I met chef Benjamin Curtis earlier this year for my cooking column at work. He works at a restaurant called The August Jack, and they specialize in craft beer and food to match. One of the dishes on Curtis’ menu is risotto, but it’s made with barley instead of usual risotto rice (quite a clever nod to beer, don’t you think?). The barley risotto features some pretty bold flavours, including paprika, leeks, and smoked Cheddar cheese.
In my ongoing pursuit to try cooking as many dishes as I write about in my cooking column (you can see which ones I’ve already made at #CookingTheStraight on Instagram!), I decided to make Curtis’ risotto for dinner the other night. The only things I changed for this recipe were to use Arborio rice rather than barley (it’s a grain my partner can’t eat) and use grapeseed oil instead of butter.
Here’s how I made chef Curtis’ leek and smoked cheddar risotto.
Ingredients
- 2 leeks
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 cups Arborio rice
- ½ cup dry white wine (I used a Pinot Gris)
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup Applewood smoked cheddar
This was a relatively quick and easy recipe to make. It only took me about 40 minutes, and that included prepping the ingredients and stopping every so often to read the recipe.
Start by slicing and thoroughly rinsing the leeks. Similar to chef Curtis, I removed the ends of the leeks as well as the outer-layer. Then, I sliced the leeks thinly on a diagonal. After rinsing them under running water, squeeze as much water out of the leeks as possible.
Peel and mince your garlic cloves and remove the thyme leaves from the stems. Now you’re ready to start cooking!
In a large, heavy pot (I used my Dutch oven), heat the grapeseed oil over medium-high heat. Start by cooking the leeks, and add the garlic, thyme, and paprika after about 5 minutes once the leeks start to brown.
At this point, things will start to smell fantastic. Add the Arborio rice and toss the kernels with the leek mixture, frying the rice for about 2 minutes.
Now it’s time to deglaze the pan with the white wine. Pour the wine into the pan and scrape any brown bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot using a wooden spoon.
Throw in the bay leaf and start adding the chicken stock about 1 cup at a time. You don’t want to pour all of the liquid in at once. Instead, try 1 cup (or just enough so that the liquid starts to cover the rice) and stir the risotto until most of the liquid has been soaked up. When the liquid is nearly gone, add another cup of stock.
This is the most time-consuming part of the risotto-making process. You need to be patient with risotto. Reduce the heat to medium, and gently stir, adding in 1 cup of stock at a time, until your rice has reached an al dente texture (or however cooked you enjoy it).
In the meantime, grate the smoked cheddar (I used Applewood smoked cheddar). When the risotto is cooked, switch the heat off, fish out the bay leaf, and add the cheese to the pot. Gently incorporate the cheese so that the risotto is creamy and gooey. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
This recipe made about 4 large servings, although because there’s no meat in the recipe, it would also make about 6 nice side servings for a protein. Or, you could whip this up as a vegetarian meal on Meatless Monday. Enjoy!
