On the very last day of the hols last week, I decided to do something inspirational: create a risotto dish. Risotto is an Italian rice dish made from a starchy type of rice known as Arborio rice. This labor of love took me 3 hours to finish. Here's a pic of the final product:
Mussels and mushroom risotto served with honey lemon infused chicken salad
Well, you may think why in the world such an easy-looking rice dish need 3 hours of preparation. Here's the step by step process to justify my actions:
1) Make my own chicken stock. Ingredients: whole chicken, carrots, onions, celery sticks, peppercorns, basil and sea salt. Time needed: 1hour.
2) Prepare mussels stock by cooking mussels in Chadonnay. Time needed: 45 mins (include time needed to clean mussels)
3) Prepare the rice. This is an ardous process requiring constant supervision: the rice is cooked in the chicken broth and mussel stock for over 45 mins. When the rice is tender enough, fresh mushrooms, cheese and butter is added.
4) Prepare the chicken salad with honey-lemon infusion: 20 mins.
5) Arranging the food on plate for photo: 10 mins.
Mussels and mushroom risotto served with honey lemon infused chicken salad
Well, you may think why in the world such an easy-looking rice dish need 3 hours of preparation. Here's the step by step process to justify my actions:
1) Make my own chicken stock. Ingredients: whole chicken, carrots, onions, celery sticks, peppercorns, basil and sea salt. Time needed: 1hour.
2) Prepare mussels stock by cooking mussels in Chadonnay. Time needed: 45 mins (include time needed to clean mussels)
3) Prepare the rice. This is an ardous process requiring constant supervision: the rice is cooked in the chicken broth and mussel stock for over 45 mins. When the rice is tender enough, fresh mushrooms, cheese and butter is added.
4) Prepare the chicken salad with honey-lemon infusion: 20 mins.
5) Arranging the food on plate for photo: 10 mins.
The result: a gourmet dinner for three. Why the fancy word gourmet? because it is nice looking, took a long time to prepare but cannot make you feel full. Haiz. But tastes great =).
Currently, the Australian Idol is being shown on the tele here. A stark difference to Malaysian Idol is that being in the final 12 here means that you are quite a star by your own rights. Just last week the final 9 came to Melbourne for a concert and the crowd was simply enormous. Damn shouldn't had gone as all I can see is the big screen above the stage. There are just too many tall heads in front of me... one of the disadvantages of living in an Ang-mo dominant country..
Idolmania: The hordes of people in front of me.
It's October and that means exams is just around the corner. To be precise, it is just three weeks ahead. Think its high time I started revising. So I will hopefully blog less.. but I got a feeling that I will blog more coz being human, there's always a tendency to do what you are not supposed to do.. I believe that's were the term forbidden fruit taste sweetest came from ...
Study study study...
Oh ya..the mid autumn festival is just around the corner.. so I would like to wish everyone "Happy Mid-autumn festival!" and a be-earlied "Happy Birthdays" for all the October babies out there.
P/s: Haiz can't think of anything interesting to write in my blog lately.. but I guess stories about my life is interesting rite?
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