The Pewter Chef Will Not Die!

 Have I unleashed Vesuvius? Just a week after the Pewter Chef resurrection, we did another one!

The back story is we've been trying to get a Rotary friend and colleague of Wife and the colleague's husband over for dinner for months. Finally we had our date for last Saturday. I was having a hard time coming up with an idea that was going to kill me, I being a bit overwhelmed at the moment. But as fate would have it, Wife mentioned our last meal at her Rotary Club meeting and friend C said she was jealous. Well I jumped all over this as I was bereft of ideas for the meal. I offered it to C as an option and she snapped it up. 

Once again I was way too busy cooking to take any pictures so you will have to make do with verbal descriptions. C and her husband F brought us:

• Zucchini
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Arborio Rice
• Boneless Ribeye Steaks 

When I saw the mushrooms and the rice, I knew instantly I was going to make true Italian risotto. I took some of the mushrooms, roasted them, added them to some chicken broth, blended it up to create the fluid for the risotto. 

While this was going on, I focused on getting something to the table quickly. That is something I always do in these meals, assuage the hunger by producing at least one fairly quick dish. In this case, I made SE Asia curry with the zucchini. I will come clean and state that making a 'from scratch' SE Asia curry paste is one of those things that comes across as very 'showy and difficult' but which in fact is not all that difficult once you know how.  But it looks like this big production with the grating of all the roots (ginger, galanghal, tumeric, shallots, garlic) and pounding the shit out it with your big ass mortar and pestle. Once you have the curry paste, the dish comes together really quickly.

I told them I was giving them a deconstructed meal. The vegetable, meat, and rice all as separate courses.

Next I did the steaks. I decided to do mini kebabs with different flavorings. I cut the meat into small cubes. I flavored half with a combination of the curry paste and Thai fish sauce. The other I did a combination of chopped fresh rosemary and garlic with salt, pepper and olive oil. I cooked the meat quickly over a high heat. You could very definitely taste the difference!

Having everyone now off the edge of hunger, I could focus on my finale, the risotto. It is another of these dishes that comes across as very complicated when, in fact, it is rather simple. However, simple is not easy. Running a marathon is not complicated. It's just hard. With risotto, you have to gradually add the liquid, stirring constantly, and let it be absorbed over and over until the rice gets to the right consistency. This can take a good 20-30 minutes. Then you add butter and grated cheese to finish. If you have a good flavor base with your stock, it comes out incredible. My mushroom stock did the job.

Happily F and C were happy imbiber of wine as well. I started out with a nice St. Emillion Grand Cru and them moved on with a Barolo.  Both were consumed in their entirety.

We had a lot of great conversation and I proudly kept my kitchen mess down to mere large proportions as compared to the weekend before when I had messed up to epic proportions.