Galway 2/ Potato Risotto

Galway has been a real interesting place so far. The rest of the Irish students came home this week, so the campus and Gort Na Coiribe are a lot more busy. The pubs and clubs are busier as well, so we actually have to queue up to get into things some time. I think I have settled into a routine, and I have almost settled my schedule. Here at NUI they allow the foreign students (and there are 1700 of us!) test out the courses that we are thinking taking to make sure that we like them or at least that we aren't in way over our head. Its a pretty cool system, and since we don't actually have to register for them until next Monday we are free to dabble in what sounds interesting. Since I am an exercise science major at home, I figured why not take some classes out of the sciences, or at least in the hard sciences. I think I am going to end up in a class on Celtic languages, a class on the philosophy of logic and one on the archaeology of castles, in addition to two required Irish Studies classes.

The weather took a bit of a turn the past few days. All of the ice has melted, and today was pleasantly warm until we were walking back the apartment from campus and walked right into a nice little downpour. Not unlike Oregon I guess, but a bit frustrating since all the clothes I was wearing are now soaked through.


Can't leave another post without a recipe right? I had another smaller dinner party last night, just 3 other lads and myself. I made a chicken piccata (with help from Sous Chef Devon Sherrow-Groves), but I've done that a bunch of times before. Easy, and delicious with a great bright acidic lemon flavor. The real star of the night, for me at least, was the potato risotto I made to go with it. You all know risotto, the traditional slow cooked Italian rice dish that takes on that great almost gooey sticky consistency. I've seen a potato risotto on Top Chef before, and it always sounded great, but I have never made one myself. I won't claim that I didn't take any help from the internet on this one, but I tweaked the recipe a good bit. I have to apologize for no pictures, it takes a long time to cook, and we were super hungry, so it didn't last long.

Potato Risotto

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes (original called for Yukon Gold, I used some kind of baby russet I think)
1/2 onion finely diced (here you could also use a shallot)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup whipping cream
thyme
rosemary
salt, pepper, red chili flakes (my 3 desert island seasonings)
olive oil

The real bitch of this recipe is cutting all of the potatoes down to 1/4 inch cubes. Its a pain while you are doing it, but I assure you its great in the end. After the potatoes are chopped, toss them in a bowl of cold water to stop the oxidation. In a 5-6 quart pan, heat a good glug or two of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion (or shallot) and saute until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, and saute for about a minute. Once that is done, drain and toss in the potatoes, add a good glug of the olive oil and your thyme, chili flake and rosemary and cook for about 8 minutes. You want to see a little translucency in the potatoes before the next step. Then you add the wine and broth all at once. Traditionally a risotto takes liquid in stages, but for this one, just dump it in! It was all kind of eyeballed, so the measures might be a bit off, but that is the general idea of the volumes. Keep an eye on it, and stir often until the potatoes are pretty tender (think al dente). The broth/wine should be almost all absorbed at this point. Then hit it with the cream, and stir often until mostly absorbed. Taste and re-season if necessary. Pull off of the heat, pour into a bowl and serve. Parsley wouldn't be a bad garnish, but they don't have fresh herbs at the supermarket over here.

This should yield a really great creamy potato dish. Not sure you could confuse it with risotto, but it was really really good. It has a pretty fatty, rich taste and mouthfeel. So one of the things you serve it with should probably have an acid to cut through the fat.