You know me, I love my Italian food. So I always find reasons to make my favorite Risotto. Since I had already made Risotto Bianco last month,  I decided to make a luxurious one this time. So here it was Risotto Milanese aka Saffron Risotto.

I was binge-watching Quantico on Friday night and slept at 4 am. I didn’t want to put my laptop down but then had to as I could barely keep my eyes open. So I got up at 12:30 pm on Saturday and was super hungry. I decided to fix a super quick yet yummy something as dear hubby was hungry too and was patiently waiting for me to finish my sleep. Decided to make a simple one-pot recipe which is a complete meal. Since I had some Arborio rice with me, I decided to make a risotto.

PREPARATION TIME: 5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 25 minutes
SERVINGS: 2
DIFFICULTY SCALE: Hard

INGREDIENTS: 

  1. Arborio rice – ½ cup
  2. Onion – 1, medium
  3. Garlic Cloves -3
  4. Carrots – 2
  5. Beans – a handful
  6. White wine – ½ cup
  7. Vegetable stock – 4 cups
  8. Saffron – 10-12 strands
  9. Dried herbs – 1 tablespoon
  10. Red chilli flakes – 1 teaspoon
  11. Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
  12. Butter – 2 tablespoons
  13. Cheese – 1/3 cup, grated
  14. Salt – to taste

RECIPE:

  1. Boil 4 cups of water in a pan and mix a stock tablet in it. Once this comes to a boil, keep it with a lid closed to keep the stock hot.
  2. In a flat pan, add some olive oil and add long diced carrots and beans and lightly saute them.
  3. Season them with herbs, chilli flakes, and salt.
Saute_the_veggies_in_butter_and_garlic
Saute the veggies

4. Add a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan.
5. Finely chop onion and garlic and add them to the pan and cook them for 3-4 minutes till they start turning translucent.

Add_butter_onion_and_garlic
Add butter, onion and garlic

6. Add the risotto rice in the pan and mix well.
7. Let the risotto be coated with onion and garlic and then add the white wine.
8. Add a cup of vegetable stock to the rice and keep mixing continuously.
9. Once the liquid is almost evaporated add another cup of the stock.

Cook_the_Arborio_rice_with_vegetable_stock
Cook the Arborio rice with vegetable stock

10. Repeat this step for 2 more times till the entire stock is cooked.
11. Save about ½ a cup of stock in the risotto rice in the last cycle and add 2 tablespoons of butter and some salt to the rice and mix well.
12. Mix the saffron strand in a few tablespoons of warm milk. Mix this with the risotto rice.
13. Add grated parmesan cheese and take it off the flame.
14. Add the sautéed veggies on top and serve hot.

Saffron-risotto
Saffron-risotto

NOTE:

  1. You could add green onions as well and they impart a unique flavor to the risotto.
  2. Since the stock and cheese have salt in them and the sauteed veggies are also salted, season the risotto carefully.
  3. Leave some stock in the risotto in the final step as the rice keeps on cooking even when taken off the flame and doesn’t get too dry.