This is actually two recipes in one; the first is a professional version that was handed down to the pastry apprentices by our Master Baker Instructor Chef Mark Fitch. Mark was trained early at the age of 12 as a baker and worked through several hotels as Chef Patissier in the U. K., before making his move to the U.S., and is now he is a Master Chef and principal technologist for food service product development with Pepperidge Farm.

All ingredients are given in weight measure for these recipes, but you will find many of the traditional Scottish Short Bread recipes following a 4:2:1 ratio consisting of four parts flour, two parts butter, and one part sugar, there are many variations but this is the basic formula.

Professional Version

Home Version

A confession to make, before a few weeks ago both Monique and I had never tasted a risotto, nor prepared one. Nevertheless, now I can check that off my top 1,000 food items/preparations that I still want to prepare/eat. In addition, recent inspiration has come from Hell’s Kitchen, only because Gordon Ramsay has the aspiring chefs to prepare the appetizer for just about every meal dinner service. Monique and I have wanted to make and taste this intriguing dish. Note: Click on images for a larger view.

A few weekends ago we had the pleasure of dining with my office group at Pomodoro Italian restaurant in Durham and Monique and I split an order of Seafood Risotto. It consisted of shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, and calamari with the rice and saffron. Now while we cannot compare this risotto to any other, due to the simple fact that we had never tasted a risotto before, we had no benchmark to compare. I can say that it was not the best dish in the world, most likely because the rice did not have one strand of saffron, but seemed to have been made with an instant mix similar to the yellow rice packets you find in the grocery. In addition, the seafood was not of the freshest quality, I could tell it was a bit old. In any case, it left Monique and I still wanting to try out a risotto.

Now there is the traditional method of making a risotto and then there are variations, and I am sure many more that I can list, including Risotto all’Aragosta {Lobster Risotto}, recently posted by bell’alimento (Italian for “beautiful food”). So, I decided to make my own risotto and this is what I created.

BMT you say!

Using the Best Ever Three and Four-Ingredient Cookbook as a quick guideline I created my own version of a spicy risotto I’ve name the BMT Risotto, because it contains bacon, mushrooms, and tomato as the main ingredients. By the way, while a new revision of this book is in the works, this cookbook is great if not only for the images, the recipes really seem good too, and it can be bought used for only $8.00.

While this BMT version is most likely not following the exact traditional methods of a formal risotto, it is fairly close. While it may not have the same “sauce” and creamy consistency that a traditional risotto has; it does come packed with flavor. I suppose the Cajun “Jambalaya” spirit in me has some influence in making this risotto my own. Another thing about this risotto is that I am using long grain rice from Cajun country, Ellis Stansel’s from Gueydan, Louisiana. Monique’s aunt Carol Zech, who lives in Lafayette, LA sent us over a two-pound bag of his rice a few months ago in response to a comment that I had made about some wonderful smelling rice that she had cooked at a family reunion and celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary event back in August (08/2009). This was the first time to trying out the rice, and it is a wonderful grain indeed. Additionally, when my parents came to visit us in October (10/2009) my father Joe Boudreaux mentioned that he had worked for Mr. Stansel on his rice farm during his high school days. Gueydan is only a few miles from Morse, Louisiana, where my father grew up on their farm, they grew rice and soybeans also.

Procedure Steps
1.	In a large sauté pan over a medium high heat cook the diced bacon until browned then add the red onions and continue to sauté until translucent, stirring occasionally.
2.	Add the rice and stir well to coat with the bacon grease and brown for a few minutes.
3.	Gradually add about 1/3 cup of the chicken stock and stir well to spread it out with the rice, allow the rice to simmer, then as the stock is absorbed into the rice add and stir in another 1/3 cup of the chicken stock and again allow the rice to absorb the liquid. Then repeat again with another 1/3 cup of stock and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.
4.	Add the sliced mushrooms, diced tomatoes and half of the green onions and stir well. Then add the remaining chicken stock, stir well cover, and reduce the heat to medium low. Allow the rice to absorb the liquid. Turn off the heat and allow the risotto to sit for 5 minutes or so
5.	Add the remaining green onions and season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Now, with only 999 food preparations/items still left on the foodie “To Do” list before I die…what can I try next?

The image at the left is the risotto served as a side dish to my dill-crusted salmon with lemon sauce and some steamed fresh spinach, click on the image for a larger view.

Since we have started limiting our consumption of red meat, mostly beef, there have been more opportunities to substitute with other forms of protein sources such as chicken, seafood, turkey, soy, and vegetables. In the case of Shepard’s pie, we all know that the traditional ground or shredded lamb has been substituted with ground beef as a normally accepted replacement. With Monique, she came up with the idea for using chicken breast meat in place of the usual red meat found in this popular dish.

I have left some of the ingredients with a vague listing, such as the mashed potatoes. This is because you can modify or alter this recipe with any form of potatoes you wish. For example, garlic mashed potatoes with Yukon gold’s with the skin on would be a great variation. Alternatively, even escalloped potatoes, where large Idaho’s are peeled and sliced into ¼-inch thin pieces, blanched and chilled and layered with sautéed onions. And another option, a layer of caramelized onions would be great inside this layered casserole dish.

Click on images for a larger view.

Dessert and Baking creations of Ingeborg Simpson

Sharing recipes with foodie friends has become a daily treat as the CCR blog continues to evolve into something more than I’ve ever dreamed of when it started out in May of 2008. In addition, it is with great pleasure that this is our first guest blog post from a fellow foodie Ingeborg Simpson. Furthermore, for someone who does not have a blog at all, but should, Ingeborg who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is a mother of three and a grandmother of four, she is an Internet stumbler friend on Stumble Upon, the social book marking web site. Originally, from Germany, where all of her relatives live, Ingeborg moved to Edmonton in November 1957.

Ingeborg Simpson says that she learned how to cook by watching TV shows in the ’70’s.  She did not have a clue about cooking, let alone baking.  However, her family needed to eat and she liked to learn and experiment.  Her son was born in 1972 and while he was sleeping, she had the opportunity to watch a cooking show for half an hour.  One was a local program, the other from Toronto.  Oh, and must not forget Julia Child.  She never missed her program; she would sit there with a writing pad writing down the recipes. Ingeborg said she learned by trial and error, and yes, she admits to certainly having a few disasters.  She watched Emeril Lagasse every day, when he was on the Food Network, and enjoyed Ina Garten; she has two of her books.  Also, Anne Willan’s book, “Country Cooking of France”, she says is a terrific cookbook!  Ingeborg says, “I have too many cookbooks to mention.”

Ingeborg’s sister Heidi became a Chef; and her husband, Alex, was a Chef.  They were married 10 hours before she died at the Rosedale Hospice.  She is not sure why her sister choose this profession, but she was very good at it, Ingeborg said. Her cousin’s son is learning to become a chef, and her son Robert, is Chef de Cuisine (fancy name…lol).  She also never expected him to go into this profession; he used to speak of becoming an International Lawyer or Architect.  Ingeborg said, “I don’t know what happened…lol.”

Here are a few examples of the typical day in the life of cooking at home for Ingeborg.

Linzer Cookies and Scottish Empire Biscuits

“Its 10:24 A.M. Saturday (12/12/09) and minus 31 C!  With the wind-chill, it is minus 40 C., but it is a sunny day, just darn cold.”

Ingeborg: “Here are the two recipes.  The Scottish Empire Biscuits traditionally have maraschino cherries on top (either halved or quartered, and usually made a bit bigger), however, I didn’t have any maraschino cherries, and quite frankly, I don’t like it too much, as the cherry liquid, even after drying them, always gets into the icing.  The Linzer Cookies melt in your mouth!” (Note: Click on the hyperlink for the Linzer Cookies recipe.)

Ingeborg: “Right now, I am waiting for my yeast mixture to rise (45 min.).  I am making Dresdner Stollen.  This recipe makes three loaves.  This recipe also is from 1979.  The recipe comes from the White House Pastry Chef Albert Kumin.”

Ingeborg also noted this in reference to the Empire Biscuits recipe, “Always, always use butter.  I have never used margarine.  I’ve never purchased margarine in my life!”

Empire Biscuits

Tiramisu	Here are some of Ingeborg’s other favorite dessert creations, she said…“This is the Tiramisu recipe I have used for many, many years, but I always make it my own.  I love to use Lemoncello, Brandy, Grand Marnier, Cointreau; I’ve used Port and Marsala as well.  I like to experiment”. (Note: click on hyperlink for the Tiramisu recipe.)

“It’s around 8:42 PM and Ingeborg is wrapping up in the kitchen from a full day of baking, “The Stollen turned out beautifully.  Soooo, delicious!  I will never buy another Stollen.  I macerated the raisins (dark and light) in a lot of rum…yummy, and added the crushed almonds just before adding to the dough.  The marzipan is in the middle.  I have to tell you, it’s finger lickin’ good!  I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I do taste a wee bit of my baking.  I imagine my husband would like another piece tonight.  Oops, I just noticed the time; it’s too late to eat now.”

Stollen

Ingeborg sent in over 30 images and it was very hard to pick from them all, but here are some of the other dessert and bakery treats that she often creates in her home kitchen.

Chocolate-Raspberry Moelleux	Whole Wheat Bread

Lemon Mousse	Lemon Mousse Plated

Raspberry Torte (Her birthday cake)	Cinnamon Buns

In addition, Ingeborg can be found in the kitchen on most days, she said in a recent update, “I’m off to the kitchen now. Making biscotti this morning. I think that’s all the baking I’ll be doing. Well, maybe I’ll make a cake for the 28th. Our daughter-in-law Joanne is a nurse. She is working during Christmas, but they will be here with family on the 28th. They live in Calgary. Hope that the highway will be in good traveling condition. The weather is brutal here! It’s minus 31 C. right now!”

Thank you Ingeborg, we are looking forward to hearing from you again soon on your baking and dessert adventures.

A question or two for my fellow foodies and  bloggers: Do you have guests post on your blog? If so, are they successful and rewarding for your blog? Would you like to submit a guest post on the CCR blog? If so, and even if you do not have a blog, please let me know by email if you would like to be a guest on the CCR blog, the contact information is located in the footer section of this page.