Risotto with Sweet Corn and Chorizo

Risotto is not only one of my favorite things to eat, but it’s also one of my favorite dishes to cook. I like cooking food that takes a little extra time, a little extra attention, and requires a little extra love to turn out the way it really should. It definitely takes practice, as I’ve probably made it a billion times. There’s a pretty basic method as to how you should do it, but what you add to it and how you flavor it can really make your belly happy.

This is actually only my 2nd attempt with this particular recipe, as I just tried it out over Thanksgiving. It was definitely a hit, but I think it still needs some tweaking. This makes for a great side dish, or you can just be a fat ass and eat the whole damn pot of it. There is nothing wrong with that. I’ve done it before and felt great about myself afterwards. If you’d like to make this yourself, keep reading. Here is what you’ll need:

• 1 cup of aborio rice
• 1 box of chicken stock
• ¼ cup white wine
• 2 ears of corn on the cob
• ¼ cup of dried chorizo
• 1 shallot
• 3 tbs. of butter
• extra virgin olive oil
• fresh parsley
• Parmesan cheese
• dried oregano
• salt
• pepper

Pour all of the chicken stock into a small pot and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn down the heat so that it remains simmering.

Meanwhile:

Finley chop the shallot and the parsley.
The dried chorizo can be tough to find (Wegman’s has it) but it’s necessary for textural reasons. You probably only need about a ¼ cup of this stuff. It packs a serious flavor punch and it can easily dominate the entire thing if you fuck this up. Slice it up into nice little cubes.  Also take the ears of corn and slide a knife along the sides to remove the corn from its core.

Coat the bottom of a pan with the olive oil and add 1 tbs. of butter as well over medium heat. Add the shallot and the parsley, sauteing until soft. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the rice into the pan, stirring constantly. You’re just trying to get the rice nice and toasty, until all the grains are opaque around the edges and white in the middle. You need to keep stirring it, otherwise the grains will burn and you’ll have some shitty risotto. This should really only take about a minute.

At this point, add the wine. Continue stirring. It should reduce pretty quickly. Once the wine has almost reduced completely, this is where you begin ladling in the hot chicken stock. Pour in just enough at a time so that it barely covers the rice in the pan. Adjust the heat if necessary and continue stirring. It should be bubbling, but not boiling like crazy. This is also where I would add salt and pepper to taste. And the dried oregano.

Stand there and watch it cook, stirring regularly. You need to keep stirring it so that it cooks evenly. This is what you do when you cook risotto, so it’s kind of hard to really be doing anything else while this is all going down. As the stock cooks down to where the rice is almost dry, ladle in more stock and continue stirring, repeating this process until complete.

In regards to timing, I generally find that the rice is done by the time you are out of stock (20 minutes or so). Taste it though, because you don’t want to cook it to the point of mush.

I didn’t add the corn or the chorizo until about less than half of the sock was left. I wanted the corn to still have a bite to it, while the chorizo really just needs to soften up so that it’s not overly chewy. Taste it again and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Once you’ve added the last of the stock, reduce until it’s almost gone and remove the pan from the heat. Add the remaining 2 tbs. of butter and the Parmesan cheese, stirring to incorporate. Finish with little more fresh parsley if you want. Serve/eat immediately.

It’s delicious. I mean it really is. I may have added too much chorizo though when I did this. I just chopped up a whole bunch and threw it in there because it seemed like a great idea. Like I said earlier though, this stuff is huge and will really let itself be known in there. I would have put a little less chorizo in, so the whole ¼ cup thing is more of an estimate right now. It’s just super rich, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just needed some balance. I think next time I may add a little more white wine towards the end, or maybe even some fresh lemon, just to add some brighter flavors to the final product.

If you give this a try, holler at a Fat Kid.

- Fat Kid