This has been, by far, my most ambitious meal to date, at least from the Cook with Jamie cookbook, but also possibly more ambitious than a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
I knew earlier in the day that I would be making the risotto but I still went ahead with making the carrott cake for dessert and that in itself turned into a lengthy process as I had to grate the carrotts, crush the walnuts, zest and juice an orange. The cake itself turned out to be very tasty - but a little to citrusy for me - I am quickly discovering that I am not a BIG fan of citrus flavors in my food (drink-wise it's a different story) so next time I expect that I will use less orange or maybe the problem was the orange was much bigger than the average orange, I'm not so sure.
I really do love carrott cake and if I'm at a restaurant that has it on it's dessert menu, I will often opt for it rather than a decadent chocolate dessert (Queen Mother on Queen Street serves up a Dufflet carrot cake that must be quite popular because every time I dine there, by the time dessert rolls around, the last piece is gone - I've taken to ordering my dessert when I order my meal to guarantee getting a piece although that doesn't always work). I'm not a terribly big fan of cream cheese icing though, at least if it's got that really sour-y sharp cream cheese taste which explains why I don't like cheese cake either, but sometimes, the cream cheese in both icings and cakes can be very subtle in which case, I very much enjoy it. I figured since I was making the icing, then hopefully I could achieve that level of subtlety myself and I think I did except that the icing, made with both cream cheese and mascarpone cheese also had lime in it, which made the icing too citrusy for my taste. Tay and I both tried the cake when it was fresh out of the oven, cutting the edges off a loaf that I made because I had extra batter and he enjoyed it just as much without the icing as with the icing. I think next time I will make a very thin, runny icing that I can drip over the cake and that will harden but that will still allow me the option to garnish with walnut pieces.
By the time I started making dinner it was 6:30 and I figured we'd be eating by 8 at the latest, but again, I underestimated the amount of time that goes into all the prep work, multiplied by the fact that I'm still a little slow with my knife and cutting board - plus in addition to making the risotto I was also making a chicken dish as a backup and the chicken, even though quite quick all things considered, still took a bit of time as well.
I'm starting to understand more and more the temptation to take shortcuts when cooking - to use bottled lemon juice and dried herbs and pre-grated cheeses as it saves considerable time but as best as possible, I'm trying not to fall for those shortcuts despite how overwhelming it is to have all these tasks looming while you're trying to get things done in a timely fashion. I have to assume that these things will all take a bit less time the more practice I have (or, if I allow people in the kitchen with me then I can delegate a lot of the chopping and grating to them).
The chicken itself was fine - it was quick and easy and wrapping it in bacon (I didn't have pancetta) kept the chicken from drying out (plus I love bacon) and the leeks that it was baked with added an interesting flavour and texture that I'd never experienced as I'd never had leeks before).
The risotto itself was easy in theory to make but did take a lot of time - from the chopping of the onions and the celery and the garlic and the thyme and the parsley plus the grating on the parmesan and the cleaning and chopping of the mushrooms (I used 5 kinds - regular button, cremini, portobello, shitake and king oyster (which were really yummy but VERY expensive) to the constant stirring that was involved, first with the onion and celery and then with the addition of the rice and stock and white wine. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated and I think this was ultimately my overall mistake - I didn't take the proper amount of time to allow for the rice to fully absorb the stock and wine so when I finally served dinner (at 9pm, 2 and a half hours after starting) the rice was still a little too firm but I was too hungry to wait any longer). Plus I think I didn't turn the heat down quite enough when I first added the rice, which I think affected the density of the rice. The flavour of the risotto was really unlike anything I'd every tried before - I'm not a big cream of mushroom fan, which of course was the principle taste but it was subtle enough that I enjoyed it quite a bit - again, the taste that through me off was the lemon - I really, really must be using too much lemon because it's the key ingredient preventing me from enjoying these meals (that and my abuse of salt, which I've gotten better about and thankfully avoided doing with the risotto).
Despite the amount of work, I will definitely make risotto again, though next time, I will prepare the risotto base at a seperate time (either earlier that day or even the day before) which will but down the actual prep during meal time (a tip that restaurants use to get risotto out to the table in a timely manner). My next risotto will be Spicy Pangratto, made with breadcrumbs, anchovies and chilies.
From Cook With Jamie, pages 131, 187 and 387
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