Cook Local

I think I'm in love. No, not with J. I know I'm in love with him. I think I just might be in love with Emmer. This wonderful grain has let us make something I wasn't sure John would be able to enjoy - risotto. I'm looking forward to making fried rice, chicken cacciatore (which is best served over rice), Asian dishes (also served over rice) and even taking the Emmer flour and making pasta out of it. This could be our ticket to carbs without the blood sugar impact.

We had some asparagus the other night and I just didn't feel like cooking it the way we usually do. So we found a recipe from the Amateur Gourmet - Asparagus Risotto. Now, warning... when we first looked at the link, we were wary. The picture looked... well... I won't go into what it looked like. Needless to say, it's green. But the description sounded fantastic. Our picture looks a little better, but that's because Emmer is brown.

We've never been disappointed by an Amateur Gourmet recipe, however, so we decided to be brave.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1 pound asparagus *&
• 1 qt of chicken broth &
• 1 small red onion &
• 4 tbsp butter *&
• 3 tablespoons olive oil &
• 1 cup Emmer (or risotto rice) *&
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 3/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan

Wow! We did pretty well on the local and organic ingredients. We could have even had local wine, although we don't drink white wine often, so we just bought some of those little Sutter Home bottles. Soon we'll make our own chicken broth and even that can be local and organic.

Directions

We cut the tips off the asparagus and set them aside. Then we chopped the remaining stems into one inch pieces.

I boiled some salted water and blanched the asparagus tips for 3 minutes. I strained them out and then boiled the chopped stems for 4 minutes. I strained the chopped stems and blended them in the food processor for a couple minutes until they were mostly smooth. (Keep the tips separate).

I diced a red onion into very small pieces. I love our newly sharpened knives.

Now get ready for a whole lot of stirring. In one pan, I heated the chicken stock on a low heat. I seasoned it with some salt and pepper as well. Then in another saucepan, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and about a tablespoon and half of olive oil. I sauteed the onion in the butter/oil mixture for 10 minutes over low heat. Then I added a little over a cup of Emmer to the onion mixture and stirred it until the Emmer was coated with the oil.

I added a ladle full of chicken stock to the pan with the Emmer and onions and stirred. Here's the time consuming part. You need to cook the Emmer until the first ladle of chicken stock is almost gone. Then add another ladle. Rinse, repeat.

If you're using rice, this process should take about twenty minutes. If you're using Emmer, it'll be closer to an hour. A few minutes after the last ladle of chicken stock went in, I added the white wine, parmesan cheese, and asparagus tips. Stir and serve.