Red Rice Risotto; Deutschland

It was 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep, so I bought tickets to Berlin (26 euros, return). I also got tickets to a chamber orchestra performance of some Webern, Berg, and Schoenberg works at the Berlin Philharmonic hall (18 euros) and a performance of Wagner's Tannhauser at the Berlin Philharmonic (16 euros). All in all, a productive evening. I also read all of Philip Larkin's collection The Whitsun Weddings, which mostly just made me think about death and still not be able to sleep. More about that another day. Today is light-reading Wednesday.

And what's lighter than a cookbook? With no plot, no characters, and the self-consciousness of itself as a text to be interacted with, there's a fine line between a cookbook and a postmodern novel. So, think of this post as whichever you feel more comfortable with.

You start with 2 to 3 cups of water, I can't remember which. Maybe it's somewhere in between. You boil it, anyway. While it's coming to a boil you consider what it means to boil. To boil over, after all, is to fail to boil. To boil over is to spill all over the stove, cooling the water, and preventing it from reaching its premium state. So, don't boil over. Boil steadily, and as the boil begins add some salt and about a cup of red rice. The boiling should stop; the simmering should begin. We are in the grey area between boiling and not boiling. This is where we want to be. We're going to simmer for a while, so start chopping some mushrooms. We've got some shiitake, some oyster, and some other strangely shaped mushrooms. We're going to thinly dice the gouda that is still in our fridge, because it's about time to get rid of it and we don't have a cheese grater. We also bought some Parmesean, which is pretty good, so let's chop some of that up. We're heating up a second saucepan now, throwing in some butter and garlic and black pepper (ground). We toss in the mushrooms and let them simmer for longer than seems prudent, but trust me it's worth it. We add olive oil, take the thickness off of the butter and give it this strange interplay of flavors, the animal and the vegetable combined into one bubbly oily mess. Add the cheese. Add the white wine, maybe about a 3-4 second pour. Really let it get in there. The rice should be done, if it's been about 30 minutes. You used extra water than you thought was necessary, but that's because this is risotto not just standard white rice. You've also been stirring the whole time. So, now I add the rice to the mushroom mixture, stir for a while. Taste every one in a while, because I'm really hungry at this point and just want to eat. Finally, while it's still chewy, take it off the stove. It is the best thing I've cooked all week, which includes last week.

I have another jazz gig this Saturday, Ballsbridge Court Hotel. Also, I quit my job.