A brief story:
Okay, so I was craving something bright, relatively light, but warm and saucy...weird, I know. When I aquired a zester, I got pretty excited and figured that this was the route to take. I had also recently discovered the awesome-ness that is orzo pasta.
I tried it with just a little zest one time and juice another...meh. Not lemoney enough...
Then I decided to forgo subtlety and go for broke.
(seriously, why do I bother trying to do subtle? It's not my strong suit...)
Zest and juice = LEMON!!!
It was still missing a little something, so I added a bit of garlic. Done.
LEMON!!! Orzotto:
Half an onion (diced) or 1 decent sized shallot (diced)
1 or 2 lemons (zest THEN juice... it just doesn't work the other way around)
garlic minced (I use at least one big one, but figure out what's best for you)
1/4 cup to 3/4 cup dry orzo pasta
[WTF is Orzo?: it's a pasta, but it looks like bloated rice. I like to substitute it for rice when I'm not in the mood for rice or there are ingredients that don't twirl well with longer pastas.]
Dry Basil
Kosar Salt
Hot water--I use a kettle, 'cause it's super useful and lives on my stove top
A bit of butter (maybe 1/2 Tbsp, depending on how much you make) and a little olive oil (to help the butter not burn)
-->It'll be fine if you just want to use olive oil
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| It'd been a while since I'd made it, and I forgot the onion/shallot. My bad. (figured it'd be better to post some pictures than wait till I make it again) |
- Start heating water
-It's super friggin annoying to get to the point where it's needed, and then you have to wait
-Get in the habit now
-The same goes for pre-heating an oven - Melt butter in a medium skillet with a little olive oil
- Saute onion/shallot till clear-Add some salt now-(You'll be adding salt as you go)
Toasting the orzo...exciting. -pretend that you're seeing a lovely picture of minces onion/shallot being sautéed here. Thanks :) - Add garlic
-don't let it burn, but cook it for about a minute or so - Add DRY orzo
-WTF? Why dry?
-Well, like when making an actual rizzotto, it toast the orzo and adds another depth of flavor
-I also use this method when making cous cous--you're welcome - Add lemon zest
-
When sufficiently toasted, add lemon juice
You should be able to see the orzo is nice and toasted
-Again, WTF?
-Well, since lemon is the main flavor I'm going for, I wanted to make sure that it was well absorbed into the orzo
- When the juice is absorbed, slowly start adding hot water
-Stir! Don't let that awesome burn or get too sticky
-->You can also tell when to add more water by stirring and seeing how long the "line" stays
-if it stays for a bit, add more water
See the line? Awesome. Now, add more water. - Test as you go
-For taste
-For done-ness - As you're approaching done, add basil
-Too soon, and it might burn
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| The starch in the orzo makes it kind of creamy/goopy, so it'll stay together well on a fork. |
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| Delicious...and, it's even more delicious when you don't forget the onion/shallot. (I was wondering why it didn't fill the bowl as well as it normally does. That's when I finally remembered about the onion/shallot. Oops.) |
