Risotto di Zucca (rice with squash)

Emboldened by my success with Riso alla Pitoca, last weekend I tackled another of the elusive* recipes from the 'Lidia's Italy' episode called Notto Risotto.

Here's the recipe as I guesstimated from the show.

Risotta di Zucca (Rice with Squash)
(adapted from Lidia's Italy TV show, ep. Notto Risotto)

Serves 4

Pestata
1/2 lrg or 1 small onion, roughly chopped
1-2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
1-2 stalks celery, cleaned & roughly chopped
Aim for approximately equal amounts of onion, carrots, and celery. Toss all in food processor and chop until fine but not completely pulverized.

Main Ingredients
2 Tblsp oil
3-4 cups cubed butternut squash (peel, cut into ~1/2" cubes)
4.5 cups water, hot
1.5 cups rice (arborio, other short grain?)

To Finish
2 Tblsp butter, room temp.
grated parmesan cheese to taste
salt & pepper to taste (See note)

Heat 2 Tblsp oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. The heavy bottom is important as it will keep the rice from scorching during cooking.

Add pestata, (salt,) cook for a few minutes.

If it seems dry, add a little more oil, then add the squash cubes and four cups of the water. Hold back 1/2 cup for adjustments along the way.

Bring to boil, cover, and cook for 5 minutes or so.

Stir in rice, (salt.) Cover, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. If you're worried about scorching, stir every 5 minutes or so. Check rice and squash for doneness after 15 minutes. Cook 5-10 minutes more if needed.

When rice is just done:
- If it's too wet, remove lid and simmer until it reaches desired consistency.
- If it's too dry, add a little more hot water. It will continue to thicken as it sits after adding the cheese and butter.

Remove from heat and add 2 T butter, stir in vigorously. Lidia called this step 'mantecare'. Stir in parmesan cheese.

Serve immediately, as this does not improve over time.

NOTES
I meant to weigh the squash before I dismembered it but forgot. It was not a large squash, maybe small-to-medium, and I had enough cubes left over to freeze for later.

Try to make the squash cubes as consistent as possible. Large ones will take longer to cook.

I salted as I added each step to the pot and didn't need to add any salt at the end.

There's no way this qualifies for Project Weeknight due to the veggie prep, but if I had some pestata and squash in the freezer... hmmmm. Might have to give that some thought.

True confession: I didn't cook the recipe as demonstrated. Instead, I added a generous tablespoon of curry powder with the pestata and subbed a can of coconut milk for 1.5 cups of water. I also skipped the mantecara at the end since the coconut milk was full-fat and had an impressing chunk of solidified coconut fat on top. It was really good. The coconut flavor did not dominate, but I still think it was worth it. Next time I might try a can of low-fat coconut milk.

* As you may have noticed, I usually try to respect copyright and link to recipes I feature instead of reprinting them, but it really pisses me off when a cooking show doesn't make the recipes it demonstrates available online. The recipes from this episode don't even seem to be in the companion book! In my mind, that makes it OK for me to present my best guess.

Rationalize, much?
 

Here we go a-gain

Get it? a-GAIN? Heh.

The other day I got on the scale for the first time in a couple of weeks. As you may remember, my scale died so I am now using my SO's husband's scale, which weighs 6.5 pounds heavier than my old scale and probably three pounds heavier than is strictly accurate. Even taking that all into consideration, I found myself staring at a new all-time, non-pregnant, non-postpartum high. This is not good.

So the roller coaster has one again rocketed to the peak, as it seems to do every two years, which means it's time to figure out how to get it going down again. I refuse to try any more gimmicks or major lifestyle changes. I already know a LOT about what I should and should not do. I just have to figure out how to do it. Oh yeah, and I have to make myself move through space. That's going to be critical, especially as...

I have a MAJOR birthday in about a week. Which one? The one that brings an invitation in the mail to join a particular organization full of MUCH MUCH older people. I thought my last major birthday brought some physical changes, but from what I hear, I ain't seen nothing yet. I am considering this my last best chance to get my act together before I succumb to my genetic heritage, which, unfortunately, seems to come not from my mother's slimmer side, but my father's more pear-shaped side.

I am going to take advantage of this milestone as an excuse opportunity to buy a new toy. We're getting a Wii for Christmas and I simply had to have a Wii Fit Plus (w/Balance Board) because this magical device will fill all my exercise needs. OK, it won't, but it can't hurt and it looks like fun.

But yeah, new toys aside, I am disappointed. I can't even tell you how many times I have been at this point. And just as advertised, every time I reach a peak it's five pounds heavier than the last one and the gap between where I am and where I want to be gets a little wider. Just like my ass.

Will this time be different? I certainly hope so. I just have to figure out how to make it different without doing the same things over again and expecting a different outcome. I guess that means no new 'diet/nutrition' books, no bold declarations of major lifestyle changes.

How anti-climactic.
 

Project Weeknight: Riso alla Pitoca (rice with chicken)

I never watch Lidia's Italy on PBS but I just happened to catch an episode this weekend. She was doing rice dishes with risotto-type rice (arborio or whatever) that didn't require the traditional risotto cooking technique. The last dish she showed was 'a traditional chicken and rice'. It looked so simple yet so amazing. It made me salivate.

So I did what I always do: I headed to the intertubes to find the recipe. Oh, imagine my frustration when I discovered that not only was it not to be found, but it didn't even seem to be listed in the table of contents of the companion book to the series!

Luckily the episode aired again later that day and I managed to record it. I pored over it, trying to recreate the recipe. The big sticking point was how much rice and stock she used. She didn't say and I haven't made enough risotto to know.

Well, now it became a point of honor. I would figure out that recipe! It took several more intertube searches and a lot of guessing, but I made my interpretation of it last night and it was fab-ulous.

It could be considered flexitarian because I used so little meat but it's neither whole grain nor high in vegetables. Oh, and it's fairly butter-intensive. I figure it's a once-in-a-while treat.

Riso alla Pitoca (Pitocca?) (Beggar's Rice)
(adapted from Lidia's Italy TV show, ep. Notto Risotto)

Serves 3

Pestata
1/2 lrg or 1 small onion, roughly chopped
1-2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
1-2 stalks celery, cleaned & roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Aim for approximately equal amounts of onion, carrots, and celery. Toss all in food processor and chop until fine but not completely pulverized.

Main Ingredients
2 Tblsp butter
2 chicken thighs, boned and cubed (See note)
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup white wine
4 cups chicken stock, hot
1.5 cups rice (arborio, other short grain?)

To Finish
2 Tblsp butter, room temp.
grated parmesan cheese to taste
chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste (See note)

Heat 2 Tblsp butter (or swap out some for olive oil) in a heavy-bottomed pot. The heavy bottom is important as it will keep the rice from scorching during cooking.
Add pestata, (salt,) cook for a few minutes.
Move vegs to side, add chicken, (salt,) cook until starts to brown.
Add bay leaf, wine, bring to boil, simmer until alcohol smell is gone.
Add 3.5 cups of the hot stock, bring to boil, add rice, (salt.)
Cover, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. If you're worried about scorching, stir every 5 minutes or so. Check rice for doneness after 15 minutes. Cook 5-10 minutes more if needed.

When rice is just done:
- If it's too wet, remove lid and simmer until it reaches desired consistency.
- If it's too dry, add some of the reserved hot stock. It will continue to thicken as it sits after adding the cheese and butter.

Remove from heat and add 2 T butter, stir in vigorously. Lidia called this step 'mantecare'
Add parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, stir.

Serve immediately, as this does not improve over time.

NOTES
For 4 servings, use 2 cups rice, an extra bit of wine, and 5+ cups hot stock, reserving 1/2 cup for adjustments at the end.

I used only maybe 4-6 ounces of meat, max. You could use up to 1 pound, depending on how meaty you want it.

I salted as I added each step to the pot and didn't need to add any salt at the end.

As for Project Weeknight status, it ended up on the table half an hour late. Mostly it was because I decided to use chicken thighs from a whole chicken I had broken down for stock, and getting rid of all the little gross tendony bits was a huge time sink. Next time I'll just buy boned skinned thighs. Otherwise I think I could have had it on the table in 45 minutes.

As for acceptability, both my guys loved it, which is always good. There were two other recipes in the episode, rice with sage (riso alla salvia) and rice with squash (risotto di zucca). Yes, they're on my list.

Enjoy!
 

Reentry

Wow - that was crazy. I spent most of the last month focused on getting married, then I went and got married and took a week off work. I'm back at my desk today and trying to get plugged back in, but feels like I've been gone forever!

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm also in the middle of NaNoWriMo? I have to admit, it's suffered over the last week or so. Let's just say I'm a few days behind. But I digress.

Anyway, during our trip to Las Vegas for the wedding, I experienced another 'hotel mirror moment', which is what propelled me to start this blog in the first place. Has it really been almost two years? I don't know how I thought that I could gain all the weight back and not look it, but I guess that's the beauty of having no full length mirrors at home. Ignorance was, indeed bliss.

I know my recent problem is that even though we're eating primarily vegetarian, we're not eating many vegetables. I've fallen into a beans and grains and cheese and whole grain bread and peanut butter rut. I kind of burned out on raw veggies in 2008 but I need to find a way to rekindle the love.

I'm always looking for a cool new solution, and luckily, Daniel at Casual Kitchen has my back. He's just finishing a seven day raw foods trial and it's caught my eye. I wouldn't try to go 100% raw, but a raw smoothie in the morning might be a good way to get back my veggie love. Who knows? I might even get my guys to give it a go once in awhile.

Has anyone tried it? I'd love to hear from you.
 

Compromises

As part of my halfhearted attempt to shake at least a few of the ten pounds I've regained over the past year -- or at least preventing any more from piling on -- I'm trying to cut back on my usage of 'diet dark' (aka Diet Coke and/or Pepsi). Why cut back on diet drinks while dieting? Let's just say I'm becoming more and more convinced that the regular consumption of calorie-free sweet treats without consequences is about as plausible as a truly free puppy.

Cutting back on diet soda sounds easy enough, but boy howdy, there's nothing quite like cracking open a cold one in the middle of a long afternoon at the day job, you know? Yeah, water is the gold standard, but I already drink a fair amount of it and besides, it's just not the same. Some days I just want a cold bottle/can of... something, and beer is generally frowned upon in the workplace.

I recently realized that bottled iced tea could fill that void quite nicely, if I could find one that 1) tasted like tea and b) didn't have high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. I'd even drink something with (gasp!) real sugar before either of those, as long as it wasn't too sweet.

Luckily, both Lipton and Snapple put out products that fit the bill. I don't think the Snapple version of lemon tea would be recognizable as tea in a blindfold test, but it wasn't bad enough to spit on the floor. Lipton has both a plain unsweetened tea (as a Northerner, I'm OK with that) and a lemon tea with sugar. I haven't tried the lemon yet but the unsweetened stuff tastes like tea, which is kind of the point.

Sure, I feel stupid paying a dollar-something for 16 ounces of plain tea, and sure, I could make my own damned tea and drag it to work and drink it from a glass like normal people, but if spending a few bucks on some glass bottles helps keep the diet dark monkey off my back, I'm all for it.

It's just a drop in the sea of compromise, but I need all the drops I can get.
 

Salted yogurt and cold bananas: Who knew?

(No, not together!)

I've had a couple of revelations recently that I must share with you.

First, at the ripe (ha!) old age of 49, I just learned that you can indeed keep bananas in the fridge. Yes, they end up looking like hell, but that's just the peel -- the fruit stays perfectly firm. The cold slows the transformation from banana to fruit fly farm to a crawl. Unfortunately, I've also learned I have a problem eating cold bananas, so I have to let them come to room temp before peeling and enjoying.

If I had a dollar for every banana I've thrown away because I didn't know this....

And, if I sort through my freezer to cull all the baggies full of frozen over-ripe bananas, we could eat banana bread for months. That's not such a bad idea, really.

Secondly, last night I made Veggiecakes. This time I used a medium russet potato (grated), the same amount of grated sweet potato, and maybe a slightly larger quantity of grated zucchini (because that's what I had) along with the other ingredients. I didn't have sour cream but wanted something to plop on top, so I reluctantly turned to the full-fat plain yogurt. I've never been a big fan of subbing yogurt for sour cream because, not matter what they say, it's not "just the same".

However, this time, thinking of the raita I had last time we went for Indian food, I threw a little salt in it. And you know what? It was pretty darned close. Both my son and SO went for it, big time. The fact that it was full-fat didn't hurt -- I don't think low-fat yogurt would have been as well received. I doubt we saved any calories, but I felt so much 'healthier' telling myself I was eating my practically-deep-fried Veggiecakes with yogurt rather than sour cream. Calories notwithstanding, salted yogurt earned a big thumb's-up all around. It's well worth a try.

The last bit of news is rather sad: My trusty digital bathroom scale has finally given up. I can't bring myself to run out and buy a new one as we already have another perfectly good scale but, if you remember, it weighs SIX POUNDS heavier than mine.

Let's just say I was very sad this morning when I stepped on board.

Hey, have I mentioned we're getting married in about a month? I suppose, according to the traditional model I should be freaking out about my weight, but in reality I'm pretty sure it really doesn't matter what I weigh. Unless they've installed scales at the entrance of the Office of Civil Marriages in Las Vegas, I'm pretty sure I'm OK as is.

Truthfully, it would be nice not to gain any more. Thanks to that damned scale I already feel like I gained six pounds overnight.
 

Unventing Faux Mexican Rice

Admin note: Since I'm only posting sporadically, it doesn't make sense to stick to the 'day of the week' titles, so I hereby decree that I will, from this day forth, use descriptive titles on all my posts. Yippee! Release the pigeons!

Yeah, I'm still here, and yeah, I'm still struggling. I'm still eating flexitarian, mostly ovo-lacto-vegetarian (not much lacto, tho) with occasional meat. And I have gained back just about all the weight I lost last year.

All together now: Heavy sigh.

A big component of my problem is my activity level. There are a few quasi-valid reasons (read: lame excuses) that I won't bore you with, but overall, even though I am eating pretty well, I am simply taking more in than I'm expending. Yeah, I could stand to tweak a few things, food-wise, and from time to time I actually try to do so, but until I increase my activity level I'm pretty much screwed.

One major disappointment: I still can't break my romaine aversion. I don't seem to be able to eat it more than once a week. I am pretty upset about that. It seemed such an elegant solution!

But enough about my most recent failures, let's talk about food.

I have a new recipe for you! To be precise, the dish is not new but I have found a quick and easy way to approximate it. And I can't even say for sure I'm the first person to think of this, although I haven't seen it anywhere else (that I remember). Let's borrow a term from the online knitting community and just say I 'unvented' it. That's shorthand for 'I discovered this recipe/pattern/technique but can't say definitively that no one else has ever come up with it before, so I'll claim credit only for my incarnation of it.'

Recently I fell in love with that pink rice stuff you often see in Mexican restaurants. I think it's technically called Spanish Rice. I learned Spanish Rice recipes call for white rice to be cooked in broth and stock, which -- white rice issue aside -- just wouldn't to work for me on a weeknight. I usually keep pre-cooked brown rice frozen in 2 cup portions since brown rice takes approximately forever to cook. So what could I do?

In reviewing the ingredients list, I realized I had a lot of the things pre-mixed at my fingertips. Cooked tomatoes, onions, spices... sounds like jarred salsa to me! It only took a few trials to get it just the way I like it. It ain't perfect, but it sure is quick.

Faux Mexican Rice

2 cups pre-cooked brown rice, at room temperature
1/2 cup jarred salsa, your preferred level of spice*
Splash of water

Place rice in a microwave-safe container. Add a splash of water if the rice is a little dry. Add salsa, combine. Add more salsa until it's the color you want. It should be a little saucy; remember the juice will get absorbed by the rice.

Cover and microwave for two minutes. Stir. If it's not piping hot throughout, nuke for another minute or so. Stir and check for piping hot-ness. When it's steaming hot, remove from microwave and let sit, covered, for a few minutes.

The goal is to heat the rice to steaming to, uh, loosen up the starch in the rice, then let it cool down to give the rice a chance to absorb the liquid.

* I like the jarred Pace Picante because, well, I'm a Northerner. Also, it has a nice sauciness to it that works well in this application. And it comes in mild, which my son will eat.

Serve and enjoy!

Now that hot weather is a distant memory (heavy sigh again) I'll probably be posting more often, so come back and see me soon, OK?