Shopping weekly means that we don't always have the ingredients we think we need. At other times, we have things in our freezer or on our shelves, that we don't have a plan for, but should use. Both of these situations call for a little creativity...
The other day I had some homemade chicken stock that needed to be used (or frozen). I decided to make some risotto and started to get all of the ingredients together. I started by sauteeing an onion, garlic, and a red pepper, and then I started getting out the rest of the ingredients. I was surprised to find out that I did not have any Arborio rice. I did a quick look online to see what might be the best substitute and found that the best substitute was sushi rice, thanks to its high starch content. I was a bit skeptical and surprised, but gave it a try.
I never noticed before, but Sushi rice and Arborio rice do look quite similar. I must say that it worked quite well.
The next thing I noticed was that the recipe called for grape tomatoes, another thing I didn't have. I found some sun dried tomatoes in my cupboard and gave those a try. These were truly dry and needed to be refreshed with boiling water. It worked very well.
Seeing as I was already diverging from the original recipe, I decided to use some pesto, that I found in my fridge. I must say that despite all of the changes to the original recipe, this turned out very well. Don't be afraid to use what you have and/or to check on google for a good substitution.
No comments:
Post a Comment