4-5 cups chicken stock
1 or 2 large leeks
large handful of mushrooms (shiitake, in my case), chopped or sliced
2 TB olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 stick butter
1 shallot, diced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Heat oil with 1 TB of butter in a saucepan, until foaming. Sautee mushrooms, stirring, until browned. Add garlic, pepper, and thyme. Sautee a few more minutes. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

Heat broth.

Heat olive oil and 2 TB butter in same saucepan. Add shallot and leeks. Sautee until tender, 5 mins. Add rice and stir. Add wine until absorbed.

Add 1 cup broth over medium until absorbed, 3 mins. Continue adding broth 1/2 cup at a time every 2 minutes. When nearly done, test texture. You don’t want crunchy.

When done, turn off heat, stir in parmesan and 1 TB of butter. Drain liquid from mushrooms and fold back into risotto.

Adapted from: Whisk. Flip. Stir.

Didn’t I mention that I love to make risotto? Almost as much as I love to eat it? Speaking of which, best I’ve ever had: Ossobuco Risotto. Yep. I’ve been super slow lately posting. I mean super super slow. I blame the holidays. You know what I mean.

Let’s blame it on the wine that I used in my risotto. This stuff sure is tasty.

Up next (eventually): porkbelly porchetta.

2 Carrots, diced
1 Onion, diced
1 Shallot, diced
4 red potatoes, chopped

In stockpot, add onions and cook until translucent. Add shallots and garlic until golden. Add carrot, potatoes, and generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes.

Remove stock from refrigerator, skim fat form surface with a spoon and also pour through a strainer. Bring soup to a boil and add in chicken and veggies. Cook another 2 minutes. Serve with noodles and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Also adapted from: chatN’chow

Here it is! Chicken soup to fix those cold winter days. Or just cool, rainy, foggy days… I added egg noodles to my soup but my mom makes my favorite chicken noodle soup noodles. They’re very simple, but are made from scratch. She starts them in the morning and sets them out to dry for the rest of the day, then cooks them at night like normal noodles before the soup is ready. They’re just so scrumptious.

I don’t know the exact quantities, but I do know that they’re comprised of flour, eggs, water, and a bit of salt. In other words, teensy dumplings! It’s the best!

Chop:
2 Carrots
1 Onion
1 Shallot
2 Stalks celery
3 chunks of ginger

Rinse a couple pounds chicken parts (bones in!) Place chicken in a large pot with veggies.

Add:
1 handful fresh parsley
1/2 lemon
6 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Add enough cool water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer low for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, remove solids, remove everything BUT the chicken. Allow broth to cool and refrigerate or freeze. When chicken is cool, pull apart with fingers, remove bones.

Adapted from: chatN’chow

This is an amazing soup stock. I mean look at all those colors too! (I’m including the actual soup recipe/ingredients in the next post.)

1 TB olive oil
3 TB butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped (yellow or red are great!)
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4-5 cups chicken stock, heated
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper
4 lamb chops

Rinse lamchops and pat dry. Salt them generously and set aside for about 20 minutes.

Add olive oil and 2 TB butter to a skillet, cook until translucent. Add garlic until fragrant. Add rice to pan and stir, toast for 2-3 minutes. Add white wine carefully. Stir until absorbed.

Add 1/4 cup of stock every 2 minutes for about 20 minutes. Taste when stock is nearly done. You don’t want chewy rice so continue to cook until soft. Turn off heat and add 1 TB of butter. Melt and stir in parmesan cheese. Set aside.

Rinse chops again, pat dry, and do NOT salt again. Only pepper.

Heat skillet over med-high/high before adding butter. Watch carefully. Add 2 TB butter and wait for butter to melt and sizzle. Add chops to pan, sear for 2 minutes per side. Flip once and make sure they brown.

(Lamb will be medium-rare.)

Adapted from: Tokyo Terrace

I lovelove lamb. And I love risotto. This is one of the easiest things to make during the work week. Lately I’ve been defaulting to risottos for something easy to prepare.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve made this recipe. You’ll notice that the above link is a little different. I have made that version before, with the spinach. It was really good. The other thing, is that I’ve been salting my meats beforehand too. I find that I like it better that way. I tend to undersalt so this method helps me salt correctly. Plus it’s supposed to tenderize too. Enjoy!

6 TB butter, divided
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks (I don’t like cooked celery so I omitted it), diced
3 carrots, diced
4 potatoes, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
pinch of kosher salt / pepper
2 cups clam juice
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1.5 cups chopped fresh clams

Melt 2TB butter in a stockpot. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add (celery), carrot, potatoes, thyme, salt/pepper and sautee for 10 minutes. Add clam juice, bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until veggies are tender.

In a saucepot, melt remaining (4TB) butter, and whisk in flour. This is your roux. Cook very low, for 3 minutes, stirring. Whisk in 1 cup of hot broth and pour back into stockpot. Simmer until thick. Add milk and clams, heat gently for a few minutes.

Adapted from: With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart

Okay, so this isn’t my favorite clam chowder recipe ever (I’m pretty picky when it comes to this stuff) but it’s very easy and still makes a good meal.

I would recommend the freshest clams possible. We’re talking, they’re basically-crawling-away fresh.

I also admit that I had to change the recipe again. Not only do I really not like cooked celery… ugh… mushy… but I couldn’t manage to shuck my wonderful little clams. So what I did is cook them beforehand in some dry white wine and minced garlic. That opened them up and made my apartment smell wonderful. When it came down to adding them back into the chowder, I chopped them up and then added them back in. I think the wine added a little to the chowder too.

I should have gotten some good crusty bread with this too.

3 globe tomatoes (small, from a bunch)
1 huge heirloom tomato
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (I forget what kind I used but it was some fancy stuff from Whole Foods)
Salt, pepper & red pepper flakes
knob of butter

(This part I got from the other recipe.) Bring some water to a boil and have a bowl of icewater ready on the side. When the water is boiling place your tomatoes in for 15-30 sec depending on the size. You might want to do them in batches. Remove and immediately place in the icewater. With a paring knife (or really anything good for peeling) gently peel the skins off your tomatoes. Then cut your skinned tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon or your fingers.

Heat the oil so that it’s very warm. Be careful that it doesn’t get too hot so that you don’t splatter yourself when you drop in the tomato chunks. Drop them in and cook for a couple minutes. Add in some red pepper flakes and salt & pepper, to taste.

After your tomatoes are soft, take a potato smasher to them. They can be as chunky or smooth as you’d like. Then cook your sauce for 20-25 minutes. After that you can add your butter or choose to add different ingredients. I added butter to thicken my sauce a bit and add flavor. I also gave my sauce a dash of basil.

Alright so I was going to take a photo of my pizza last night but I got lazy and ate it too fast. Typical.

But! What I really wanted to talk about is tomato sauce! I swear I will never again buy another jar of (pasta) sauce from a grocery store. Tomato paste, though, is super handy.

The last time I made sauce-based pizza I used Barilla (probably oregano or something simple) but my problem was that the sauce got really watery after it was done cooking. I couldn’t figure that one out. So I decided this time to make my own sauce. I did use a recipe for inspiration but I just used it for guidelines.

And! It wasn’t watery on my pizza!

Edit: Don’t add butter if you plan on saving your sauce. After heating my sauce the next day the oil/etc seemed to have separated from the tomatoes. I’m not sure but it could have been the oil and butter combination. Or that homemade sauce doesn’t keep?