Hello, my fierce snowbirds…well, maybe that’s my dream! Happy New Year, or more accurately, Happy Wintering for those who celebrate. 2025 came in hot and does not look like it will slow down anytime soon. I am taking a different approach to the start of a new year this go round. I am taking January slow, with some downtime from Kitchen Gossip, social media, and the pressure to jump into 2025 with huge goals and resolutions. I hope you are giving yourself grace this time of year, and the time for rest.
I learned about the Scandinavian tradition of Hygge last year. Winter is embraced as a time for rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation when we allow time to recover our minds, bodies, and souls. There was a time when the new year started in March on the Equinox, the start of spring, a change of season that brings about an awakening, a natural time to jump into new things, and start aspirational projects. I read the book “Wintering” by Katherine May last winter. This book takes you through the ideas of Hygge or Wintering, and more that wintering can also be a tool to help you during grief, stress, and life events that require soul-searching hugs.
I am embracing this year, allowing time for the natural hibernation my body is urging me to go into. This is especially true here in the PNW, where it’s still pitch black at 7 a.m., sunset happens at 4 p.m., and climbing into bed by 6 p.m. seems the right thing to do! I have been craving more time with books and less time with shows, and I started craving my knitting needles again. So, I cast on some beautiful baby alpaca yarn and have a sweater in the works.
This is also when I want warm, comforting foods on my plate, and my cooking looks very different from the other months of the year. This season is when my recipe creativity wanes, and I want familiar foods that warm me from the inside out. Brothy things, double carbs, spaghetti and meatballs, chilies, bean dishes, hearty roasted root vegetable salads with creamy blue cheese…foods I don’t need a recipe for, dishes that come from what I have on hand. My pantry called me to ingredients I forgot about when produce was abundant.
One of my favorite comforting dishes is risotto. I love rice of all kinds, but something about the complexity of risotto speaks to my soul. It is sometimes a side, but it makes a wonderful one-pot complete meal. It combines all those warming attributes…starchy, creamy, deeply umami, great friends with all vegetables, and proteins, and can be doctored with all the cheese and dairy your heart longs for. At the same time, it can be light, bright, and the perfect vehicle to let gentler flavors shine.
Risotto is an Italian dish, and also the term for a way of cooking rice. The Italian word risotto comes from Riso which translates to rice. Traditionally risotto is made from short-grain starchy white rice, varieties like Arborio are the most commonly found variety in markets, but there's more to choose from: Baldo, Carnaroli, Maratelli, Padano, Roma, and Vialone Nano. Arborio, Carnaroli, and Vialone Nano are the most easily found, try them all and find your favorite.
The process of cooking risotto differs from other rice cookery. The ratio of rice to liquid is quite a bit more, when I do a simple search for this the internet says 1:3, 1 part rice to 3 parts liquid. I'm here to tell you wrong!!! For 1 1/2 cups of rice, I use 6-7 cups of liquid. The liquid is slowly stirred into the rice a little bit at a time, allowing absorption to happen before the next addition of liquid. You must have your stock hot, otherwise, your rice will drop in temperature each time you add liquid and you will end up with gummy rice, instead of creamy deliciousness.
Risotto has been sold to us as a labor-intensive, must stand over the pot, stirring constantly like an Italian Nonna, but I am here to tell you that is just not the case. When I was a newby line cook, the sous chef of the restaurant I worked in gave me the task of prepping a grain in the "style of risotto", he came back a bit later and found me standing at the stove stirring away even though I also had a prep list a mile long to get through before service started. He questioned what I was doing and then laughed hard at my intense focus on preparing my "risotto" in the classic technique.
Since then, I have learned that constant stirring, while very enjoyable, methodical, and…might I say meditative—does not yield a better result than stirring occasionally. The key is to give the rice a good aggressive stir each time you add liquid to the pan, and feel free to give it additional stirs when you walk by, think about it, or need an excuse to do some internal meditation.
Risotto is the star of any plate but also plays nicely with others. Maybe try it with my tried and true roasted salmon. Bonus recipe below.
Wherever you are in your new year vibe, hitting the resolutions strong, or Wintering, make yourself some delicious risotto…I also give lots of suggestions for making it your own on my website Chefjenskitchen.com.
Printable Bonus Salmon Recipe Below
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