This has been my experience too. I don’t make risotto frequently, but when I do it always requires a LOT more liquid than whatever recipe I’m using says it will. I thought perhaps I was just buying rice that was too dried out so I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one!
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Reminds me of this slate article on caramelizing onions:
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Some recipes I need to use a bit more warm stock than stated, but sometimes it is okay. Too much stock will end up too soft rice, not al dente. I normally used carnaroli for risotto. I add in batches but I don’t stir a lot, a lot, a bit from time to time, maybe each batch of liquid I add, I make sure they are enough not to make the rice stick. For me it is quite precise, 17 minutes + a few more to add the ingredients.
So true!
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I try to use carnaroli as well. I like the rice itself al dente, but I prefer the dish in general to be a little soupy or all’onda, so perhaps that is why I generally need more stock.
Craving a salad, so I made one from red leaf lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, shaved carrots, sliced cucumbers, radishes, red bell pepper, and green onion, some crumbled goat cheese and dried cranberries. Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette drizzled on and croutons sprinkled on after.
(ETA - I have NO idea why the damn picture is upside down - I’ve added it several times and it still comes through that way. But you get the picture. Sort of.)
NB: Picture edited by mod
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HA! I didn’t even realize it was upside down until I saw your comment. It looks delicious, upside down or right side up!
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Grilled cheese. Pumpernickel (buttered), mature cheddar, a little cream cheese, bread & butter pickles. Next time, no cream cheese.
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I am married to a chef. I always tell people that what you make at home will NEVER taste like something you taste in a restaurant because they always use way more butter or oil and way more salt than you would normally use at home. If it doesn’t taste quite right, add one or all of those.
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What I meant was that it tastes good to me with the same ingredients if I stir, stir, stir, but not if I use the hands off methods.
Dinner tonight was a “found” Hazan Bolognese in the Magic Freezer. I made some fresh pasta, cut into wide strips for the sauce. The remainders turned into “pasta for soup”. The sauce was a bit dry after its long time in the freezer, but even dry it is marvelous!
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You’re loosening the starches when stirring, which is why stirring works and the recipe doesn’t. I agree the SE recipe isn’t that great. It’s soupy rice, not starchy enough for a real risotto.
However… I will say from personal experience, you don’t need to add one ladle of broth at a time, nor do you need to stir non-stop.
Keep it at a low simmer, add enough broth to cover the rice by about 1/2 an inch, quick stir, let it simmer on low, give it an occasional stir.
When the broth is nearly absorbed, then stir, stir, stir to loosen the starch.
Repeat with more broth, simmering, and stirring until you have reached the right texture.
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Last night was the rest of the soft tofu in peanut buttery sauce ontop of some sautéed cruciferous crunch blend from trader joe’s. Big mug of miso broth with chopped scallions ontop. (I have a huge tub of this fabulous mild miso i bought overseas, plus a dark brown miso, and a really light white miso i use for salad dressings and sauces but not soup; oh and the korean equivalent which is slightly more textured and more intense)
Cabbage on cabbage tonight…! Munched some of the new batch of white kimchi i made on saturday as an appetizer while chopping- my apartment is so cold it didn’t taste quite right until today.
Oma’s cabbage tonight thanks to @smtucker again for the recipe! I skipped the sugar, used two biiiig cloves of garlic and closer to one TB of the caraway seeds that i toasted in a dry skillet. Oh, and some veg stock. I found a few slices of the mushroom field roast “roast” in the freezer, defrosted those quickly in the microwave and chopped, added to the cabbage. A touch extra red wine vinegar to my bowl and it was perfect for this cold night.
Enough leftovers for two more meals 
I finally found a neighborhood source for Ripple vegan milk, so i’ll use that warmed with my chopped dark chocolate for hot chocolate dessert tonight
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“Steak” and eggs hash for dinner-pulled leftover shredded bison out of the freezer yesterday morning and spiralized potatoes. I roasted the potatoes and tossed on the bison at the end for a quick broil, all mixed with medium boiled eggs.
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A lot of eggs, energetic meal!
Eggs, my favorite food group! There are more hiding
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Naf, Koreans love deep-fried things from what I have seen. But yes, there are other things that aren’t deep-fried and also sweet.
Last dinner in Seoul. Soup with dumplings. We were a bit early. At night the market is heaving with both locals and tourists.
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One has noodles. Both soups were nice.
Koreans next to me held up the noodles for the photo. I like how normal it is to make photos of food, drink, anything here. At another place when I was trying to make photo of 2 young women who were making photos of their food they moved aside so I could make photo of their food… haha. But I said I wanted to make photo of them and they were totally cool with that.
My stallholder is making the noodles here.
Another lady behind there tends to the soup pots.
There are 3 ladies working at this soup stall. We sat at the very end, in front of the calendar.
Market is getting busy now.
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I have been eating fish and fresh roe. My meat and alcohol abstinence will end on saturday, though.
Winter is fresh roe time.
Steamed with mushrooms.
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With ginger and Sichuan preserved vegetables.
Both things lasted 4 meals. Here I just piled a bunch of stuff on the plate.
Braised smoked tofu and dried mushrooms I brought back from Poland. I added a small shot of liquid smoke to the pot at the end for a more intense smokey taste.
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Is it summer yet???!? I’m going through serious Big Salad withdrawls and the fresh produce right now is , well, winter stuff.
I did find some good looking cucumbers so i went with a comically large portion of smacked cucumbers. There was a hot and sour soup in the freezer, i heated that with a bunch of tofu in it and added a big handful of spinach. Some scallions and cilantro ontop of both the cucumbers and soup. Kimchi appetizer is just a given.
Not the summer salad of my fantasies but easy and tasty after a loooonnngg day at work.
The ripple hot chocolate last night was really great, probably repeating later tonight (while under all the cozy covers and reading)
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