Sweet Potato Risotto

I think I was watching Iron Chef America and Chef Mario Batali explained that risotto is a cooking method not a dish. He may have been explaining this as he served sweet potato risotto to the judges, I don't remember. That made me think and since then I've been playing around with starches that could make risotto. The primary reason for this is that I can't get Arborio rice in Chipley. Big surprise there, I really can't get any short grained rice. That left experimentation as my only alternative. I've seen other Sweet Potato Risotto recipes on the web but they use the sweet potatoes as an addition to the rice risotto not as the primary starch. My recipe uses the sweet potato as the risotto and the rice as the additive.

This recipe would also work with yams, cooking pumpkin or butternut squash. I'm using sweet potatoes because they have come in season and you can get them by the crate around here this time of year.

In this recipe I use Basmati and wild rice because it was the only white rice I had in the house. However, you can use any long grain white rice. No, you can't get Basmati rice in Chipley either. I picked it up on a trip to Atlanta. I do quite a bit of grocery shopping in Atlanta. I know that's quite a commute to go to the grocery store and sometimes it makes the green side of me feel guilty, but I can usually get over it.

This recipe makes 6 servings.

• 1/4 of a cup of long grained white rice
• 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1/4 inch chunks
• 1/4 of an onion diced
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 of a cup of Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon of Garam Masala
• 3 or 4 cups of chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste

Sweet potatoes are a Southern staple but as a kid I didn't like them. The traditional way to serve them is to bake them and then add about half a stick of butter or margarine. There was no way I was going to add that much fat to anything I ate and without it sweet potatoes taste bland. At some point in my adult life my sister explained to me that it wasn't the butter that the sweet potato needed, it was the salt in the butter. I have been adding salt since then and enjoying my sweet potatoes. I've said all that to tell you when cooking this add the Parmesan cheese and then taste the risotto. You may need to add a lot of salt to keep the sweet potatoes from tasting bland.

Put your chicken stock on the back burner and bring it up to a simmer. While the stock is coming up to temperature put a little olive oil or butter in a skillet and sweat the onions until their almost translucent. Add the rice to the skillet and cook that until it begins to be pearly. Begin adding the chicken stock one ladle full at a time. The first time you add the chicken stock you will need to add two ladles full. Once you've done that stir the rice constantly until the stock is absorbed. After the stock is absorbed add another ladle full of stock and stir the rice until the stock is absorbed. Do this twice more until the rice begins to get tender then add the sweet potatoes. Continue adding stock one ladle full at a time and stirring until the stock is absorbed, adding the next ladle full of stock until the sweet potatoes turn soft. Add the cup of milk and the Parmesan cheese and stir the sweet potato until the milk is absorbed. The sweet potatoes should start to break down a little and form a cream with the milk. Salt to taste and serve.

I use plain low fat milk in this recipe, if you want to use half and half or heavy cream instead, then reduce the amount by half. Instead of using the milk as the last bit of liquid to form the cream of the risotto continue to add chicken stock until the sweet potatoes begin to cream then finish the risotto with the heavy cream.