Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [105]
Rinse and drain the rice. Sauté the onions over medium heat until translucent (three or four minutes) in the olive oil in a large saucepan with a heavy bottom.
Turn up the heat to medium-high or high. Add the rice. Stir and cook for four or five minutes, scraping the rice off the bottom of the pan. Don’t let the rice brown. Add the wine. Stir continually, or nearly, until the wine is completely absorbed—about three minutes.
Add the broth slowly, only about a half cup at a time, stirring over relatively high heat. Some salt can be added during the cooking. All the broth should be incorporated in about twelve to fourteen minutes. At the end, the rice should be moist and creamy, not gummy.
Stir in the butter. Remove from heat. (An Italian friend and superb cook says the secret is to remove the rice from the heat before it has completely finished cooking.) Stir in the cooked vegetable or other addition. Add the cheese and serve immediately. Serves five or six.
Opinion says risotto cannot be kept as a leftover, but we make fried risotto flat cakes with it.
SIEGE OF PARIS
Just as a good story is the theme of its location, so a good meal is the success of its ingredients. What is available and fresh should be the starting point. Certain circumstances can be demanding. In 1870, during the Siege of Paris that climaxed the Franco-Prussian War, the starving populace was forced to eat domestic pets, cats and dogs, as well as rats, and even the occupants of the Vincennes zoo. On the ninety-ninth day of the siege, which happened to be Christmas Eve, there appeared on the menu of Voisin, a distinguished restaurant: elephant consommé and roast camel, along with bear and kangaroo.
ROYAL PROGRESS
In medieval times, the households of the English rulers were organized on such a lavish scale that Richard II’s kitchen employed over two thousand cooks to feed the ten thousand daily visitors. Even two hundred years later, during Elizabeth I’s reign, there were 160 on the kitchen staff and ten times that number of diners at court.
Elizabeth and her successor, James I, made a practice of occasionally touring their kingdom, accompanied by hundreds of courtiers and a caravan of household goods that included carpets, musical instruments, and portions of the royal libraries. They stayed at the great houses of wealthy subjects, who were often strained to the limit to make certain their sovereigns were comfortable and entertained until they moved on.
In Lancashire, Sir Richard Shuttleworth had built an imposing house called Gawthorpe Hall. Completed in 1605, it burned in 1617, soon after Shuttleworth learned that King James was to visit. It was rumored, probably falsely, that Shuttleworth set it afire himself rather than face the even greater cost of a stay by the king. The house was eventually restored, and Charlotte Brontë later spent time there with her friends, the Shuttleworth heirs.
CHINESE FOOD
Through the centuries, food and cooking, inseparable from philosophy and religion, have been subjects of immense importance to the Chinese. Emperors, scholars, and writers have addressed these matters, as well as Confucius, the greatest Chinese philosopher, for whom even the way the table was set and the meal served were of utmost concern, though he also said, “Live humbly.”
The Chinese diet is relatively low in calories, perhaps reflecting its origins in scarcity, with little fat and of that, only a small proportion of it animal fat. It includes almost no milk or dairy products. Rice is commonplace, though not an essential element, especially in the north, where little rice is produced. Essential to any Chinese meal, however, are three ingredients: fresh ginger, soy sauce, and scallions.
The usual place setting is a bowl, a plate, chopsticks, and a spoon, and nearly every dish is prepared for these few implements. The place of honor at the table is given to