RECIPE: brown risotto with beef, arugula and caramelized carrots

Brown Risotto with Beef Arugula and Caramelized Onions

Makes 8-10 servings.

I make risotto a lot.  It's one of my go-to recipes when I forget to plan ahead.  When I use white rice it's ready in 30 minutes, and with canned or frozen meat and veggies all the prep has already been done.

With brown rice it takes much longer - over an hour - but a lot of that time can be spent doing other things (like washing the prep dishes and setting the table).

Last night, I made brown rice risotto using primarily home-canned ingredients.

The pan I use to make risotto is huge - 14" across.  It was made by SaladMaster but they no longer make it.  Any large saute pan (at least 6 quarts) will work but make sure it's big enough or you will need to cut the recipe in half.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup ghee, lard, tallow or coconut oil divided (I used tallow)
2 med-large onions, diced, divided
3 cups carrot pulp (or grated carrots) divided
1/2 cup celeriac pulp (optional)
1.5 cups brown short grain rice
8-10 cups water
2 t. himalayan pink salt
1 quart home-canned beef broth
1 quart home-canned beef stew
1 box baby arugula
1-2 T chopped parsley (I used frozen)
1/2 c. cream or parmesan (I used cream)

DIRECTIONS:
Melt 1/4c. fat in large saute pan (mine is 17# across).  On med-high heat, saute 1 onion, 2.5 cups of the carrots, and the celeriac pulp until mostly brown.  Remove 3/4 of this and set aside to stir in at the end. (You can see this in the center of the photo above.)

Push the rest to the sides of the pan, melt the remaining fat, and add the rest of the onion.  When the onion is translucent, add the rice and saute stirring constantly until most grains are opaque.  DO NOT LET THE RICE BROWN!  Reduce the heat if necessary.

Add the beef broth and 4-6 cups of stock - enough to completely submerge the rice - the salt, and the rest of the carrot pulp and let it cook, stirring occasionally, and adding more water as needed until the rice is 3/4 cooked - you should still see a little bit of an opaque center in each grain.  Taste it - it should be a little underdone.  This took me almost an hour.

When the rice is 3/4 cooked, I switched to 'risotto mode' where I add small amounts of water, stir constantly, and test for done-ness.  At this point I added the canned beef stew, including its broth, and stirred to break up the chunks.  When the risotto is done, the beef will be heated.

When the rice grains are cooked, turn off the heat and add the arugula, stirring to incorporate it into the rice.  It will cook in seconds. Add the chopped parsley.  Pour the cream (or the parmesan if you prefer to use that) over the top, add in the reserved caramelized carrots, stir to combine and serve.

When you serve it, you can pour a little EVOO over the rice in your bowl.

This recipe makes a LOT!  After dinner, I portion out some into small glass containers that my husband takes to work, and the rest goes into a larger container that I often dip into for lunch.  We get at least 8, and often 10, servings.