white mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
4 tablespoons butter
¾ cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions (scallions)
2 cups cream
10oz Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped
1 tablespoon of flour
10 fairly thick slices of cooked ham
½ cup freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 425°. In a large sauce pan, sauté the mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of the butter for about 3 minutes, until they are softened and slightly cooked. Season them with a SMALL amount of salt & pepper. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside. Add the wine and the spring onions to the pan; boil till it has reduced by half. Add the cream & tomatoes and boil gently for about 5 to 6 minutes. In an oven-proof pan combine the remaining butter with the flour, stirring constantly until you’ve created a slightly thick sauce. Arrange the ham slices in the oven pan and sprinkle with the mushrooms. Cover the ham and mushrooms with the cream sauce. Sprinkle all of it with the fresh Pecorino-Romano cheese. Bake till it looks done.

I only made about half of the full recipe, since I’m cooking for myself, but you get the idea. It was a bit salty, so be careful how much salt you add. Ham is salty by nature, which is why it’s called ham. The picture doesn’t do it justice since I’m no expert in food photography. Chesha … where are you?

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By J.Ho, March 29, 2006 10:16 pm

I was asked by a lady friend if I had a good, light recipe for some sort of chicken-broccoli-ziti dish. One without a cream sauce. I promptly replied, “No, but for you and only you, I’ll go into the lab (my kitchen) and invent one!” Here’s what happened …

Over a week’s time I consulted several cooking web sites, perused through many cookbooks and didn’t really find something that would suit her fancy, or even more important, mine! So, I created one of my own. I used rotini pasta instead of ziti. When I cook, it’s all about what I want. Of course, you can use whatever type of pasta you like best. I only made it once and it turned out pretty damn good. Give it a look.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
1 pound rotini pasta
1 stick salted butter
1 cup white wine
1½ cup chicken broth
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 broccoli crowns (a little less than 2 pounds)
Juice of one lemon
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Melt butter in a heavy sauté pan. Add oil and garlic and simmer on very low heat for 10 minutes. Add wine and 2 cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Cut chicken into small bite size pieces and add to the sauté pan and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Chicken cooks fast when it’s cut into small pieces. Season with salt & pepper. Add the lemon juice (no seeds please).

Chop broccoli into small bite size pieces and steam a large pot with a steamer basket for 3-5 minutes. Boil rotini separately to your own liking (al dente for me). In a mixing bowl whisk together the other ½ cup of chicken broth with the flour until the flour is completely dissolved. Turn the heat to high and add the flour mixture to the sauté pan, mix well. Let it boil for a minute or so while you’re stirring. This will thicken the sauce a bit. Once it’s thickened, add steamed broccoli to the sauté pan, toss well and let sit covered over low heat for 5 minutes. Add rotini to the sauté pan and sprinkle broccoli with Romano cheese. Serve with a smile!

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By J.Ho, March 8, 2006 1:14 pm

This is a quick and easy Italian vegetable side dish that can be served with a weeknight family meal as well as a fancy-schmancy dinner. This recipe also works well with yellow squash. The pictures below aren’t of a full pound of zucchini, by the way.

1 pound medium zucchini
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence (dried parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Wash the zucchini and trim off the ends. Slice zucchini length-wise twice and cut into ½-inch pieces. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the flour with salt & pepper. Toss zucchini with flour and add to the hot oil. Season with Herbes de Provence.

Sauté over high heat until slightly tender and golden brown, about 5-10 minutes. Don’t expect the flour to stick too much to the zucchini, most of it will clump up into brown toasted bits adding texture and flavor to the dish.

Remove from heat. Sprinkle with freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, cover and let sit for a few minutes to allow cheese to melt. Yankees suck!

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By J.Ho, March 8, 2006 11:53 am

I love red wine. I love filet Mignon. I love filet Mignon in red wine. Makes sense doesn’t it? This recipe is as simple as it is delicious. Have a crack at it and let me know what you think.

1½ pounds of filet Mignon, about 1″ thick
1 oz salt pork, chopped fine
2 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced
¼ cup of sweet butter
Three tablespoons of red Burgundy
10 sprigs of fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, leaves only, minced
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Combine salt pork, garlic and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic for about two or three minutes, do not burn. Add steaks and cook on each side for four minutes. Add salt, pepper and wine; cover and cook for two more minutes. Add the minced parsley and shake and swirl around in the skillet. Serve on warm plates and pour the sauce from the pan over them.