Sunday, October 7, 2012

Winter Squash Risotto


Ingredients:
3-4 cups of assorted winter squash (I used one small butternut and 2 small acorn)
1 cup of Arborio rice
4 cups of chicken broth (I used low sodium )
½ cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of yellow onion
½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of dried sage
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
*white pepper and salt

Start by cutting the assorted squash in half. Coat the insides of the squash halves in olive oil and roast squash at 400 degrees for 1 hour. For butternut squash, separate the bulb-like/hollow bottom half from the solid top half. Lay olive oil coated squash “bowls” flesh side up on a baking sheet. Put solid butternut squash halves face down in ¼ inch of water and roast for 1 hour.


Take out and cool squash halves.

Scrap the squash from the peeling and mash together.

Put in a blender and puree. I added a small amount of chicken broth to the blender to help the squash puree.

In the mean time, whip the cream until a soft peak in obtained. Fold in squash puree (about 4 cups) until a desired taste is reached.

Get the chicken broth boiling in a pot.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the onions until tender. Be sure not to burn the onions.

And the cup of rice and spread it in the pan on med-high heat. Let the rice cook for about two minutes. Stir often to be sure the rice does not burn.


Add a cup of the boiling broth to the rice. Let cook until almost dry (about 5 minutes). Then and another ½ cup of hot broth and let cook again until nearly dry. Stir often throughout the entire process to ensure the rice is being evenly cooked. Do this until the rice is done to your liking. My total cook time was around 25 minutes. You want to make sure that you do not over cook the rice or else it will become mushy. While the rice is cooking, this is when you can season it the sage and thyme, or other choosen seasonings






Once the rice is done, add 1 cup of whipped squash and ½ cup of parmesan cheese. 


Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!



No comments: