Risotto and Italiannies

Let me talk about Italiannies first.

Trifoli? Trofili? I can't remember the name.

 This is the new dessert which I cannot remember the name. Basically it's made from ladies finger. No, not the okra, Ladies finger as in the Italian biscuit usually used in making Tiramisu. I think they used cream cheese, or maybe it was cream?I am not sure. Besides that, it was abundantly filled with chocolate chips. With a side of refrigerated seedless grapes, this dessert is not bad. I would have preferred if the cream was colder. They should have chilled it longer.

 This trifle dessert cost us RM16.90. A bit pricey for something quite small.

I ordered the calamari salad as I was craving for calamari since God knows when. It was delicious! I feel that this salad is worth the RM32.90 that I paid. Scrumptious. Tossed in some sauce that remains unknown to me, olives, artichokes, lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes and the star of the night, my delicious succulent calamari. Well tossed in the sauce, I gobbled this up as if it was my last meal.

Italiannies serves one of the best Italian food in town. I must say their standard and quality in food has not failed me so far.

We also ordered the usual. The spaghetti carbonara. As usual, thick with the cream sauce and quite a generous amount of beef bacon. I said quite a generous amount because, no matter how much bacon you give me, it is never enough. Didn't get a picture of it as I was too busy stuffing my face with food.

So, the other day I decided to be adventurous and make risotto. Pumpkin risotto to be exact. I am not sure how risotto is suppose to taste like as I have only eaten it once and it seemed like it was a bit undercooked as the rice was chewy?

I put on a brave front and started cutting the pumpkin. And, I cut my finger, pretty deep. At first, I did not notice how deep the cut was till it started to bleed like there's no tomorrow. The very next day, I obtained another cut, paper cut I think, pretty deep as well. All on one finger, I have no idea how I managed to accomplish such a thing.

Yup, take a whole pumpkin and cut it in half. Toast/bake half of them and the rest, diced em and cook em in lots of butter. Need I say more?

Dicing em pumpkins that lead to bleeding. =S

Baking em. They tasted really good toasted,plain without anything. The natural sweetness of the pumpkin really stood out.

This kinda spoiled my dish. I followed the recipe straight to the dot. The cheese was a little to overpowering.

 Making risotto, is tiring. The constant stirring really wears you down. First, the white wine, let the rice absorb it, stir continuously, then the stock, repeat stirring, then add some more stock, then stir continuously, and on and on.

 

It tasted quite nice before the addition of the pumpkin and cheese. With the pumpkin puree added to the rice, it was pretty good. The rice still looked like it wasn't cooked enough. I had to keep on adding water, trying to soften it and at the same time, trying to figure out if risotto is suppose to be like that.

Question of the day: Does risotto taste a bit like uncooked rice? Chewy and a bit hard in the middle? Coz I'm pretty sure I cooked it long enough.

After the addition of the cheese. Ugh, it was real cheesy. Not to be bias or anything (I'm not a cheese lover) but even my family that loves cheese felt that it was a tad bit too cheesy.

ARBORIO RICE!

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO FIND IMPORTED STUFF SUCH AS ARBORIO RICE!

After buying all the ingredients for making risotto, except the rice, I realized I could not find any supermarket/hypermarket that sells arborio rice. You name it, Carrefour, Aeon, Cold storage and another hypermarket-that-supposedly-sells-imported-stuff-but-not-risotto-rice-and-therefore-I-can't-remember-the-name-hypermarket.

 Almost panicked but thought of Jaya Grocer. Even though the nearest Jaya Groces is quite far from where I live, I drove all the way to Jaya Grocer in hope to find Arborio rice.You cannot imagine how immense my joy was to finally see a packet of vacuum packed arborio rice on the shelves of Jaya Grocer.

So yeah, Risotto was alright. Since I still have some left over arboria rice, I might be making, mushroom and bacon risotto soon. This time, Imma omit the cheese.

Till then. Adios!