Just One More Cider Recipe

Sorry about that.  Not only have I put three apple-based recipes in a row on this blog, but there was another recipe I made last week that I wasn't too happy with how it came out and rejected it.  I am actually sparing you one apple and cider recipe.

This week I had three items in the kitchen.  The first was still a bit more leftover cider that miraculously hadn't turned yet.  The second was an unopened bottle of reisling.  The third was a craving for risotto.  I have made a tropical risotto with coconut milk and lime juice.  Why not try it with cider, apples, and a complementary wine?

This recipe doesn't deviate too much from the basic apple-onion-bacon formula. I crisped up some lardons, cooked some onions and softened an apple in the grease, added the rice and cooked in the wine until it was absorbed, and then added hot chicken stock mixed with apple cider in typical risotto-making fashion.  This is one risotto recipe that does not require parmesan.  If you're husband isn't the type to oject, I'm wondering if a little cheddar might taste good in it though.

Original or not, it's still a very tasty way to make risotto.

I served it with pork rubbed with cinnamon, cocoa powder, ground allspice, garlic powder, and ground ginger.  Then I added a little steamed broccoli on the side.

I thought it was seriously delicious.  I loved it.  Sir Pickypants not so much.  He couldn't even identify what the flavor was until I told him.  (Maybe if I had told him ahead of time he would have liked it more because he would not have eaten it expecting it to taste like a traditional risotto dish.)  This probably won't be in regular rotation.

Cider Risotto

Ingredients

• 2 strips bacon, cut into lardons
• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 medium firm apple, diced
• 1 cup arborio or carnaroli rice
• 3/4 cup reisling
• 1 cup apple cider
• 2 cups chicken stock
• Salt to taste

Place stock and cider in a small pot and keep warm on the stove at barely a simmer.

In a medium saucepan cook bacon until crisp.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Remove all but 2 Tbl of the fat.  Add olive oil to the pan.  Cook the onions in the oil until soft.  Add apple when onion has softened.  Add rice to the pan and stir until well coated and starts to look transparent.

Add the wine to the rice.  Cook stirring constantly until all of the liquid has absorbed. 

Begin adding the stock/cider mixture to the rice, about a half a cup at a time, stirring frequently.  Once the rice has absorbed all of the liquid from one addition, add the next.  Continue stirring and adding liquid until rice is creamy and just al dente. 

Remove from heat, stir in reserved bacon (whatever you have left after snarfing those bits that were tempting you on the counter) assuming your husband will eat it (if he won't, leave it out of his portion).  Serve immediately.