No Recipe Required: Roast Chicken and Risotto

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about using recipes for everything and how I needed to get away from that. Well I figured there is no time like the present, so last night I made supper without using a recipe. I made a beautiful roast chicken and risotto with caramelized onions, peas and a touch of parmesan.

Last night’s supper planning started a few days ago when I ran into the GrassRoots Co-Op to pick up some milk and some flour. I often buy my flour in bulk and while I was scooping it out I saw that they had Arborio rice.  “Hmmm….” I thought myself, “I could make risotto with that.” I then measured out a cup or so and went on my merry way. The fact, that I have never made risotto, never really entered my mind.

Cooking started with the chicken. I often make roast chicken, so making it without a recipe is really not an issue. (Though I do always forget what temp to cook it to, 180° for those who now realize that they don’t remember either.) I rubbed it with olive oil, tarragon, garlic, rosemary and S & P. Then I tossed it in the oven at 350° until my thermometer read 180°. Easy-peasy.

Then came time for the risotto, for which originally I had intended to find a recipe. I looked at a few when I first got back from the store, but I really did not read them. I am not sure why, but they all seemed too frou-frou (go figure, frou-frou is actually in my spell check!). So I decided that I would just wing it. I thought about all the risottos I have seen made on TV, contemplated the few I have eaten and started cooking.

I started by thawing six cups of my homemade chicken stock in the microwave. After it thawed a bit I put it in a pot and brought it to a simmer. Then I heated some oil in a large skillet. I poured in my Arborio rice and roasted it until it was a light golden brown. I then started adding the chicken broth, stirring and adding more chicken broth, one ladle at a time.

At first I planned to make a very plain risotto. I figured that plain would be fine for my first attempt, but things were going so well that I got fancy. I kept adding stock a ladle or so at a time to the risotto while I cut up an onion and started caramelizing it. I was a bit worried about the timing of this, but in the end they were both done at about the same time. I then put the onions in the risotto, warmed some frozen peas, added some S & P and finished with some parmesan. It was quite good.

Sadly, the risotto was finished when the chicken was still at 165°, so it had to sit awhile before we ate. The risotto ended up being a bit too thick. However, everything was tasty AND I made our whole supper without reading a recipe while doing it!

No Recipe Required: Scrambled Egg Sandwich

I have noticed that over the last few years I have become very dependent on recipes. This is strange because I used to cook dinner several nights a week before I left for college. (My mother worked second shift.) I would come home from school and go to the freezer and decide what we were having. (I grew up on a dairy farm we always had chicken, beef and pork in the freezer.)

Now I pour over cookbooks and recipe sites looking for the right recipe. What happened? Well, of course, my palate changed, but I think the way we eat in general has changed. We are exposed to so many different cuisines now. How could I recreate them with out a recipe? I also think that it is because I now cook for two people and not just for myself. I want each meal to come out tasty and for some reason I do not trust myself to just cook.

I do cook some things for the two of us without recipes. I make meat loaf, French Toast, pork chops with mushrooms and boiled potatoes, and the like. Still I would like to get back to cooking without a needing a recipe close at hand. I want to cook by instinct and by what happens to in the cupboard.

Now, I often do this for lunch; but, then again, I usually eat lunch alone (and thus no one to experiment on but myself). Today, for example, I made myself a scrambled egg sandwich. It is the same scrambled egg sandwich I have been eating since I was a child: scrambled eggs on toast with ketchup. I am not sure that this is exactly what I am going for with the “no recipe required” idea, but I did not need to look at any book to make it!

As a side note: as far as I am concerned this must be served on toast.

It also has to be cut into triangles, or woe unto the person who cut it wrong!