Chef's Pant or Pajama?

There are a lot of things I really love about our Le Cordon Bleu chef's uniforms. I really dig the chef's jacket, of course. The upper arm pocket is a sweet (and practical) place for pens. The hat's fairly slick. Even the neckerchief has won me over.

Not the pants.

Why? Because I was in a bit of a rush this morning and, in my haste, nearly put my pajamas back on instead of my chef's pants. So, what the hell, let's play a little game...

Chef's Pant or Pajama?

The rules of this game are simple: there are three pictures of pants. They are either pajamas or chef's pants. You decide. If you win, your reward is a silent chuckle and, perhaps, some understanding of my contempt for my own pants. 

Answers below. Ready? Go!

And the answers are....

(drumroll)

1. Pajama
2. Chef's pant
3. Pajama

Food in Fiction: The Silence of the Lambs

Fava Beans & a Nice Chianti
The Silence of the Lambs — MOVIECLIPS.com

Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Written by Ted Tally, adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Recipe: Risotto Milanese

Apparently, a lot of saffron used to come through Milan, owing to the fact that the city is in a geographical sweet spot connecting Italy to the rest of Europe.

Some fun facts about saffron:

1. A saffron thread is a stigma from a flower of the saffron crocus plant. Each flower contains three.
2. One pound of saffron is roughly the equivalent of 75,000 flowers.
3. Due to the fact that it's handpicked, and from aforementioned fun facts one and two, it's the most expensive spice in the world. Perhaps, also because...
4. Today, most of the world's saffron comes from Iran.
5. It's the defining ingredient of paella. It also makes for a fine risotto.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup short-grain rice (arborio is widely available)
• 1/4 onion, finely minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 5-7 saffron threads
• 1/3 cup shredded parmesan
• 1/4 cup (half a stick) cold butter, in chunks

Equipment

• medium sauce pot
• small sauce pot

Prepping

Warm the chicken stock in a small sauce pot until steaming. Add the saffron.

Finely mince the onion. The onion bits shouldn't be any larger than a grain of rice.

Cooking

Use the risotto method, of course!

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil (and a pat of butter if you want) in the medium sauce pot. Sweat the onions for a few minutes, just until they start to get a little color. Add the rice and toss to coat in the oil/butter. Toast the rice for a minute or two.

Add the white wine and reduce until almost dry.

Add the stock 1/4-1/3 cup at a time and stir. Wait until the rice absorbs most of the liquid before adding more. It shouldn't be too dry before you add more, but it shouldn't be soupy, either.

Test a grain of rice as you get towards the end of the stock. Liquid should be absorbed all the way through, but you still want some bite. You know, the whole al dente thing.

When you're getting close, add a pinch or three of salt and stir in the butter and a little cheese. The cheese will thicken it up, so add a little more stock if necessary. It shouldn't pile up when you spoon it onto a plate. The word we used in class was "wavy." Go wavy.

Serve with more cheese. Sprinkle some minced parsley if you want to take a picture of it.

Day 49: The Risotto Method

From stocks to soups to sides and now, finally, a solid food dish that could conceivably be a meal all by itself, risotto.

I don't remember the first time I learned about risotto, but I do remember thinking, "Wait, it's just rice?" Oh, the folly of youth. Because A) I can and have eaten rice for consecutive decades, and B) it's really, really tasty rice. Creamy and nutty and luscious and all that.

And it's customizable! Since Le Cordon Bleu is all about techniques over recipes, and risotto is a technique, our chef-instructor taught us the basic risotto method – in Italian, no less – with which one could easily make their own plate of creamy rice deliciousness. As my favorite Italian, a super plumber named Mario, would say, "Let's-a go!"

The Risotto Method

1. Soffrito* - Saute aromatics. The word means suffer, so imagine onions weeping out their moisture.
2. Riso - Add the rice. Coat it in the fat the aromatics are currently sauteing in and let toast a little.
3. Vino - Wine, to deglaze the pan and add a wee bit of flavor. Cook until almost dry.
4. Brodo - Broth. The liquid should be hot so as not to stop the rice's cooking process. Adding a little at a time promotes more even cooking.
5. Condimenti - Butter and cheese and salt. And, if you're feeling sexy, vegetables and cooked meats or seafood.

*Not to be mistaken with the Spanish sofrito, although the basic idea is the same. This is the flavor base.

The condiment step is an obvious spot for getting creative, but really every step of the way can be switched up somehow. Different stocks/broths, wines, etc.

As for the rice, starchy short-grain varieties work best. Our chef-instructor recommended three: arborio, carnaroli, and vialone nano. I've read more than handful of recipes recommending bomba. I've actually made half-decent risotto using calrose, but that should probably be a too-lazy-to-go-to-the-store last resort.

Food in Fiction: The Joy Luck Club

"She was chopping eggplant into wedges, chattering at the same time about Auntie Suyuan: 'She can only cook looking at a recipe. My instructions are in my fingers. I know what secret ingredients to put in just by using my nose!' And she was slicing with such a ferocity, seemingly inattentive to her sharp cleaver, that I was afraid her fingertips would become one of the ingredients of the red-cooked eggplant and shredded pork dish."

The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan
First published in 1989