The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 936

SPRING VEGETABLE RISOTTO As partners in crime, asparagus and risotto give Pinky and The Brain a run for their money in terms of sheer awesomeness And while we’re at it—oh, what the heck— let’s grab a few more of my favorite spring vegetables as well Let’s start with fava beans The bane of every prep cook’s existence, these mild-flavored, bright green beans need to be shucked not once, but twice After popping them out of their big pods (that’s the easy part), they then have to have their individual skins removed It’s not fun Fortunately, there’s an easy way to it: blanch them first After a brief boil in water, they not only slip out of their skins with an easy squeeze, but they actually achieve a brighter green color than they would if you blanched them postpeeling That’s a win-win When shopping for favas, look for whole pods that are firm and snap if you start to bend them Older fava pods will be spongy and bendy, and they contain older beans, which is not what you want Asparagus comes in a few different colors and sizes You won’t actually find much difference in flavor between the fat purple and the green varieties, but I like to mix them anyway because it makes the dish look prettier White asparagus, on the other hand, does have a different flavor, both delicate and slightly bitter, with a deeper earthiness than its colored counterparts I blanch my asparagus in the same water I blanch my fava beans in, which I eventually use to cook my risotto as well That way any flavor that gets blanched out of the vegetables gets added right back to the rice as it cooks Effectively, it’s like making a quick vegetable stock Normally I wouldn’t blanch zucchini—it’s so bland and watery that boiling it renders it completely lifeless But baby zucchini are more intense in flavor and take well to blanching Finally, snap peas are particularly bright and sweet in the spring Just as with favas, look for whole pods that are stiff and snappy They won’t get any crunchier when they cook The only possibly tough part about this recipe is the fancy-pants morel or porcini mushrooms Fresh morels and porcini are tough to find and, when you do, extraordinarily expensive Luckily, this recipe is one of the rare cases where dried mushrooms are actually better The key to great-flavored risotto is to start with greatflavored liquid Dried mushrooms offer you the perfect opportunity Once you’ve blanched your vegetables, you can use that same flavorful water to rehydrate your mushrooms (the fastest way is to microwave the ’shrooms in the water; heat speeds up the hydration process) The water that comes off the mushrooms when you drain them should be deep, dark brown and intensely flavorful This translates to deep, dark brown and intensely flavorful risotto  ... rehydrate your mushrooms (the fastest way is to microwave the ’shrooms in the water; heat speeds up the hydration process) The water that comes off the mushrooms when you drain them should be deep,... and sweet in the spring Just as with favas, look for whole pods that are stiff and snappy They won’t get any crunchier when they cook The only possibly tough part about this recipe is the fancy-pants... this recipe is one of the rare cases where dried mushrooms are actually better The key to great-flavored risotto is to start with greatflavored liquid Dried mushrooms offer you the perfect opportunity