One-Pot Bacon and Mushroom Risotto

Hello Dear Followers,

We took on the challenge this week, the risotto challenge that is. We have been told that risotto could easily be messed up, but with a lot of constant stirring and a prayer at times 🙂 we were successful in this endeavor.

We made bacon and mushroom risotto. It was super tasty. It wasn’t until we plated it that we realized which ingredient took on a major role. At first, Anna thought it was the bacon and Daniela thought it was definitely the mushrooms.

We plated the risotto on top of a lightly seasoned baked pork chop. It was the perfect pair. We were very proud of this dish, we’d definitely make it again.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced – ( you may need more than one, your preference)
• 5 strips bacon, diced (please only use what this calls for, we used the whole package of bacon, and it overpowered the dish… but we love bacon, so we didn’t mind)
• 8 oz wild mushrooms, such as porcini or shiitake, sliced
• 1 ½ cups arborio rice
• ½ cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
• 5 cups chicken broth ( You will need two boxes of this. We made it with 3 cups, watch as you stir.)
• ½ cup parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (Go crazy!)
• 3-4 pork chops
• Varied seasonings for the pork chops

Risotto Instructions:

In a 5-quart Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat.

Add the onion and cook 3-4 minutes until soft and slightly transparent.

Add the bacon and stir constantly until it starts to crisp.

Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the arborio rice and cook for one minute, stirring constantly so the oil coats the grains.

Stir in the white wine and simmer 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add one cup (235ml) of the chicken stock and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the rice absorbs most of the liquid, continue to add 1-2 cups (235-470ml) of stock at a time until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through, about 25-30 minutes total.

NOTE: The risotto should be al dente and fall back in on itself when you run the spoon along the bottom of the pot.

Stir in the Parmesan cheese and remove from the heat.

Serve and garnish with extra Parmesan cheese.

Pork Chops:

We baked pork chops and used a variety of seasonings, you can really use what you want for this. Let the risotto on top help bring out the flavors in the pork chops. Heat the oven between 350-400 degrees for about an hour or less. Don’t overcook it!

Enjoy!

Until next week!

Recipe by BuzzfeedTasty

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Hello Dear Followers,

We have to start off by saying that tonight’s dish caused a bit of anxiety for both Anna and I. It started at the grocery store and trying to find the ingredients to make our dish possible.

For Daniela, the anxiousness came because she wasn’t familiar with the grocery store she was in on top of not quickly finding the right ingredients.

We made Asian Lettuce Wraps. We’re sure you’re probably thinking, that’s too easy to cause that much anxiety, but you would really be surprised.

We missed two ingredients in this dish, but to our surprise, it was pretty good. It had a flavorful rich taste. We accompanied the lettuce wraps with rice, which was perfect.

Here is the recipe:

For the sauce: you’ll need one cup of water, 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of sesame oil, six cloves of garlic (minced), one tablespoon of fresh ginger (minced) , 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of sriracha ( we couldn’t find this ingredient and it still came out pretty good), 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar, 1/3 cup of scallions, sliced.

For the wraps: The recipe calls for tofu ( this is a vegetarian dish, but we substituted it with ground beef.) Fry the ground beef separately until it is light brown put some salt and pepper for taste and once it’s ready set it aside. One tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 medium yellow onion, diced, 2 1/2 cups of shiitake mushrooms, chopped (any mushrooms will do… we just wanted to follow it exactly), 1 tablespoon of garlic, minced, 8 oz of water chestnuts (1 can sliced, drained and finely chopped. One-third cup of scallions, sliced and one head of iceberg lettuce.

To make the sauce, combine the water, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, sriracha, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, and scallions and stir. Set 1/2 cup of the sauce aside.

If you choose to go the tofu route, crumble the tofu in the marinade, cover and refrigerate for one hour.

In a medium wok or skillet over medium heat, add the sesame oil and the onion and cook for three minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for about five minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender.

Again, if you are using the tofu, add it to the pan and cook until the majority of the marinade cooks off. Add the water chestnuts and scallions. Pour in the reserved sauce. Toss to coat and cook until the just heated through. Transfer the tofu mixture to a medium bowl.

If you are going the ground beef route, you would do exactly as we mentioned above with the marinade.

Slice the core off the head of lettuce and separate into individual leaves. This recipe is from Buzzfeed Tasty. The recipe calls for rice noodles, that you can fry with canola oil in a separate frying pan, we couldn’t find it, but it was mainly used as a garnish.

What we realized with tonight’s dish is that all of that work and a bit of chaos can still put out a great dish. We also realized that in a year since we started this, we’re getting a lot better at the choices we’re making for the dishes we’re cooking.

Until next week!