Risotto, method.

I agree, although I always start it off properly, with the white wine etc, then I have a glass of the aforementioned and ...the rest is history.

I agree I cant really see a chef in a restaurant standing over one pot endlessly stirring- I do it occasionally by the classical method but its hard work.

Oh, yes, I do the white wine bit 'properly'!
It's the rest that's gone by the wayside.
The asparagus one was lovely - found two Extra Special packs reduced in Asda yesterday, hence our dinner. Seemed perfectly nice, fresh and tender, to me.

I did use a googled recipe, but found it odd that it didn't say to keep the water used for cooking the asparagus, for stock. Just said vegetable stock. I used the asparagus water with a veggie stock cube added.

There are several recipes on line for oven baked risottos, although they all start off on the stove top. I have tried and enjoyed Delia's Pancetta and Leek and Martha Stewart's butternut squash (I roasted the cubed squash first). I have no patience, so these are perfectly acceptable to me.
www.marthastewart.com/331729/butternut-squash-baked-risotto

I love a risotto and have usually done it with the frying onions, add rice till transparent, douse with a cup of wine, then add the stock a cup at a time method.

I always understood that this was so that the rice soaked up the wine first, giving it the special taste.

But on a weekday, I'll chuck everything into a casserole and bake it, covered, to use the heat of the oven while I'm cooking a quiche or a pie. For a weekday, I don't bother with the wine, either. The last one I made (just a couple of days ago) was delicious, and the oven made me a batch of sausage rolls at the same time.

It was the whole meal, with some veggies and mushrooms chopped up into it as well.

With a generous chunk of parmesan grated into it just before serving, I even garnered a (very rare) compliment from DH!

This made me smile, as I used to shop at an Italian deli where the proprietor would not sell arborio rice to anyone who could not explain the proper method to make a risotto!

As with a lot of cooking & eating, I think it's what works for you. Personally, I have to say that, yes, I notice the difference. So mostly, I pull up a stool, pour a glass of wine and spend a pleasant half hour or so, also using the time to prep salad, bread, table etc. However, if hurried, I'll bung the lot in and will still be a nice meal.

I do the same with other things, spending time and / or money on food where one of us feels that there is a difference, and not bothering if we either don't notice the difference, or time /money is short.

And I only cook English asparagus and really appreciate it in season - we had our first lot this week.

I'm a big risotto fan too, but DH isn't. He'll eat it under duress. GS, on the other hand, loves risotto so I usually cook a vegetable one when he comes and serve some meat separately (he doesn't like "things” in it! "Things" being meat). If I have time, I'll add the stock in ladlefuls, but I have also done it adding all the stock and it's been just as good. I once made the mistake of cooking a chicken and mushroom risotto without sealing the chicken separately first. It was horrible; it looked curdled and unappetising. Lesson learned. My favourite risotto is asparagus and sun dried tomato.

I've no patience and am always happy with a shortcut, so I use Delia's oven cooked risotto recipe, but DH sticks with the "proper" method. I can honestly taste no difference, but wouldn't tell him that, as he does most of our cooking and I'm very appreciative! Mind you, I did dice with death last night for kicking off when I found he'd sloshed copious amounts of my best Naked Wines pinot grigio into yesterday's tea.

I totally agree. I just bung it all in and it works just the same. Making a roux is also perfectly possible by just putting it all in the saucepan and stirring. No need to wait to add the milk. It always works for me.
I like short cuts.

Oh I remember trying Delia's oven mushroom risotto. Trouble is I have never known the difference between condensed milk and evaporated milk. I can't even now remember which one I should have used, but clearly didn't and the result was absolutely inedible. Still smarting!

I lived in Italy for 4 years and was taught some of the classic dishes by a trained chef. They added the stock, after the wine had been absorbed, a low heat and the lid on and leave it! Occasional stir but not the manic stirring trendy in today's celeb cooking shows. I was also taught to use cream in carbonara, another no no these days!

Interesting! I have always stood over the thing, stirring frantically after every stock addition. Plan to try a fish risotto later today with the stock in all at once, and do something interesting for a while (apart from an occasional stir).

I always add all the stock at the same time, if there is the possibility of a short cut in cooking I always take it!

I would say, no need to stir frantically (indeed I believe Tonio would criticise anyone who said that!). Gentle, slow stirring, every few minutes is how I do it.

I start off with a wee tate, then bung in the lot! Works for me.

mawbroon I imagine your risotto was similar to a quiche I once bought at our local bakers.
The trainee chef had inadvertently used sweet pastry instead of the ordinary one.
When I politely mentioned it the next time I went in, the baker's wife looked suitably mortified. "Oh no not you as well!"

PS condensed is the one you use for Banoffi Pie

I always put all the ingredients in a cast-iron casserole, add all the stock, bring it to the boil and put in the oven.

Never had a problem and it tastes fine.

I make it in my actifry. Risotto with small portobello mushrooms and chorizo is DH's favourite.

MawBroon if you open the tin, and it's empty, then it must be evaporated, hope this helps!

(Sorry, childish joke!)

Does it make any difference if you use the special Italian risotto rice? I've got a packet that I've never used, I've only ever used cheap long grain.
In olive oil gently cook chopped onion, add rice , stir for 1 min., add stock and simmer. Just before it's done add some peas, small tin of sweet corn etc. We have it with fish of some kind.

Sounds like a lovely savoury rice dish. However arborio rice, as used in risotto, absorbs the stock and the result is a creamy dish. Do try it.

I make risotto like it says on the arborio pack, adding the stock gradually and stirring. If I don't stir, the rice sticks to the bottom of the pan. If I have to stir and it takes 20 minutes to cook, I don't see the advantage of pouring all the stock in at the start. What am I missing?

I do use arborio - or pudding rice! - for risotto, but I also do a curried kedgeree with long grain where I add all the fishy stock at once, and TBH it's a very similar dish. It's delish and a v easy standby, since I nearly always have smoked haddock in the freezer.
In Sweden they do a very rich rice pudding at Christmas, and while a Swedish friend's son was living here he complained to his mother that he couldn't get the right rice. I told him to look for pudding rice, though it's not usually so easy to find now, and I daresay arborio would do as well - maybe it's much the same thing under a fancier name!

What you are missing, Cunco, is not doing all the other things you could be doing in the time you spend stirring.

The art of making risotto when you put all the stock in at once is not cooking it in the hob. You cook it in the oven or in a slow cooker. That way the rice doesn't stick to the pan.