Risotto

A local twist to the Italian staple. Italian rice is replaced with Japanese rice. As I don't have a bottle of white wine around which my husband has not already consumed, white wine was not used.

Ingredients:

Japanese rice

Bacon

Garlic and onions

Carrots

Lettuce

Chicken Stock

Spring Onions (or any other herb, i.e. Parsley, Thyme, Chives, Coriander, etc)

Steps:

1. Cook the chopped onions in olive oil until tender. Add in garlic and cook until changes colour.

2. Add in bacon bits and cook until slightly crispy. Add carrots after bacon is cooked.

3. Add in rice. Toss the rice around until all rice is coated with the oil.

4. If you have white wine, add it in and reduce. If not, skip this step.

5. Add in stock one ladle at a time. Remember to keep stock warm. If stock is not, the starch in the rice will solidify and separate. Not good for texture...

6. Keep stirring as you as stock. Roughly takes 30 minutes from the start until the rice is done.

7. When the rice changes colour to become translucent, it is almost ready. Toss in lettuce and herbs at this stage and stir.

8. Once lettuce and herbs have wilted, turn off the stove, cover pan with the lid and let it sit for at least 1 minute. Recommended 5 minutes.

9. Serve immediately.

Notes:

Italian restaurants DO NOT give you this authentic style of risotto. They tend to cook the rice first with a normal rice cooker. When you order your risotto dish, the cook will take the rice, add it into a pot of stock with the necessary ingredients and boil it for around 5 minutes. And in 15 minutes, they would serve you a hot un-authentic rice dish to pass off as risotto.

How do I know this? We Chinese do that with our leftover rice...