Pea Risotto

I'm a fiend for risotto, so of course I had to try the Sweet Pea Risotto from A Recipe for Cooking by Cal Peternell.

But then ... there were those peas. Even when peas are in season, finding them fresh is pretty much impossible. No one likes shelling peas these days, so unless you're growing peas in your garden, you're probably going to want to make a substitute here.

I used frozen peas. They're available all year long, and I always have them on hand. I like adding them to salads. I just put them on the salad as-is and they thaw almost immediately. So anyway, I just measured the frozen peas, and all was good.


I was a little surprised at the color of this risotto. I guess I expected it to be more of a bright green, but it wasn't even close to that color. I liked the flavor, but I might actually use more peas next time. I didn't happen to have any mint available, although I can see how that would be a lovely flavor with the peas. I used parsley, since it was the herb that I happened to have on hand.

Sweet Pea Risotto
Adapted from A Recipe for Cooking by Cal Peternell.

1 1/2 pounds English peas, shelled (about 1 1/2 cup, divided) - I used frozen peas
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided (or to taste)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cups Arborio or Carnaroli rice
3/4 cup dry white wine
6 cups chicken stock, hot
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons thinly sliced mint leaves (I used parsley)

In a very small saucepan, combine 3/4 cup of the peas with 2 tablespoons butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and enough water to not-quite cover the peas. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until very tender.

Pay attention to how long the peas take to cook, since this will help you figure out when to add your peas to the finished risotto. Since I like the frozen peas just barely warmed, I added them at the end of the cooking time. But, if you like your peas soft and squishy, do pay attention to the cooking time.

When the peas are done, push them through a sieve, or use a blender or other device to turn them into a puree. I used a stick blender right in the pot I cooked them in. Easy peasy.

Heat a medium skillet over high heat and add the oil and 2 more tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Stir until it sizzles noisily, then reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring as needed, until the onions are soft. This will take 15-20 minutes.

If the onions start browning before they're soft, add a splash of water or put a lid on the pan.
Once the onions are cooked, raise the heat to medium high and add the rice along with 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook for two minutes, until the rice toasts a little, stirring often.


Add the wine, let it bubble for 30 seconds, then lower the heat and add 1 cup of the hot chicken stock. Keep the heat at a level that gives you a lively simmer, but not a boil. Stir to keep the rice from sticking.

When the liquid is nearly gone, add another cup of stock and stir often. Continue stirring and adding stock in the same way. This procedure takes about 20 minutes from the time the wine is added, so add the peas at the appropriate time so they're cooked to your liking.

Keep adding liquid and stirring until the rice is tender but still has a little bite. If you run out of stock, add water.

Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, the pureed peas, and the parmesan. (This is when I added the whole peas.) Stir energetically for 15 seconds. Taste and add salt, if needed.

Let the risotto rest, off the heat and covered, for a couple minutes for it to gather itself. Sprinkle with the mint (I used parsley) and serve.

About the book:

This book has a rather interesting organization. First, it's organized by courses, which is pretty common. But then, within courses, most are organized by season. I like to cook seasonally, as much as possible.

On the other hand, some foods are not particularly seasonal. The recipes in the "second course" section are not organized by season, which makes sense. The recipe for fish cakes didn't require any ingredients that wouldn't be available at any time of the year. Others, like lasagna, struck me as a cold-weather food, but I wouldn't turn it down at any time of the year.

The sweet pea risotto I made was considered a spring dish, which makes sense if you're planning on using fresh peas. But, since frozen are so easy to find, season didn't matter.

My suggestion is to look at recipes for your current season, but look at the others as well. Because you never know what might sound appealing.

There are a lot of appealing recipes here. The recipe instructions tend to be wordy, so they look more complicated than they are. The extra wordiness is actually useful information along with tips on what to look for as you cook - so don't be put off by recipes that span multiple pages.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Asparagus Risotto for #HolidayHosting with Anolon

Risotto is sort of magical. I mean, it's just rice. But then it makes its own creamy sauce that doesn't have any cream in it.

It seems difficult, particularly if you watch cooking shows. But it's not difficult at all. It's ... contemplative. Relaxing. Zen-like.

Making risotto isn't difficult, but it's not like throwing something in a machine, pressing buttons, and walking away. Oh, no. You have to hang around with the risotto and gently stir. You can't leave it alone for long. But you don't have to measure or think too hard about it. You add liquid as it is absorbed, and you stir. And you add more liquid and you stir.

It gives you time to think. You can ponder what to put on the grocery list or you can plot a novel, or you can try to think of a vegetable for every letter of the alphabet. Or you can hum pop songs.

So for my fourth post for the Anolon promotion with the theme of "formal dinner," I decided to make an asparagus risotto with a hint of saffron.

Risotto can be a first course, or a meal. It can be a light lunch, or part of a multi-course meal. It's fancy enough to work for an elegant dinner party, but it's also simple enough to be part of family dinner.

And the leftovers are pretty good, too.

Have I intrigued you? You'll find the entire recipe over on Anolon's website. It's waiting for you RIGHT HERE.

Oh, but that's not all! I have a MEGA-GIVEAWAY for you.

Over the course of six weeks, I'm developing six different recipes specifically for the Anolon products. This is the fourth, with two more to go.

And I have ALL SIX Anolon items to give away. The same ones I got. And I'm giving all six to ONE PERSON. Isn't that AWESOME???

I'm pretty excited about this, because I LOVE Anolon products - I've already got some of their cookware, and I use it all the time, and I'm super-excited about the new stoneware and cast iron items.

And Anolon is having their own giveaways, so be sure to stalk them during this 6-week promotion!

The six items I am giving away are:

Anolon Advanced Pie Pan
I used this for the pie recipe, here.

Anolon Vesta Stoneware 9x13” Baker in Paprika Red
I used this for my bread pudding stuffing, here.

Anolon Nouvelle Copper Hard Anodized 10” Covered Skillet 
I used this for my stuffed mushroom recipe, here.

Anolon Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 3Qt Covered Sauté 
This is what I used to make my risotto.

Anolon Advanced Umber 3.5Qt Covered Chef’s Pan
You'll see a recipe using this pot on December 12.

Anolon Vesta Cast Iron 4Qt Oval Covered Casserole in Paprika Red 
This will be used for my last recipe in the series, on December 19.

Yes, ALL of that great Anolon cookware and bakeware to ONE LUCKY WINNER!

The giveaway starts when this post goes live and will end on December 26 at midnight, mountain time. US winners only. The giveaway widget will post with each week's recipe, and I will add NEW ways to enter each week related to the week's new post, like new tweets and new pins. So make sure you come back every week and see what I've made, and ENTER TO WIN!

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This post is sponsored by Anolon. They supplied products for my use as well as compensation for recipe creation. They are also providing the prizes for the contest winner. Although I was paid to create a recipe, all words and ideas are my own.

Mushroom Ris-Oat-O

Yes, I'm back on the savory oatmeal bandwagon again. Last time, I made a fairly simple preparation with some parmesan cheese on top. This time, I decided to amp up the flavors a little bit, and go even a little further into savory land with mushrooms.

This could be made with chicken stock, but I decided to use one of my pantry staples, instead - Better than Bouillon. It's a thick paste rather than a powder, and it comes in a lot of stock-like flavors. I use the chicken most often. Like regular bouillon, it's salty, so you need to watch that. You'll note that I didn't add much salt to this.

As usual, I made this in my rice cooker.

This reheats well, but you'll need to add a bit of water when you reheat to thin the ris-oat-o a little bit.

Mushroom Ris-Oat-O

1 rice-cooker-cup steel cut oats (I used Flahavan's)
Water to "porridge" line on rice cooker
1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon chicken flavor
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of saffron
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
Cheese, grated, as needed - I suggest parmesan or Gruyere
Creme Fraiche

Put the oats in the rice cooker, then add the water to the proper line. Add the Better than Bouillon, salt, and saffron.

Melt the butter in a small saute pan. Cook the mushrooms until the lose their water, then reabsorb it, and then the mushrooms brown a little bit. Add the mushrooms to the rice cooker pot and give the mixture a stir.

Set the rice cooker for brown rice, soft. Press the button and wait, tapping toe impatiently.

Serve with the grated cheese on top, as desired. A dollop of creme fraiche is also very nice, if you like. Some chopped fresh herbs would also be nice, in season. I'd choose thyme or chives.

Ris-Oat-O

This is the post where you'll probably think I'm crazy, but bear with me.

The story starts a looooong time ago. Where, in my childhood, my mother wasn't very interested in making any sort of breakfast. Oh, let's be truthful. She was usually hung over and didn't get up in time to deal with breakfast before I went to school.

So pancakes, waffles, oatmeal .. none of the warm breakfasts were ever on the menu. When I finally experienced oatmeal as an adult, I didn't like it much.

Over the years, I tried it multiple times - with milk, with cream, with maple syrup. And I just didn't like it. As far as I was concerned, oatmeal was for cookies or bread or baking, but not for breakfast.

Then I discovered steel cut oats. (Cue angelic singing)

Oh yeah. That's the good stuff!

But here's the deal. I never liked my oatmeal sweetened. I liked it best cooked with just a pinch of salt and a dab of butter. Savory, not sweet.

Steel cut oats.

I mean, oats are just another grain. Like rice or barley or corn or wheat ... So why not cook them in a savory way? Like grits. Or ....

(wait for it ...)

Like risotto, maybe. Sure, risotto is all about rice, but I've seen recipes for barley risotto. So why not OAT risotto?

Yes, I said it. Oat risotto. Ris-Oat-O.

This is so simple, but it's so freakishly good. It's not too savory for breakfast (I mean, grits are savory, right?)  but I also ate this as a side dish with a garlicky pork dish.

I've been eating this A LOT. It's sooooo good.

And now I'm thinking of all sorts of other add-ins I want to try. There will be recipes coming soon, if my plans work out. But this one will have to be my classic ris-oat-o recipe. The one that I'm going to make over and over again. Because it's easy. And good.

I'll bet that if you served these oats to someone who had only ever eaten rolled or quick oats, they might not recognize them. Particularly with the cheese.

I love making oatmeal in my rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, of course you can cook your oatmeal on the stove.

Ris-Oat-O

1 rice-cooker-cup of steel cut oats
Water, to "porridge" level in rice cooker
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Parmesan cheese, grated

Put the oats, water, salt, and butter in the rice cooker.

Set the rice cooker to the brown rice setting, and "soft."

Press the start button. Wait, tapping toe, while oats cook. Or walk away and come back when it's done. (See, that's the beauty of a rice cooker. You walk away and do something else. No stirring, no burning.)

The oatmeal might seem soupy but when you stir it up, you should have nicely cooked oats in a thick sauce.

Serve with a generous snow of grated parmesan cheese.

If you're going to go really crazy with the cheese, you might want to cut back just a bit on the salt, since the cheese is salty. I'll leave that up to you.

You can make this in large batches (this is enough for about 3-4 servings for me, depending on how hungry I am) and it reheats well in the microwave. It thickens up as it cools, though, so you'l want to add a bit of water to it when you reheat, so you get that creamy texture back again.

Did I mention ...

That the oats were provided by the Irish Food Board? I didn't know there was such an organization until they contacted me, and of course I was interested in finding out more about what we get from Ireland. For starters, four different brands of oats, McCanns, Flahavan's, Macroom, and Kilbeggan. That's a lot of oat companies.

For this recipe, I used the Flahavan's, and I have to say that I like them a heck of a lot more than my usual non-branded bulk bin oats. Go figure, huh?