Friday, February 20, 2009

HK Cincinnati:


David and I never really got around to purchasing a television after we moved out of our Clifton apartment to our shiny new place. There were other, more pressing matters, like paying for emergency root canals and iphones and rent and craft beers. That being the case, David and I don’t watch a lot of current television shows.


But we do watch Hell’s Kitchen.

It’s become our latest guilty pleasure. I was clicking around on the interwebs late at night and found the season 5 premiere. We enjoy Hell’s Kitchen for a number of reasons.

One—David and I both think it is cathartic to watch people other than us get yelled at. The British accent and frequent cursing just makes it even better.


Two—I don’t know where they find these “finalists” but they seem handpicked to induce the most scoffing on the part of the viewers. Their personalities have been picked out to clash with each other while they cook delicious (and not so delicious) food. During all of the drama, Gordon Ramsay is stomping around the kitchen dramatically screaming and throwing pans around.

The teams cook a lot of things, though mainstay appetizers during dinner service are scallops and risotto.

After seeing all of season 4, and watching the teams berated about their subpar (and sometimes acceptable) scallops and risotto at least twice an episode, I turned to David and told him I had never actually had a scallop or risotto and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Yesterday I found out. We made a trip to Whole Foods in Rookwood after work. And so begins our own version of Hell's Kitchen:



Which means I get to run around the kitchen asking David "David, how long to the window?!" in a terrible British accent, and following every question with a rhetorical "yes?"

We picked up our ingredients for our own risotto, including risotto rice, peas, carrots, 24 month old grated parmesan cheese, chicken cooking stock and shallots. We had vermouth at home.






Peas


24 month Parmesan

We also selected 1 lb of sea scallops with some fresh thyme to cook them with.


David reminds you to always gently rinse the scallops


Thyme

As an afterthought, we picked up some veggies and crostini to hold us over while we cooked.





After David almost blinded himself cutting them up, we sautéed the shallots.








Added Saffron for some nice color:



And cooked our chicken stock with various spices and the carrots:






finished risotto


fancy pants sea salt flakes


white pepper for the scallops









Want











We decided to pair our scallops and risotto with nice belgian brews. St. Bernardus Tripel (his) and Goulden Carolus Cuvee de van de Keizer (hers).


4 comments:

  1. oh my god this looks amazing! i just ate and i am hungry again!

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  2. They were very good--and very easy! Scallops only need to be cooked about 2 1/2 minutes-3 minutes on each side. They were 15.99 a 1b at whole foods, and we got enough for both of us with just a little over one 1b. We are going to try a V.2 soon, maybe taking it in an asian direction and putting water chestnuts (a favorite of mine) or bean sprouts in our risotto and creating a tangy soy sauce based glaze for the scallops. What do you think?

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  3. I love the pictures. How long were the scallops on the stove?

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  4. Thanks! We cooked them about 2 1/2 minutes each side. They didnt take very long to cook.

    ReplyDelete

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