sexy risotto

Um, so today was the last day of the farmer’s market (well actually it’s Tuesday but I’ll be home, so it’s MY last day).

I went… um… slightly crazy.

LOOK at all those gorgeous colors!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to get the least perishable things I could. The lettuce and peppers I used tonight!

I had the boy over for dinner. Felt a *lot* of pressure, as you’ll all remember the dazzling pizza he made me. He asked what my “specialty” was, and I said it was probably risotto, so that’s what I made. I took my original recipe and tweaked it a bit, due to the fact that the boy is generally a very adventurous eater (or, frankly, this thing would not have lasted) but is not crazy on the mushrooms or the orange vegetables, two fairly obvious risotto ingredients. So, drawing on tonight's inspiration, I made roasted red pepper risotto. YUM!

Also felt pressure because the boy is a graduate and young professional and has a fabbity fab apartment with a great kitchen and I have… this.

I think it’s probably about 49 square feet. Though it is improved by:

Bunny shaped salt and pepper grinder magnets!

So the recipe:

Roasted Red Pepper Barley Risotto

4 1/4 cup vegetable stock (mine was homemade- I saved all my veggie trimmings in a bag in my freezer and boiled em in a bunch of water when I had a few hours in my apartment)

1/2 t each olive oil and butter

1/2 cup green onion (thought this would make the risotto lovely and red and green, but the color basically disappeared. Too bad so sad).

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup pearl barley (though I’ve used both pearl and regular and observed no serious difference)

1/4 cup white wine

2 red bell peppers

2 oz white cheddar cheese (this was the only cheese I had—but, in a happy accident, it was delish!)

Heat your stock to a rolling boil, then cover and keep warm.

Sautee onions and garlic in the oil butter mixture on low heat until tender.

  

Add barley, and stir around to coat with buttery oniony goodness. Add wine, and toss to coat with winey goodness. Add 1 3/4 cup stock.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the first batch of stock is almost absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Add remaining stock 1/2 cup at a time, waiting until the stock is mostly absorbed until adding more. Barley will turn tender and risotto-y!

 

In the meantime, broil your peppers. They will look like this:

That is good! Take 'em out, put ‘em in that paper bag, and let them cool. The skins will peel off lickety split and you’ll end up with heavenly sweet aromatic roasted peppers.

When barley is tender, stir in peppers and cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Et voila!

The boy loved it :D