Food Life: Daring Cooks March Challenge: Risotto and Chicken Stock

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This month’s challenge was to first make our own chicken stock from scratch and then to use that to make risotto. Neither of these tasks were new for me but it was nice to revisit them all the same. Years before culinary school I had the romantic notion that if I were ever working from home I would have a stock pot simmering on the back stove on a regular basis. As it turns out, that’s not that practical. Although making stock is a fairly simple process when I’ve made stock I always end up with more than I can use. I freeze what I don’t need but the next time I need it I usually forget to defrost the stock in time and end up using purchased chicken broth instead.

A basic chicken stock is made from chicken bones, mirepoix (1 part celery, 1 part carrot, 2 parts onion) and some simple herbs. The recipe given in the challenge uses the whole chicken. In a professional kitchen this would be rather wasteful as simmered chicken meat is relatively unappealing and chicken bones give plenty of flavor and are readily available. But for the home cook making chicken stock on a very infrequent basis and much less likely to have bones reserved for the purpose, it is not too much trouble to use a whole chicken and reserve the meat for chicken pot pies. Another significant variance in the recipe is that garlic is used. Traditionally you would not put garlic, salt or any assertive spice or herb (such as rosemary) in a stock because these things make the stock less versatile. If the stock is reduced in a sauce, for example, it could become too salty. But for this challenge, knowing I planned to use the stock for this particular recipe I went ahead and used a whole chicken and added garlic.

The risotto itself was fairly straightforward. I taught two classes that week that included wild mushroom risotto (no, we didn’t make the stock from scratch in class) so I decided to do a simpler version that night. Since I was cooking for the family I needed to avoid mushrooms to appease some picky eaters. Also, I decided to leave the risotto on the dry side to avoid the kids complaining about it being too saucy. If you like to have more of the sauce add more of the stock off heat at the end, just before you serve. The version I made had diced onions and gruyere and was delicious! We served it with burgers and garden fresh greens.
Here’s the recipe:

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg

chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg

2 onions, roughly diced

1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced

2 sticks celery, roughly diced

2 cloves garlic, halved

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)

2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)

peel of 1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1.Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil

2.Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface

3.Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil

4.Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours

5.Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!

6.Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters

7.Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be.  The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Risotto Base

Ingredients:

olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml

1 small onion, quatered

rice 14 oz 400g

Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.

white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml

chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L

Directions:

1.Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).

2.Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.

3.Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.

4.Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.

5.Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.

6.Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .

7.Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.

8.Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.

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Daring Cooks March Challenge: Risotto and Chicken Stock

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