I love risotto, it’s one of those recipes that takes a bit to make them and require constant attention. I’ve heard of different ways of making risotto, but this is my ultimate recipe. You can add some white wine right after browning the arborio rice to add a more sophisticated flavor. Trust me, you’ll love it.

Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
A Foodies’ Kitchen Original
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
1 cup arborio rice, (risotto rice)
2 ½ cups chicken broth
1 ½ cup mushroom, cut in half
1 tablespoon of Adobo seasoning (or Maggi Seasoning)
1 garlic clove, minced
½ onion, chopped
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon basil leaves
1 tablespoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
½ cup butter

Directions:

1. Chop the onion and garlic into small bits and fry them with a little butter and olive oil. Add the thyme, basil and rosemary.
2. Mix the Adobo seasoning with the chicken.
3. Add the chicken and mushrooms, and stir for about 10 minutes, enough for the chicken to be 3/4 cooked.
4. Add the arborio rice and stir until the rice changes color slightly and add half a cup of chicken broth. Keep stirring.
5. It will be very soupy, but don’t worry. You’ll have perfect risotto in a bit. Reduce the heat and add in increments of 1/2 cup the chicken broth, stirring constantly to reduce the liquid.
6. Slowly add the broth to the rice, slowly and stirring in between spoonfuls and keep stirring.
7. When the broth is reduced, add the butter and keep stirring. Remove from the heat.
8. Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, stir and serve with parsley on top.

I know.  Meatballs… boring.  I have to tell you that I have never been a fan of ground beef.  Meatballs and especially meatloaf are one of the few things that I don’t particularly enjoy. I think its because of the way these types of dishes where prepared when I was growing up . It was just wrong.

Now,  I have made my peace with ground beef.  However, it has to be a really lean cut and it has to be seasoned just right.  I decided to try this recipe and give it my own twist.  I promise you, it is very good.  Have some homemade tomato sauce handy, or get some of the canned type with basil or with mushrooms to go with it and lots of Parmesan cheese on top!

Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
Serves 4-6

For the Meatballs:
1 lb lean ground beef
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
A couple of sprinkles of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 egg, beaten
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste.
About 2 tablespoons olive oil, to fry the meatballs.

Garnish: chopped cilantro
1 cup tomato sauce, Italian style
Basil, either fresh or dried.

Preparation:

1. Make the meatballs: Combine meat, garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, egg, salt, pepper in a bowl;
2. mix together using 2 forks until just combined.
3. Roll into 1-inch balls; transfer to a baking sheet.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.
5. Working in batches and adding more oil as necessary, cook meatballs until browned on all sides and cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes.
6. Add basil to tomato sauce.
7. Serve meatballs warm, topped with sauce. Garnish with cilantro.
8. Serve over pasta.

Nutella Swirl Vanilla Cupcakes
Note: The recipe says it makes 1 dozen cupcakes.
I have made this recipe twice, and I got 24 cupcakes both times for each.

Ingredients:
1½ sticks unsalted butter
1¾ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
2½ teaspoons baking powder
2½ cups flour
1¼ cups milk
1/2 cup Nutella

Procedure:

1. To prepare oven, muffin tin: Preheat over to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners.
2. To make cupcakes: In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder. Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Beat at low speed for 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth and satiny.
3. To bake cupcakes: Divide batter evenly among cups. Fill the cups up to half in each cup, otherwise they may overflow when baking.   Place 1 tablespoon of Nutella on top, and swirl it around with a toothpick.
4. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean.
5. Cool on wire rack for 45 minutes or until at room temperature.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Don’t be alarmed by the long instructions. This is actually not hard to make if you do things right, so we are detailing every little thing to make sure you are successful at making your buttercream.

This is a basic frosting for cupcakes and cakes. It makes a very smooth and creamy topping, What you do is pour a sugar syrup into whipped egg whites, making a very thick meringue and then you beat butter into it. As a variation, we added 1 teaspoon almond flavor and 1 teaspoon Frangelico liquor. You can put in any flavoring, like vanilla, or rum. But don’t put in more than 2 teaspoons! Otherwise you will ruin the buttercream. (It will curdle and separate)

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes (heavily frosted)

Ingredients:
5 egg whites
8 oz (1 cup) granulated sugar
2 oz (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
¼ cup water
16 oz unsalted butter

Procedure:

1. Make the syrup: Mix 8oz of sugar and ¼ cup water in a pot. Wash down the sides of the pot with a wet brush, to get any sugar crystals that may have clinged to the sides of the pot. I do this to avoid having my syrup crystallize. Once you get one crystal, it’s like a chain reaction and you have to start all over again.
2. Place the pot on medium heat, and DO NOT TOUCH IT OR STIR IT. Put in your candy thermometer, and let it cook until it reaches 245Fº.  It took me about 8-10 minutes to reach the temperature.
3. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Once they have reached the stiff peak stage, add the 2 oz of sugar and continue beating until the sugar combines, for about 1 minute.
4. When the syrup has reached its temperature add it to the beaten egg whites, while the beater is still on high speed. Add it in a slow, steady stream. You have to coninue beating the egg whites until the bowl has cooled down, about 10-12 min. By this point you will have a very thick meringue.
5. While the beater is still on add the butter, a little at a time. Make sure the butter is at room temperature, firm but easy to cut.
6. Add flavoring of your choice, but put it 1 teaspoon at a time. And don’t add more than 2 teaspoons of flavoring.

TIPS:

• For the syrup: When it is cooking, contain the urge to move it. Don’t touch it, or it can crystallize. Even though the recipe may call for medium – high temperature, we recommend you cook it on medium temperature.
• Butter: Make sure the butter is at room temperature, it has to be firm, but easy to cut. I left mine outside too long and it was quite soft. I had to put the buttercream in the fridge for it to firm up, and then beat it again.

Variation:
You can also use only the Italian meringue to frost these cupcakes. Don’t add butter to it, and you have a thick meringue frosting you can also work with.

Two Tone Frosting Technique

1. Make a butter cream frosting that is thick enough to pipe with. We recommend you use gel colors for this. Pick the colors you want, and distribute them accordingly on separate bowls.
2. Take a disposable pastry bag, place a scoop of frosting in it, for example Caramel color.
3. Take a second disposable pastry bag, place a scoop of frosting in it, for example Chocolate Color
4. Grab the two bags, with the caramel and chocolate colors in them and place them side by side inside a third disposable pastry bag.
5. Cut the bags, to make the opening where the icing will pipe out. At this point you will have two bags inside a third bag, place your piping tip on it. I didn’t use a coupler; I held the tip in place with one hand and piped with the other.
6. Pipe cupcakes! Use Wilton 1M tip, to make large swirls.

Extra Help:
Visit this link for a video on how to make the buttercream, which was very helpful to us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxWmiHRTMz8