Brown rice and butternut squash risotto

From Mary's Kitchen:

Gatherings of our college roommate clan usually involves much laughter, much eating, and much wine. Despite the wine, Meg’s memory on the zuchinni lasagna was spot on – that ricotta is to die for.  Make it soon!!

Since Meg and I are the cooks in the crew, eating often involves much cooking on our parts, which we really enjoy. On our recent vacation gathering in Vermont, the fall weather lent itself to comfort food. My night up, on consultation with Meg, I decided to make a hearty fall risotto, paired with a big salad and of course wine.

I had made a version of this risotto before – a recipe from Maxine Clark’s cookbook “Risotto” – but who carries cookbooks on vacation?  So, I improvised. We had uncooked brown rice available, and since I'd experimented before with risottos made from grains other than the traditional Arborio rice, I thought this would work. After a little Googling - remember Meg’s essential cook's tool? - I determined that precooking the brown rice would yield a grain texture amenable to the risotto technique.

Okay, this is from memory, and remember what I said above about wine?  So, Meg can fill in if I miss something. Also, remember vacation?  One makes do with what one has at hand…

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice, parboiled

1 ½ large onion, chopped

½ cup white wine

2 quarts chicken broth

1 butternut squash, peeled and flesh cubed

1 can adobo chiles

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Seasonings to taste – see below

I parboiled the rice for 10 min, then drained it well and set it aside. The chicken broth got heated to a simmer in a sauce pan.  At home, I often just put the broth into the microwave to heat.  Risottos start with softening aromatics in butter and/or olive oil.  So I did this with the chopped onions, using a mixture of butter and olive oil, until well softened.  I added the parboiled rice, stirring to coat and heat through, then added the wine.  The grains absorb the wine quickly, so be ready with heated broth. 

Add ~1/2 cup or so broth at a time, stirring frequently.  You don’t have to baby this like a roux, but you do need to pay attention to how well the liquid gets absorbed.  One trick to risottos is to not let the bottom of the pan get dry – drag a flat spatula through the rice and you should still barely see some liquid when its time to add more.  After the first broth addition, stir in the cubed squash.  Keep stirring occasionally, adding more broth when the previous addition has been absorbed.  You’ve added enough when the grains are soft and have released some of their gluten.  When the rice is done, stir in one or more of the adobo chiles, to taste (the rest should freeze well for another day).  I was surprised to find that these chilis have quite a nice bite, so a good substitute for red chili flakes or crushed dried chilies called for in the original recipe.  The finale was to add the Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Best eaten while hot, though reheated risotto has its charms. 

Happy vacationing!

Meg's comment:  Mary taught me a neat trick for peeling the squash - slice it first and then trim the peel off of each slice. Much easier than trying to deal with the whole squash. For an even tastier dish you could lightly coat the cubed squash with olive oil and roast in a hot oven until slightly browned before adding to the risotto.  Of course this adds about 1/2 hour to your cooking time and another pan to wash but the added flavor is well worth it.