A few months ago, I stopped by Powells Books in Portland. Since it’s the most awesome book store in the world, I can’t seem to leave without buying at least one book. Since I’d started cooking a lot more vegetarians meals, I decided that a veg cookbook would be worth having. As tempted as I was to shell out $35 for Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, I opted instead for a $9 used copy of Vegetarian Cooking & Vegetable Classics, by Roz Denny & Christine Ingram. I admit, I mainly bought it for the pictures.
When I got home, I started flipping through the recipes. Baked Marrow in Parsley Sauce? Gross! Wait a second… isn’t this supposed to be vegetarian? Looked a little more. What in the world is a courgette?! Turns out this is a British cookbook. And British people have different names for things than we Americans do. As soon as I saw that “rocket” was another word for arugula, I had a recipe in my mind: arugula risotto, or rice rocket. Ahaha. Yes, I am a nerd.
Arugula finally arrived as an option in my CSA box, so here’s the rice rocket! I went back and forth over whether I wanted to do an arugula pesto risotto or just use plain arugula, and the latter won. I essentially followed this recipe, risotto with arugula, chanterelles, and sun-dried tomatoes. I’m a fan! And it suits the season.
My mom commented that my pictures of food are “cheating” since I’m plating small amounts of food and trying to make it as photogenic as possible. So there, I’ve got a pic of my pot of risotto. Is the magic gone? I don’t care… the risotto will be gone soon, too. :)
I’ve got plans for more fall dishes coming up next week! In the meantime, check out photograzing at Serious Eats for some awesome photographic inspiration for cooking. It really gets me psyched to cook!
~N
tasty! I haven't yet had the patience to make risotto, but yours looks delicious. So... it wasn't a vegetarian cookbook?
ReplyDeleteDoes it have a big spoiler?
ReplyDeleteI can't stand argula myself. :( I find it way too bitter. :(
Thanks! I always thought risotto was really labor-intensive, too, but it actually isn't that bad. Prep time is really quick, and it's only about 20 minutes of stirring. I wash dishes as I stir. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was a veg cookbook! Apparently marrow is a large zucchini. Who knew...
The arugula isn't too bitter when cooked into the risotto. I feel similarly about chard - it's too much for me on its own, but if I cook a bit of it into something else, it's fine.