h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While I'd long ago switched from "enriched" pasta to whole wheat, brown rice or quinoa pasta, and never order white rice in retsaurant food, I'd held out in regards to rice, when cooking at home. I'm almost out of arborio and just recently bought a nice big bag each of brown basmati and long grain brown rice.

I'm also planning to pick up some short grain brown rice when my arborio runs out, which leads me to ask if anyone here has any fantastic risotto recipes which don't require cream? I'll substitute canola spread for butter per usual, and have a vegan Parmesan substitute, so a creamy texture is perfectly do-able if the recipe doesn't call for cream.

Seasonal vegetables would be nice, too. Summer squashes should be popping up any minute!

Perfect! My girlfriend does an utterly delicious and very healthy butternut squash risotto. I shall pick her brains on the subject and get back to you.

Have you ever watched the anime HunterXHunter?

Try "creaming" some (raw) mushrooms in a blender with a little tofu and some liquid and adding that.

No, I haven't seen that one. Should I? I'm turning into quite a fan of anime in my old age.

Mmmmm, Mala, that sounds like an excellent idea!!

It does sound good. Does it work in curries?

If you can find a few episodes and like it I have it up to episode one hundred and summat.

We never put cream in our risotto, L says that the texture should all come from the rice. I'll quiz her about her recipe at some point.

I think that's what S does. I could be getting mixed up with piella (or whatever it is).

Ooh, now I do a wicked vegetarian paella. I make my own sofrito from scratch- and it's fab- and use the mock shrimps they sell in Chinatown. Next time I make it, I'm going to throw in some dulse to give it a "fishier" taste.

I didn't think it was necessary to put cream in risotto, but the last time I made it for company, one of my guests read me the riot act for not using it. I try to avoid it when I can avoid all the fat... though I'm not averse to substituting evaporated milk sometimes.

Paella, got it.


Dulse? Sofrito? Mock shrimps?

It's been ages that I've last had a rice risotto, but it never required any cream.

What I love cooking instead is a Grünkernrisotto - Mala, can I pick your brians for a translation? It's the most fantastic risotto ever. Grünkern is the young, unripe spelt, the grains are dried and then smoked over beech wood (I think it's beech, but I could err).

Your guest probably deserved a good kick up the rear then!

L's recipe's pretty basic. Fry off some onions and garlic in lots of butter, add the rice and stir it round so it's all coated. Add a jug full of stock, a ladle-ful at a time (only adding more once it's all absorbed), throw in the parmesan (and whatever else you're having in it), stir, cover and leave for a minute, dish up.

That's basically what I do with the Grünkern, but I add some raw (peeled and quartered) potatoes and carrots (roughly cut into a few larger pieces) to the mix.

Oh, and I cook it in my pressure cooker.

Dulse is a sea vegetable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulse

Sofrito is a base sauce for many Spanish and South American dishes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofrito

Mock shrimps are made with starch and yam flour; they're meant to be used in place of shrimp to make dishes like paella and Pad Thai suitable for vegetarians. I usually just use tofu in my Pad Thai, but sometimes the paella seems to be "missing" something. Capers give it a nice taste, too, though.

And Bel knows that if I can cook anything with my pressure cooker, I like it even better.

My favorite risotto is butternut squash with golden raisins. I'm also really fond of zucchini (courgette?) and parsley. I'd like to make one with artichoke hearts, too, soon- I have both regular canned ones and marinated ones. Any idea what else would go nicely with artichoke? Since the rice will be darker in color, I'm thinking something brightly colored, maybe a little roasted red pepper?

That looks real good. I think I may be on the way to being able to do my spicy fishcakes for soph. I'm not a vege, she is.

My better half's not vegetarian, either- he calls himself an "enlightened omnnivore"- but he eats a lot of veggie food because I won't cook anything else. Actually, now that he's had the kidney stones, he finds himself wanting to eat a lot less meat. But I do try to amuse him with mock meats when I can, so that he won't miss them too much.

I like to just cook some couscous, rice, or millet directly in some ratatouille, also delicious and nearly risotto...