Glutenfreedelicacy

Simple Langostino Tail Risotto

We love a good seafood risotto, so when we came across this Lobster Risotto recipe in Cooking Light magazine, we just had to try it. We decided to use langostino tails instead of lobster tails for an easier, less expensive alternative. Langostino has a similar taste and texture to lobster meat, although it’s a different type of crustacean, a little tiny thing no longer than 3 inches, and more closely related to porcelain and hermit crabs.

This was our first time cooking with these babies and we couldn’t wait to take a bite! For extra creaminess, we added 1/4 cup fat free milk, and for more flavor we added 1 tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, a pinch of truffle salt and a squeeze of lemon.

What a decadent dish — the langostino was lovely with it's slightly sweet, tender and perfectly plump texture, the rice was cooked to perfection, the peas added nice pop, and with the truffle salt's wonderful earthy flavor  — we had ourselves a bowl of velvety, zesty, 100% indulgence!

We're Stoked for Artichokes!

 

We went to the Ferry Building this weekend and fell in love with the bountiful selection of in-season artichokes — big and beautiful ones were piled high next to little purple ones that were so darn cute. We picked out a handful so we could make something with them for our Sunday dinner. We also thought it would be fun to do an artichoke photoshoot, and above are some shots that we took.

We found a Baked Artichoke Risotto recipe at www.artichokerecipes.org that sounded tasty and easy to make.

This recipe called for fresh artichoke hearts, and since this was our first time cooking with them, we had to do some research on how to remove the hearts. After all the pedal pulling and cutting, we weren’t left with much, so to ensure flavor we added a can of artichokes hearts as well. We pumped up the flavor by adding a half teaspoon of lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice and a tablespoon of fresh tarragon to each bowl before serving.

We really enjoyed this dish — the risotto was cooked perfectly with crispy edges from the ovens' embrace, the artichokes were smooth and tender, and the sauce was moist, distinctive and zesty. A refreshing dose of spring with every bite!

Butternut Squash Risotto in a Delightful Butternut Bowl

It's been about six weeks since our last posting, thanks to our travels and the holidays, and now that it's a new year we are ready to get back into Sunday night cooking. As much as we can, we like to push the culinary boundaries by integrating our main dish with our dinnerware. And after receiving a butternut squash for the last two deliveries, we knew we would be making bowls out of them. We made a Butternut Squash Risotto recipe that we found at www.drgourmet.com. 

 

It took some time to scoop the seeds out and carve the bowls, but it was worth it. We loved how cute this dish looked! We doubled the amount of leeks, and cooked them in water instead of oil to cut down on fat. We forgot to pick up grated parmigiano, so we used shredded cheddar instead, and it tasted great! We look forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow!
 

French Lentil and Swiss Chard Risotto

You can say we've gotten ourselves into a risotto kick lately, because here we are with another risotto recipe! We found this French Lentil and Swiss Chard Risotto recipe on Martha Stewart's website. 

This recipe is unique with the lentils added, and it is so good! We used water instead of olive oil to cook the onions, garlic and leeks, and we used one slice of low fat swiss cheese in place of the parmesan. Even though it was tasty, we know it would have been better with the parmesan, so next time we're gonna have some on hand! This dish was so rich and creamy, combined with a nice, subtle flavor. I'm looking forward to eating leftovers!!

Butternut Squash, Swiss Chard and Apple Risotto

We've eaten plenty of boxed Butternut Squash Risotto side dishes and Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Soup, but so far we haven't made anything from scratch with this tasty vegetable. So we were excited to see what kind of recipes would tempt our tastebuds. We found this Butternut Squash, Swiss Chard and Apple Risotto recipe by Danny Meyer on Food and Wine's website that sounded perfect, because we had plenty of swiss chard to use as well.

 

I modified this recipe by using chicken broth in place of chicken stock and instead of the 6 cups it called for, I used 4 cups broth and 2 cups water, to reduce the sodium. I increased the butternut squash to 1 1/2 cups, and increased the chard to 2 cups, and left out the bacon. I also left out the 2 tablespoons of butter and cheese at the end.

Even though I cut out a bunch of fat, we really enjoyed this super savory and creamy dish. We know it would have tasted even better with the bacon, cheese and butter, but we were very happy with our low fat version.

My sister Tina make's an excellent squash souffle recipe that I just love. As soon as I get the recipe, I'll whip up a batch and post it on the blog. 

Leek and Mushroom Risotto - No Flavo!

Leeks are one of the many vegetables we haven't cooked with before. I found a Leek and Risotto recipe on www.leekrecipes.org that sounded interesting, and since I wasn't sure what part of the leek to use, I went on You Tube and watched a video on how to wash, cut and prep them.

I modified this recipe by adding 1/4 cup of white wine, a slice of low fat swiss cheese in place of the parmesan, and 1 cup of water at the end of the cooking, to prevent it from drying out. I also used half the amount of leeks that the recipe called for, because the potato-leek chowder soup I made for a starter dish hogged most of 'em up! Even though we liked this dish, it wasn't as flavorful as we would have liked. Could it be because I added the wine and used less leeks? We're not sure, but it seemed to be missing something, so we added a little lemon thyme (the only fresh herb we had on hand) that did help, but still wasn't hitting the right spot. Next time we make a risotto, we'll try something different.

 

Our first attempt at cooking risotto

When we go out to eat, if there's a risotto dish on the menu I usually order it because it's sooo tasty, and after finding out we were getting radicchio delivered from Farm Fresh to You, we were looking forward to finding a risotto recipe that called for this veggie. We decided to make a Risotto with Radicchio and Smoked Mozarella recipe from Food & Wine magazine that we found at www.myrecipes.com.

This dish was very nice and creamy, although we thought the radicchio was a bit too overpowering and bitter to really enjoy this meal. If we would have used escarole instead to eliminate the bitterness like the recipe suggested, we are sure this would have been a fantabulous dish. We also think it would have been very good if we would have just left the radicchio out. The bold bitterness radicchio taste was just not our thing!