Risotto, method.

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!

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 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!

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 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.

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'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.

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 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!

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

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.

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.

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.