risotto and salad - a balancing act

most of the ingredients before i hacked them up

so i've put off this post for a while now. at least two weeks, so i need to write it or i'll forget what was in it. i made a two part dinner, but they were complementary.

• the salad was a spinach salad with roasted pumpkin seeds, manchego cheese and a honey lemon vinaigrette. it was topped with a seared rib eye steak (had a great salty crust to it). the salad was the balancing act for the main dish which was...
• mushroom, asparagus and leek risotto with bacon

the salad was very straight forward to make, i need the lemon to really cut through the richness of the risotto. and it worked out perfectly. the risotto on its own would have been too heavy.

the risotto was a multi step process to say the least. the asparagus was first blanched and the vegs were all cooked separately before the risotto itself was started. the chicken broth was heated on the side and was up to temp before starting the risotto. i used a few pieces of bacon (for a meal that fed 4.5, N counts as at least 1.5 persons). after rendering i removed the crispy bacon to add back in later in the process. then the rice process started. used white wine before moving to the broth. about two thirds of the way in, i added the vegs and the bacon back in. it took longer than expected overall and dinner was served a good half hour late.

overall it was a good first real shot at risotto. i had a made a couple in college, but it was in a big group, this was the first time i had made the whole thing from top to bottom. next time i'd really liked to make a seafood one, maybe make my own shrimp stock from shells. we'll see though, it's a lot of work.

the finished product