So here I am, in Palm Springs, wanting risotto. Poor me.
I go to the nearest market, which is called “fresh & easy.” It’s an odd market. All the produce is wrapped. You can’t buy just an onion. You must buy at least two double wrapped onions. I just don’t understand this.
I couldn’t get just risotto rice at the “fresh & easy” because they wanted me to buy a package dish they called Porcini mushroom risotto.
I suspect folks don’t understand Italian food because of markets like this. How do you add convenience to something so simple as risotto? I mean, you don’t even have to measure anything! How hard can it be?
Usually, if I’m in a place that allows me to, I buy a box of Arborio rice and some broth to make a basic risotto. If I was an Italian grandmother with time on her hands I’d make my own broth, which is why there is no canned broth anywhere in Italy I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, I’d maybe chop up some butternut squash and add it to the simmering broth while I browned 2/3 cups of rice (a big handful for me) in butter or olive oil. Then I’d add the broth until the rice was properly al dente, then the squash, give it a stir and it’s done. I might stir in a bit of butter at the end if the food police weren’t looking, and I’d dust with some real Parmigiano-Reggiano. This makes enough for 2 big servings.
If I were making porcini risotto, I’d soak a few dried porcini in warm water, strain the liquid into the broth, chop the porcini and proceed as before.
Simple, no?
Enter the American convenience movement; or, how to make something convenient into something expensive. The box you see in the picture is the epitome of this vile movement.
You see, I paid $2 for the box you see above. The box claims it makes 4 servings. Inside there’s 1/2 cup of rice for four. A paltry amount.
But there’s another half cup in the box. It’s a half cup of powder. The box claims nothing unnatural is contained within that powder packet. Of course, what’s unnatural and what’s unnatural in food happens to be two quite different things, unless you cook with Silicon Dioxide because you like the taste of it (it’s to prevent caking they say).
Folks, here’s the thing. In Italy I’d buy a whole box of good quality Arborio rice for 2 Euros. It would last a month. A few dried porcini I’d buy by the handful at any outdoor market. The cost would almost be negligible. Then I’d whip us a dish that would be completely free of chemicals and mighty tasty for a fraction of the cost of the American version.
I poured the content of the powder package into a container. There were some widely dispersed black specks in it.
Those specks, dear reader, are the porcini mushrooms. An amount that defines paltry. A rip off amount.
Really, cook right. It’s not hard. None of these rip-off packages, you hear?
Of course, at the fresh and easy store, they don’t carry the rice, just the convenient packages. They make you suffer. They make you drive around.
They make you mad….and much poorer.