Idle Tongues (food before your mind goes elsewhere)

[osmosisch]

I could use a good Risotto reciepe.

This is the base I usually work from. I've also had great success using pumpkin and parsnips in here. Basically the vegetable part of this is up to taste.

2 tbsp olive oil

75g butter

2 leeks, rinsed and chopped

3 cloves of garlic or a bunch of wild garlic leaves if available.

500g risotto rice

dash of white wine

about 1.5 litres simmering vegetable stock

3 asparagus stalks

30g podded broad beans

1/2 courgette cubed

1 tbsp each of chopped mint and parsley

salt, black pepper

55g parmesan, freshly grated plus shavings to serve

2 tsp lemon juice

1) heat the oil and one-third of the butte rin a deep heavy-based pan. Add the leeks and saute until softened. Add the rice and stir until well-coated in the fat.

Increase the heat and simmer gently while stirring. When the wine is absorbed stir in a large ladleful of the hot stock. Cook over a moderate heat, stirring every few minutes and adding more stock as it is absorbed.

2) After the rice has been cooking for about 15-20 minutes, heat half the remaining butter and saute the garlic(/leaves) and the vegetables gently for a couple of minutes.

3) stir the vegetables and their butter into the risotto with the next ladleful of stock. Stir in the herbs and seasoning to taste.

4) Continue adding stock (or boiling water if the stock runs out) until the grains of rice taste creamy but still have some bite.

5) take off the heat and stir in the parmesan and the remaining butter, with more seasoning to taste if necessary and the lemon juice. Leave to sit for about 5 minutes, covered, before serving, garnished with some parmesan shavings and some garlic leaves/flowers if you had any.

[dibs]

I make mine with prosciutto in with the onion at the start. Then rice and shitoons of garlic. The. Shitoons of white wine. Then proceed as above with chicken stock. 2 mins before the end I add some sugar snap peas. Parmasean at the end. Season liberally with black pepper at all stages.

[JonCole]

Unfortunately, shitoons is a more useful measurement to me than any of that metric. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmerica.

[dibs]

Just use an online calculator. It's risotto, not rocket science (lol, NASA), just go with the flow. Too buttery? use less butter next time. Do what you want. One thing I do disagree with is only using a dash of wine. You want several dashes!

 

[Dewar]

I generally look at ingredients and kinda fudge the actual measurements anyway. Plus, I took chemistry so I'm used to thinking in gs and mLs.

[osmosisch]

Just use an online calculator. It's risotto, not rocket science (lol, NASA), just go with the flow. Too buttery? use less butter next time. Do what you want. One thing I do disagree with is only using a dash of wine. You want several dashes!

Well yeah, my dash ends up being pretty large too

Also measurements are meant to indicate ratios, for which metric actually is easier to compare imo. I don't know how many cups to a quart or whatever.

[darthbator]

What the hell is a good salad dressing? I'm trying to eat a salad at least one meal of the day but I've found that I find most salad dressings totally disgusting. I tend to just throw some oil and vinegar on there and just call it a day but that's starting to get REALLY boring. 

 

Just some background. I tend to absolutely hate creamy sauces on/in most things. Things like ranch basically smell like a bucket of mold to me...

[osmosisch]

Balsamic vinegar plus olive oil, squeezed garlic, rosemary and thyme is my go-to.

For stuff like coleslaw I use a yogurt/mayonnaise mixture.

[tabacco]

Not so much a dressing as a whole salad, but  one I really like is thinly sliced fennel, orange slices (peeled and with the seeds picked out), a little bit of chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, and a splash of olive oil.

[Dewar]

What the hell is a good salad dressing? I'm trying to eat a salad at least one meal of the day but I've found that I find most salad dressings totally disgusting. I tend to just throw some oil and vinegar on there and just call it a day but that's starting to get REALLY boring. 

 

Just some background. I tend to absolutely hate creamy sauces on/in most things. Things like ranch basically smell like a bucket of mold to me...

 

There's a big selection of various vinegrettes out there. I'd say try a bunch of them until you find one you like, then try to duplicate it?

[JonCole]

I always just go 2:1 olive oil to acid (vinegar, citrus juice, etc) with a dash of sugar (could easily be honey or something else of that nature), salt, and pepper as a nice base. After that, you could experiment with different ground peppercorn, dijon mustard/whole mustard seed, anchovies, capers, fresh herbs, red pepper flakes, canned chipotle peppers, parmesan cheese, etc. Dressing is totally a matter of taste; for me, a basic vinaigrette with mustard and parmesan generally hits the spot. Based on whatever veggies on hand, I mix it up from there.

[JonCole]

Guys, I've recently become obsessed with these:

 

 

If you like pretzels and/or spicy snacks and/or hot wings, they're simply the best thing ever. I almost literally cannot stop thinking of them which is why I needed to revive this thread to rave about them.

[melmer]

ooooh i'll have to hunt them down. Occasionally we can find these American snacks at an insane mark up in the foreign food isle

 

SNACK OF THE GODS

[ihavefivehat]

Those are both great, and surprisingly vegan!

[SuperBiasedMan]

Counter intuitively, delicious meat flavoured things are more likely to be vegan than cheese flavoured things. And often the reason meat flavoured things aren't is cause of some milk product.

[tabacco]

ooooh i'll have to hunt them down. Occasionally we can find these American snacks at an insane mark up in the foreign food isle

 

SNACK OF THE GODS

 

Those are ridiculously good and I'm not allowed to buy them anymore.

[Professor Video Games]

The jalapeno ones are like fucking heroine. If I buy a bag it lasts two days, max.