Author: Liz @ spades, spatulas, and spoons

February – Brown Rice ‘Risotto’ with Mushrooms in the Instant Pot
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February – Brown Rice ‘Risotto’ with Mushrooms in the Instant Pot

Can you make a risotto with brown rice? Can you make it in the electric pressure cooker? And, if you do use brown rice and cook it in a pressure cooker, can you call it risotto? Those are all valid questions. I can answer numbers one and two. Yes, you can make a delicious risotto-like dish with brown rice. And yes, you can do it in the electric pressure cooker. As to the question of ‘is it really a risotto’, the answer is more complicated. If to you a risotto is arborio rice, hand-stirred over a hot stove dish with slow additions of broth, the answer is no. But, if you are after a healthy and creamy brown rice dish made hands-off in an electric pressure cooker, the answer is yes. It is risotto-like. I think I can legitimately call it that.

Amazingly I have heard (but not tried) making a risotto with short-grain brown rice in the traditional hand-stirred method. You need to stir at least double the amount of time for the starch to develop. It sounds very tiring; but possible. Let me know if any of you try it.

As I wrote in my previous post, Brown Rice Risotto with Edamame Beans and Spinach, (also made in the pressure cooker) there are several recipes for baked rice out there, even baked brown rice. Ina Garten has an easy baked Parmesan “risotto” method which only requires a few minutes of stirring at the end. Her recipe is similar to America’s Test Kitchen’s baked brown rice. The blog Cookie + Kate combined the two in her recipe for baked brown rice risotto with mushrooms. Hey Nutrition Lady has a recipe for a brown rice risotto made in the InstantPot on her site. This dish is a combination of the recipes above. I wanted to combine the inherent nuttiness of brown rice with mushrooms and some healthy green spinach.

Because there is no evaporation in a pressure cooker, the quantity of stock has to be reduced. For each 1/2 cup of brown rice, 1 cup of stock should be used. And, the quality of the stock is crucial since the flavor is concentrated in the rice. Unsalted homemade chicken or vegetable is the best. I add 1/2 cup of white wine, cooked down until it is mostly evaporated once the onion and garlic are finished sautéing. The wine adds a depth of flavor to the dish when it’s concentrated but would taste harsh if it wasn’t cooked down almost completely. Trust your nose on this one.

For the mushroom ‘risotto’ I used both fresh and dried mushrooms. I presoaked the dried ones in hot water and used the mushroom stock as part of my liquid. It deepened and intensified the overall finished mushroom flavor.

You could easily convert this to a vegan version by using olive oil and a good quality or homemade vegetable stock.

I have bolded short-grain brown rice because I think it’s important. I am not sure this would work with basmati or another long-grain rice. Short grain is higher in starch.

Brown Rice ‘Risotto’

Ingredients:

6 small side dishes, 2-3 main

  • 1/2 cup of dried mushrooms, I used porcini (about 1/2 oz)
  • Boiling water to cover
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil plus 1 tablespoon of butter to saute the onions and garlic
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 chile de Arbol, crumbled
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
  • 1/2 cup of dry white wine
  • 1- 1/2 cups of short-grain brown rice
  • 3 cups of liquid – mushroom soaking water (strained) plus chicken or vegetable broth

Fresh mushrooms:

  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter to saute the mushrooms
  • 2 cups of fresh mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (about 6 oz)

To Finish:

  • 2 ounces of baby spinach, roughly chopped (or peas, or blanched asparagus tips, or…)
  • 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan
  • optional pat of butter stirred in at the end

Method:

  1. Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and add hot (I used just boiled) water to cover. Leave for at least 20 minutes. Once soft, cut off any hard bits and chop into pieces about 1/2 inch in size.
  2. Using the saute setting, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.
  3. Add the onion and chile de Arbol. Saute for 5-10 minutes until the onions are turning golden brown then add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute.
  4. Add the rice and stir to combine, toasting the rice for about 1 minute.
  5. Add the wine and stir constantly until is mostly evaporated.
  6. Add the softened and chopped dried mushrooms.
  7. Hit cancel or stop to end the saute setting.
  8. Add the stock and mushroom soaking liquid, stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot to ensure there are no bits stuck to the bottom.
  9. Put on the lid and lock it in place, make sure the vent is set to sealing. Set it at high pressure for 24 minutes.
  10. When the cooking cycle is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 min, then quickly release.
  11. Remove the lid, add the second tablespoon of butter (if using) and stir for 1 – 2 minutes to create a creamy texture.
  12. Stir in the spinach, sautéed mushrooms, and parmesan.

If you are making this for company it will take about an hour total to cook, but most of it is hands off. You can saute the onion (or shallots) and garlic ahead of time. Same with the fresh mushrooms. Measure out all your ingredients. When you are ready, turn the machine back to saute and proceed with the recipe from step 4. The cooker will take about 15 minutes to reach full pressure once you turn that function on, then 24 minutes at high pressure, 15 minutes to release. It’s simply a matter of stirring and adding the spinach, fresh mushrooms and parmesan (plus an optional pat of butter) at the very end. Make sure you serve it in preheated bowls.

It isn’t a particularly beautiful dish, being mostly brown. The spinach helps. If you have some fried shallots you can sprinkle them on at the end for some textural interest, or some chopped parsley.

Brown Rice 'Risotto'

Brown Rice ‘Risotto’

It’s been ages since I joined the virtual blogging part over at Fiesta Friday hosted by Angie. It’s Fiesta Friday #470 and I think they will enjoy this time saving and healthy dish. Come on over to find posts on decorating, cooking and crafts. And consider adding your own post.

In My Kitchen – February 2023
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In My Kitchen – February 2023

It’s been several months since my last In My Kitchen post. So long in fact that I have to show a picture of the 2022 Christmas tree. No way it should be left out, even though it’s February. I could admire it from my spot in the kitchen.

Christmas tree 2022

Christmas tree 2022

New mugs from Christmas…

And Christmas brought me some wonderful new cookbooks.

Roast Chicken

Since then several others have found their way into my bookshelf. You could say that cookbooks are a bit of an obsession.

 

I read cookbooks like some others might read a novel.

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page is a frequently used reference book, the  The Vegetarian Flavor Bible is her newest. As we are trying to eat less meat these day, it’s a valuable reference.

Rick Stein’s book is a nostalgic look at French cooking.

The SOBO COOKBOOK comes from a restaurant in Tofino, B.C. where we spent time in early January. Unfortunatey the restaurant was closed when we were there but I can vicariously enjoy it through the book.

Ella Risbridger’s book reads like a memoir with recipes. It relates her experience of dealing with the death of a loved one and the changes in her life. As it’s 2020 and the book goes from January to December, it’s also the story of the beginning of the pandemic. She lives in London but I could relate to many of the uncertainty and worry of 2020.

You may have seen her first cookbook Midnight Chicken which has a wonderful recipe for roasted chicken as well as many others.

In keeping with our resolution to eat less meat, there are several new meals in rotation.

Eggplant pizza

Eggplant pizza with cheese, artichokes and mushrooms

The risotto was made in the electric pressure cooker. I am repeating it this weekend with mushrooms.

Sheet pan gnocchi with sweet peppers and onions

Sheet pan gnocchi with sweet peppers and onions, there were a few slices of sausage in there but I am not sure they are necessary and won’t add them again.

As Quinn watches in disbelief and shock, Shanna sits for a leaf of arugula. Subsequently she devoured it and barked for more.

I will sit for arugula

I will sit for arugula

In My Kitchen is part of an international group of bloggers who relate what is new in their kitchens over the last month, or longer. Sherry of the blog Sherry’s Pickings hosts the group. Come on over to read about kitchen events from around the world.

 

 

 

In My Garden – February 2023
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In My Garden – February 2023

We’ve had an unusually cold and wet winter so far this season. The rain is welcome (although maybe not so much at one time). The combination of weather plus travel has kept me out of the garden for the past couple of months. Consequently, the weeds have taken over and it’s time to get out there between storms.

Frost damage

Most things have been cut back in preparation for spring.

Pollinator garden looking sad and weedy

The pollinator garden looks sad and weedy

Cut back in preparation for spring weather

Cut back in preparation for spring weather

I planted several kinds of bulbs in pots this year. Once they start blooming I will place them around the front door.

Daffodils
Crocus
Paper-whites

Wildflowers were also planted in pots to welcome spring. In pots, I will have better control over watering.

Wildflowers

There are flowers in the garden, just not so many. The hellebores are in bloom, and cuphea plants seem to bloom non-stop for all 12 months of the year.

hellebores

hellebores

Arrangement of hellebores and paperwhites.

I usually plant sweet peas in late November, I was late this year.

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas

They are one of my favorite flowers and remind me of my grandmother in England. She always had a long row of them on a trellis at the side of her garden.

The salvia (Mole Poblano) is late blooming this year but I see the first signs. It’s an amazing bright red and the hummingbirds love it. It will grow up to 6 feet tall although it can be trimmed back to a shorter height.

Salvia gesneriiflora "Mole Poblano"

Salvia gesneriiflora “Mole Poblano”

The freesias are coming up.

Freesias

I am not going to show pictures of the vegetable garden this month. Give me some time to dig out the redwood roots and do some seeding. I’ve been harvesting the last of the kale and the arugula but need to spend some serious hours getting it ready for spring planting.

 

 

January – Brown Rice Risotto with Edamame Beans and Spinach
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January – Brown Rice Risotto with Edamame Beans and Spinach

Can you make a risotto with brown rice? It was a challenge I set out to investigate. There are several recipes for baked rice out there, even baked brown rice. Ina Garten has an easy baked Parmesan “risotto” method which only requires a few minutes of stirring at the end. Her recipe is similar to America’s Test Kitchen’s baked brown rice. The blog Cookie + Kate combined the two in her recipe for baked brown rice risotto with mushrooms. That sounded delicious and I wanted to go one step further (faster?) and cook it in the electric pressure cooker. Over Christmas, a friend’s daughter made a more traditional risotto with arborio rice in the Instant Pot, it was creamy and everything you want a risotto to be. So here goes…

My inspiration came from a recipe in Suzanne Goin’s book Sunday Suppers at Lucques for shell bean risotto. Fresh shell beans weren’t available but frozen edamame beans are in most grocery stores. Her recipe also has a healthy dose of greens with the addition of chopped spinach.

Because you don’t get any evaporation in a pressure cooker, the quantity of stock has to be reduced. For each 1/2 cup of brown rice, 1 cup of stock should be used. And the quality of the stock is crucial since it gets concentrated in the rice, unsalted homemade is best. When added, the wine should be cooked until it mostly evaporates, otherwise the flavor will be too strong. Trust your nose on this one.

It would be easy to convert this to vegan by using only olive oil and a good quality or homemade vegetable stock.

Ingredients:

6 small side dishes, 2-3 main

  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter (divided)
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons of thyme leaves, fresh (if using dried 1/2 teaspoon)
  • 1 chile de Arbol, crumbled
  • 1/2 cup of dry white wine
  • 1- 1/2 cups of short-grain brown rice
  • 3 cups of broth – I used chicken stock but vegetable would make it vegetarian
  • 1 cup of cooked edamame beans
  • 2 ounces of baby spinach, roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons of flat-leaf parsley, chopped for garnish

Method:

  1. Using the saute setting, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.
  2. Add the onion, thyme, and chile de Arbol. Saute for 5-10 minutes until the onions are turning golden brown.
  3. Add the rice and stir to combine, toasting the rice for about 1 minute.
  4. Add the wine and stir constantly until is mostly evaporated.
  5. Hit cancel or stop to end the saute setting.
  6. Add the stock and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot to ensure there are no bits stuck to the bottom.
  7. Put on the lid and lock it in place, make sure the vent is set to sealing. Set it to high pressure for 24 minutes.
  8. When the cooking cycle is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 min, then quickly release.
  9. Remove the lid, add the second tablespoon of butter and stir for 1 – 2 minutes to create a creamy texture.
  10. Stir in the beans, spinach, and parsley.

I served this with an oven-roasted boneless chicken thigh, a recipe to be posted. The risotto was supposed to serve 6 as a side dish. Don’t believe it, there were no seconds to be had. I would say 4 as a generous side dish, maybe 2 for a main dish with some leftovers. It all depends on the appetite and enthusiasm of your eaters.

Unfortunately, it was gobbled up before I had an opportunity to take any photos of the risotto itself.

It turned out creamy and delicious. Who could have guessed? The brown rice added a nutty fullness to the flavor. I think it would be even more delicious with mushrooms. A combination of dried (use the soaking liquid as part of the broth) and fresh (saute them and add them at the end) would be memorable. Stay tuned for next time.

January – Planes, Trains, Automobiles…and much more
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January – Planes, Trains, Automobiles…and much more

After three years of isolation, we are finally traveling again. But, I am definitely out of practice. Packing is a laborious event, when before it was automatic. Thoughts of airport check-ins, security lines, passport control, and crowded terminals fill me with dread.

In the last 4 months, I have been to Dallas, Texas for a funeral and reunion with cousins in November. And in early December I spent a week in Hawaii with a friend to celebrate her retirement.

Together with my husband and another couple, we explored and hiked the redwood parks just north of here in late October.

The redwood burls look like creatures from “Lord of the Rings”, otherworldly.

And finally, the two of us took a trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island in B.C., Canada to visit the ‘storm hotels’.

All of the above is why you have not heard from me lately.

Following are some details of our trip to Canada. It’s a tale of trains, planes, and automobiles; plus the ferry and a bus. They say life is about the journey, this vacation was certainly to a large extent about the adventure of travel.

Throughout the last few years of drought in California we (my husband and myself) have watched the storms hit the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada with envy. The low-pressure systems would sit just off their coast bringing a generous amount of rain. At the same time, a high-pressure system just off our northern California coast kept the rain away from us. The town of Tofino (at the end of the road in western Vancouver Island) has an average of 128 inches of rain annually! It’s a popular place for nature lovers and is crowded in the summer with surfers, kayakers, beachgoers, campers, fishers, and whale watchers. In the winter the visitors come for storm watching.

We planned this trip six months ago. We couldn’t have known that, ironically, the storms would hit our little coastal town with 30-foot waves and a deluge of rain while it was mostly rain-free in Canada. Sure, the sky was grey while we visited but very little precipitation fell to spoil our beach walks and hikes. At the same time, Fort Bragg had flooding and power outages.

Below is a picture of the sky as we drove into Oakland to catch our train.

Leaving the Bay Area the clouds looked like a second city floating above the buildings of San Francisco below

 

Amtrack Coastal Starlight

Both my husband and I love trains, so we started our little holiday with a 23-hour train ride from Oakland to Seattle on the Amtrak Coastal Starlight. The train originates in Los Angeles, traveling up the coast before it reaches its final destination in Seattle. We had a private room with a small bathroom, the seats converted into 2 generous bunks for sleeping. By day we had a comfortable chair, couch, and large picture window for watching the world flow by.

 

The beginning of the trip was in darkness, we boarded the train at 9:30 pm and the room was set up for sleep. Leaving Oakland the train traveled through the delta. Regarding the water below with weariness, the tracks seemed to be barely above the water. We heard that this same train, scheduled to leave the following day, had been canceled due to anticipated flooding.

The sound of the clicking and clacking of wheels and the gentle rocking of the train lulled us to sleep that night. We woke in the morning to a snowy landscape in Southern Oregon.

While we breakfasted on cheese omelets, our room was converted back into a sitting room. We arrived in Seattle on schedule that evening. Since our next train (to Vancouver B.C.) left early the next morning we booked a hotel near the train station. I was impressed by the Embassy Suites hotel, only a block away, where we visited the bar in the restaurant for a snack of fried artichoke hearts and a glass of wine before retiring for the night.

Early the next morning we boarded another train to Vancouver in B.C. Canada. It was an easy crossing of the border, two passport checks were the only red tape. From Vancouver, we took a taxi to the ferry terminal for the trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

We spent one very pleasant afternoon and evening in Victoria at the Victoria Regent Waterfront Hotel, which is centrally located in downtown Victoria.

City view from our hotel room in Victoria

On our ‘to-do’ list was a visit to the Irish Times pub where we had spent a pleasant blustery evening several years ago when we last visited Victoria.

Irish Times Pub in Victoria

Shepherd’s pie and a pint were a must.

Shepherd’s Pie at Irish Times

The next morning we picked up our rental car for the 4-hour drive to Tofino. So far we hadn’t seen any rain although our daughter, who was house and dog sitting back home, reported a power outage due to strong winds associated with the storms hitting the coast of California.

In Tofino, we stayed at the Pacific Sands Hotel where we had a small studio apartment overlooking the beach.

Beach off the Pacific Sands Hotel in Tofino

We did find a few places to watch the waves crashing on the shore. The sky was grey and gloomy but it didn’t stop us from long beach walks.

Tofino Beach

We had one memorable hike through the rainforest on an elevated walkway. About a mile in length, the wooden walkway took us up high on a ridge and then down into a ravine with a stream where salmon spawned. The richness of the moss, ferns, and trees in the forest felt ancient and primordial.

Although Tofino is a small town of just over 2,000 permanent residents, several accomplished chefs have settled there and opened restaurants. A few of them were closed because it was just after the busy holidays but we had no difficulties finding wonderful places to eat.

Although the restaurant Roar is in a hotel that looks to be something straight out of the ’60s, the food was excellent. We sat near the kitchen where we could watch them cooking over an actual roaring fire. It reminded me of the TV show Bear, which I recommend.

Whole baked fish at Roar
Roar Chef (reminded us of the program Bear)
View from the Savory Island Pie Company
Egg and bacon breakfast sandwich at the Savory Island Pie Company

We had breakfast one morning at the Savory Island Pie Company. The menu did not limit itself to pies and we had excellent croissants and scones to take away for another morning.

After four amazingly cozy days in Tofino, we drove back to Victoria for 3 more days at the Victoria Regent. This time we had a small apartment with a full kitchen. We were surprised to learn that the hotel had originally been condos and there were some full-time residents. Our room overlooked the harbor, and we could watch seaplanes land and take off from the balcony.

Victoria Harbor

Then it was time to take the ferry back to Vancouver, a bus (no I didn’t forget it) to the airport, and a plane back to Oakland.

After hearing horror stories of travel experiences over the holidays, we felt lucky that everything went smoothly. We arrived home to mostly clear skies as the storms had moved north to Vancouver Island.