Challenge Accepted

On Friday, j. from 365 Dollar Year challenged any takers to make something at home that you've previously only bought. She says this is partially inspired by my forays into previously uncharted cooking... and I'm way flattered.

Pretty quickly, I remembered a recipe that I came across Wednesday on Cheap Healthy Good for Butternut Squash Risotto that I had been eyeballing anyway. This recipe had not one, but two elements that were new to me, and I was totally excited about it. So excited that I failed to read j's challenge closely enough. She said "No more than $5 worth of extra stuff brought in- if you can't make it with what you've already got and $5, try something else." I'm going to calculate the cost at the end, but I'm awfully close, if not a bit over.

Alright, so first of all, why this recipe was a challenge to me: 1) The only squash I've ever cooked before is zucchini and the little yellow zucchini-like ones. 2) I have never in my life made risotto. I've never in my life eaten risotto either, as far as I know. This part was a big deal to me. I've seen it made on TV cooking shows, and it always seemed so difficult to prepare and easy to screw up that it's never even been on my radar. I'm giving myself a half-fail on the squash though, as Trader Joe's didn't have it whole, and I didn't have time to make another stop. I've been whining about packaged food and I bought packaged squash! I'm such a dork.

Risotto Ingredients

You start out by dicing an onion and cubing the squash. Then the squash goes into a saucepan with a few sage leaves, some salt, and some of the broth. This cooks until the squash is tender, then gets set aside until near the end.


Then you start on the rice. First you cook some more sage and the diced onion for a few minutes. Then the dry rice goes in for a few minutes more. Next is the wine, then you start adding in the stock, just a bit at a time.



While you're going through the process of incorporating the stock into the rice, you crisp up about 10 sage leaves in some butter. I'll come back to these, because they're little bits of buttery heaven that can't be overlooked.



Finally, after all the stock has been absorbed by the rice, you add in the cooked squash, parmesan cheese, and a bit more butter.


I topped it off with the crispy sage leaves, remembered to take pictures, then tentatively dug in.

Oh My God. It's creamy and decadent and totally amazing. The flavor of the rice by itself is fantastic, but when you add a bit of the crisp sage leaf to a bite it's... wow. Just wow. The sage leaves absorbed the butter taste, and that gets combined with everything else in the bite to make a flavor that you want to just let sit there on your tongue for a while.

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Butternut Squash Risotto
Makes 6 1-1/2 cup servings
Adapted from Chez Panisse via The Wednesday Chef via Cheap Healthy Good.

1 medium butternut squash (about 1 pound whole or 12 ounces cut up)
24 sage leaves
Salt and pepper
7 to 8 cups fat-free chicken (or veggie) stock
1 medium onion, diced small
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups uncooked Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup parmesan, grated

1) Peel squash, then dice into very small (1/4- or 1/3-inch) cubes. Combine squash, a few sage leaves, 1 cup stock, and a little salt in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender (but not too soft) about 5 to 10 minutes. (You want the cubes to keep their form when they’re stirred into the risotto.) Drain and reserve liquid, just in case.

2) While squash is cooking, add the rest of the stock to another pot, bring to a simmer, and keep it there. Meanwhile, finely chop 6 large sage leaves.

3) In another, larger, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of butter over medium until melted. Add chopped sage and cook about 1 minute. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to low, add rice and a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often, until rice has turned slightly translucent. Turn the heat back up to medium, and add the white wine. Once the wine has been absorbed, add enough hot stock to cover the rice. Stir well and reduce the heat back down to medium-low.

4) Gently simmer the rice, stirring occasionally, until stock is absorbed. Add another 1/2-to-3/4 cup warm stock, and stir occasionally until new stock is absorbed. Repeat the process until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice, and rice is tender. This could take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. (It took me closer to 30.)

5) While all this is going on, sauté 10 sage leaves in a 1/2 tablespoon of butter until crisp, about 30 to 60 seconds, turning once halfway through. Rest on paper towel.

6) When rice is mostly tender, add cooked squash, parmesan, and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, until dairy is melted and squash is heated through. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, using sage leaves as garnish.

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Here's my calculations for the challenge:

1 medium butternut squash - $1.99 packaged
24 sage leaves - $1.79 (I only used about 1/3 of the package, but I'm not certain I'll use any more of it before it goes bad, so I'm charging myself full price on this one)
Salt and pepper - pantry
7 to 8 cups fat-free chicken (or veggie) stock - pantry
1 medium onion, diced small - pantry
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter - pantry (well, fridge, but you get the idea)
2 cups uncooked Arborio rice - $1.67 (The package was $2.29 for 11 servings, but I only used 8, and I anticipate that I'll use the rest at some point, so, discount!)
1/2 cup dry white wine - pantry (I did buy this, but we usually keep wine in the house so I'm not counting it for the total - yay "2 buck Chuck")
1/2 cup parmesan, grated - pantry

Total purchased ingredients: $5.45

So I fail the challenge, but I had such a good time doing it, it was well worth it!
Also, j., I'm sorry this isn't vegan or within your $1/day budget. I'll try to find another recipe this week that will fall into those categories too.

Final random thoughts on the challenge...

• Yay cooking challenge!
• This was not terribly difficult to make, and at no point (other than before I actually started) did I think I was going to f*ck it up.
• This recipe took about 1.5 hours of prep/cooking... so while I would absolutely make it again, it's not going into the weekly veg/starch rotation.
• Hubby said it was "herb-y." I think that was a good thing?
  
• I'm guessing I could have come in under the $5 mark if I had bought a whole squash.
• Or if I could grow my own sage.
• Or rice.
• These thoughts are getting a bit too random...