Chopin-inspired Risotto

Since the house is frighteningly quiet without Sarah, I usually have music playing while I’m cooking, cleaning, doing the dishes, doing the laundry or simply when I’m in the mood to bust a move.  Last night (I started typing this on Friday!), I decided to pop in a Chopin cd (or as Bro likes to call it, a compact disc!)  Not only did it motivate me to practice playing the piano (which I’ve been sadly neglecting!) but it also inspired me to make something for dinner that would be slow, romantic and whimsical like some of my favourite classical music (for some reason, typing that last part of the sentence almost made me vomit...slow, romantic and whimsical...ugh!).  Seriously though, if you’re looking for some music that will keep you occupied while you stir your risotto for what seems like hours, pop in some Chopin for a very relaxing, mediation-like, risotto-making session.   

I’m sure you’re all drooling right now thinking about my risotto and you’re eagerly awaiting the recipe but before I tell you about my romantic risotto dinner for one, don’t you want to know about “Without Child – Week #2”???  I thought you did :)

Well, Sarah is no doubt feeling comfortable in her new life because she didn’t call her mother on Saturday or Sunday.  She was too busy with VegFest and celebrity sightseeing at the Toronto International Film Festival.   Regardless, she did find the time in her busy day to text me a few times (when prompted!).    You already know about Saturday (Farmers’ Market, lunch with Mom, Dad and Bro then movie night with Reb…we watched ‘Leap Year’ with yummy Matthew Goode) so I’ll get right to Sunday which turned out to be a beautiful, hot and sunny day so I opened all of the windows and cleaned the house (which took me no time at all since there’s no one home to mess it!), did a load of laundry (only one!), watched the movie ‘Limitless’, read on my front porch, watched a couple of episodes of Gilmore Girls, ate whenever I wanted to eat (often!), and walked over to BFF’s for a quick visit.

On Monday, I left for work at 5:30am, arrived home at 6pm then went for a walk with Neighbour. 

On Tuesday, I took a flight to see Sarah (it was really for my meeting on Wednesday but the bonus was being able to see Sarah!).  I was supposed to meet Sarah on campus but her class ended early so we decided to meet at her place but to my surprise, she ended up on my bus.  What a wonderful gift to see my daughter’s smiling face!  We went for eyebrow threading then to her place where I installed Microsoft Office on her Mac while she had a bite to eat.  Her apartment is so cozy especially now that she has stuff on the walls.  We then went out shopping and for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant.  After our visit, I went to my hotel in preparation for my meeting on Wednesday.  What a wonderful day!!!

After my meeting on Wednesday, I ended up at the airport 2.5 hours early so I started re-reading “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  It’s one of my favourite novels so I highly recommend it!  One of my favourite parts of the book is: 

“…Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.  If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.  This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the ‘creative temperament’ – it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely shall ever find again.  No – Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” 

Wow!   There is something so poetic about the way he strings words, sentences and paragraphs together.   Once you’ve read “The Great Gatsby", I highly recommend you move on to what I consider to be a modern day Fitzgerald:  Jonathan Franzen.  In my opinion, Franzen is equally as gifted in his writing style as Fitzgerald.   

Since I’m in recommendation mode, I also recommend that you rent the movie ‘Limitless’ because I found it to be very entertaining and thought-provoking.  Bradley Cooper’s not too bad on the eyes too :)

On Thursday, I worked all day and night (my work deadline is Monday!) but found time for a visit to see Dr. Acupuncture.  As you know, I’ve been trying to do something about my left shoulder which is “frozen” but as the left shoulder improves; my right shoulder is starting to act up.  I’m getting the same sharp pains in my right shoulder and arm as I did in my left before it became frozen so I’m really hoping that I don’t end up with two frozen shoulders.  How the hell will I get my clothes on and off?  How will I do my push-ups every day? How will I get the dishes from the top shelf?  How will I shave my armpits if I can't lift my arms?  I guess Sarah will have to move back home and become my live-in nurse :)

As I've already mentioned, on Thursday, I also found the time to listen to Chopin and make myself a yummy risotto but before I tell you about my risotto, I thought you might be interested in hearing me…wait for it…play the piano.  I’m sure many of you have been wondering about my progress.  Can she really play the piano?  Well, guess what?  I can!  I must warn you that I’m no piano-playing magnum opus (I should really stick to blogging!) but I have learned to play a few pieces (not well or consistently for that matter!). 

Of course, I can't actually record a video of myself playing the piano (how could I hold the camera and play at the same time?) so it's a video with audio only but I promise you that it's me.  Who else would record themselves playing this badly and post it on a blog???  So the first video is of me playing my favourite song, so far, "Journey by Train" which has three parts: Part I - Across the Plains, Part II - Up the Mountain Side and Part III - Through the Tunnel but the video is only of me playing Part II (see P.S. for the reason) which is my favourite part but when I play all three parts, you can actually feel the "Journey by Train".  The second video is of me playing Arietta in C Major. 

So here’s the proof of my mad piano-playing skills:

Imagine how good I could be if I practiced :P

If piano boy genius was listening to this, he would ask me why I would embarrass myself in public with such a video then ask me why I haven’t bought a metronome yet because I suck at keeping time but that will come eventually.  I am going to buy a metronome as soon as I resume piano lessons with my new teacher.   If you’re looking to critique my piano-playing skills, I’d love to hear some constructive criticism (remember that I cry easily!).  I know I’m not consistent with my timing and that my transitions suck.  I need to commit to practicing every day in order to improve.  My goal is to play my favourite piece really soon:  Mozart’s Für Elise. 

Now that you’ve had a good laugh been enlightened entertained, it’s time to share my risotto recipe with you.  It’s a little time consuming, requires your full attention but it’s really easy and soooooo yummy!!!  Please note that I originally used Jamie Oliver’s basic risotto recipe but tweaked it along the way. 

CHOPIN-INSPIRED RISOTTO

Ingredients:

A container of vegetable or chicken broth
¼ cup of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g/14oz risotto rice
Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and fresh herbs (if available)
Handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Pop in the Chopin cd.
2. Heat the stock (this is a little bit of a shortcut so if you decide not to heat the stock, your risotto will take a little longer to cook).
3. In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and a tablespoon of butter, add the onions and garlic.  Fry very slowly for about 10 minutes without colouring.
4. When the onions and garlic have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat.
5. The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it.  After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside.
6.  Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes.
7.  Taste the rice to see if it’s cooked.  Continue to add stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite.
8.  Add the salt and pepper to taste.
9.  If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.
10. Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter and parmesan cheese. Stir well.
11. At this point, I add whatever herbs I have on hand (I added freshly chopped basil but this is optional). 
12. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes.
13. Eat it as soon as possible, while the risotto retains its texture (it’s also really good re-heated the day after but won’t look as pretty!).

 ENJOY!!!



 

Risotto should look oozier and creamier but

I waited too long to take the photo!



P.S.  I’m a little late in posting on my blog because I still haven’t found my camera battery charger, therefore, I’m unable to record the piano-playing with my camera (and me playing the piano is a critical piece of today's blog!) so I used  my work Blackberry to record the video which I’m not very familiar with then I tried to send it via Bluetooth to my iPhone without success, I tried to post it on YouTube from my BB without success, I tried to send it via Bluetooth to my laptop without success, I tried to email it to myself without success, then finally I decided to re-record a shorter video of my mad piano-playing skills which then allowed me to e-mail the video to myself.  YAY!!