Shrimp risotto

I am an Asian woman, who grew up in Japan for years and was raised by Japanese parents.

In Asia, the main meal is rice.  We eat rice all the time, and I was raised by eating rice everyday.   I can eat rice three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I still don’t get tired of it.

Particularly, I eat a specific type of rice, Koshihikari. This is one of the most popular varieties of rice in Japan and is grown in my hometown.

Luckily, I can get this rice at an Asian market for a reasonable price in the US, and this is the only rice that I buy.

However, the other day I decided to buy different kind of rice, Arborio.  This is an Italian short-grain rice and used in risotto.

Risotto is my favorite Italian food, and I always order it whenever I see it on a menu at a restaurant.

I always thought making risotto was hard until I first time made Pumpkin risotto for Halloween.

Making risotto requires a really simple step, keep adding liquid to rice and cook until rice gets soft and puffy.

Shrimp and Spinach Risotto

Serves 2

200 g Arborio rice

1 onion (minced)

3 tbsp butter

100 ml dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc)

600 ml fresh seafood stock

170 - 200 g of the smallest pink shrimp

200 g spinach

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

½ cup Parmesan cheese

Salt

1. Heat the fresh seafood stock until warm, but not boil.

2. In separate pot (thick-bottomed), heat butter over medium heat, and sauté the minced onions for 2-3 minutes, until just translucent.

3. Add the rice to the pot. Stir-fry the rice for 2-3 minutes, until all the grains are well coated in butter and are beginning to toast.

4. Increase the heat to high and add the white wine. With a wooden spoon, stir the rice vigorously. Once the wine boils, turn the heat down until the wine is just simmering gently. Stir almost constantly. You are doing this to agitate the rice, which releases its starch and creates the creamy sauce you want in a risotto.

5. When the wine is almost cooked away, pour in two ladles of the hot clam broth. Stir well to combine, and add a healthy pinch of salt.

6. Stirring constantly and let this liquid reduce until it is almost gone. Then add another ladle of broth. Continue this until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Taste the spoon and see if the risotto needs salt. If so, add a small pinch.

7. If risotto is almost there – firm in the center but translucent on the outside, and fully surrounded with a creamy sauce – add one more cup of broth, stir well, and taste one more time for salt. (If not, you have old rice and you’ll need to go one more cup and let it cook away.).

8. Add in the shrimp and the parsley. Stir constantly until this last cup of broth is about half gone: remember you want this risotto to be loose and creamy.

9. Add in the Parmesan cheese and serve at once.

I sprinkle Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning on the top before serving.  This gives a bit different flavor to the risotto and spices it up.

Kalbi

Kalbi is the most popular Korean dish in Japan.  It is marinated beef short ribs with Korean soy sauce.

This fatty-marble short rib is hard to find at the grocery stores around here, but I can find it at the Asian market.  Whenever I go there, I have to get this meat and pounds of pork belly meat.

Kalbi is Matto’s favorite dish in Korean cuisine, so I often make it at home.  In Japan, we pronounce it Kalbi, but in Korea it is pronounced Galbi.

Kalbi (for 4)

Beef short rib 2.5 lb

Cooking rice wine (Sake) 1.6 fl oz

Sugar 1.3 oz

Garlic cloves (chopped) 2 tablespoon

Ginger (chopped) 0.6 oz

2 Green onions (chopped)

Sesame oil 1 teaspoon

Sesame 2 tablespoon (optional)

1. Add all ingredients in a Ziploc bag and keep refrigerated over night  (original recipe says 10-20 min, but it is always better to marinate overnight

2. Put a small amount of oil in a cooking pan, and cook the meat

It tastes so good and smells great while cooking.  Your neighbors may get jealous by smelling this Kalbi.  This sauce also goes great with chicken, pork, other types of beef, and even seafood.

Valentine’s Day

Today’s topic is about Valentine’s Day.

The Valentine’s Day here in the US is different than how we celebrate, in Japan.  First off, it is not a couple’s day to celebrate.

In Japan, it is a day for a woman to tell a man how special feeling she has towards him, mostly by giving him chocolate.

Traditionally in Japan, it is not OK for women to express any special feelings to men because it is not a women-like action.  Valentine’s Day is the only exception.  This is the only day of the year that a woman can gives chocolate to a man to expresses her feelings.

If a girl already has a significant other, a girl still gives chocolate and/or a gift to a man, but not from a man to a woman.

Of course, there is another way for man to give a gift in return.  March 14^th, a month after Valentine’s Day, is called White Day, and a man has to return a gift to a woman whom they received chocolate from on Valentine’s Day.

Women often give out chocolate to male colleagues, male relatives, and guy friends as well.  It is not necessary that women have special feeling towards these men.  This type of chocolate is called “Giri choco” meaning “Thank you for your friendship. This is a sign of my appreciation.”

Of course, the gift on White Day is expected from these men, too.

The most important item on Valentine’s Day is chocolate, not flower or teddy bear.

Therefore, I made a chocolate cheesecake for my Valentine, Matto.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

http://recipe.gourmet.yahoo.co.jp/J000980/

Ingredients:

Graham cracker 1 ¼ cup

Sugar 3 tablespoons

Butter 1/3 cup

Cream cheese 12 oz (two 8oz packages) at room temperature

White chocolate 16 oz

Sugar 1.8 oz

Heavy cream 16 oz

Recipe:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 F

2. In a medium bowl, add graham cracker, sugar, and melted butter and mix them.

3. Spread the graham cracker mixture in a baking cake pan and bake it for 8 min

4. Set cooked graham cracker mixture aside and let it cool

5. In a large bowl, add cream cheese and sugar and mix until they get smooth

6. Add melted white chocolate and mix well

7. Pour the mixture over the graham cracker

8. Keep refrigerated overnight before serving

It was a pretty good and easy-to-make cake.  Matto thinks there was a bit too much white chocolate, but we loved it overall.

Palline di Limone

My colleague brought a bag of lemons from his parents’ backyard and shared some with us.

I don’t use lemons often in my food. When I have lemons in my refrigerator, I don’t know what to do with it.

Therefore, I looked for a dessert recipe using lemons, and I found this Palline di Limone (http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2011/04/palline-di-limone.htmlMy) recipe, a traditional Italian cookie.

If you don’t like a dessert that is too sweet, you will probably like it.  Next time, I would add 1 – 1 ¼ C of sugar instead of ¾ C. I prefer cookies to be sweeter.

Surprisingly, after 2-3 days, the cookies got sweeter and they didn’t get soggy like regular cookies do.

The amount of ingredients below would probably make 30-40 cookies which is good because these cookies still taste good after a few days, too.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1¼ tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1½ tbsp lemon extract

1½ tsp almond extract

3 tsp lemon zest, grated

1/3 cup milk

For Icing:

1½ cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1.              Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.              In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside

3.              Beat butter and sugar until fluffy

4.              Beat in eggs one at a time, and then add lemon extract, almond extract, and lemon zest

5.              Stir in half of flour mixture and then add milk.  Add remaining flour mixture and stir until blended

6.              Make a 1 inch ball and place them about 2 inches apart (I used a dessert decorator)

7.              Bake for 15-18 minutes until puffed but not brown. Allow to cool fully on wire rack

8.              Combine confectioners sugar and lemon juice.  Stir in water drop by drop until desired consistency