Orange and Rosemary Risotto

I tasted risotto for the first time in 2000 when my daughter made it for me at her first apartment.  She made  Champagne Risotto which was delicious, especially so because my girl made it in her own home.  I've loved risotto ever since and often order it in restaurants.

I got the recipe for risotto with orange zest and rosemary oil in my email from the La Cucina Italiana magazine site.  It sounded good and it turned out to be really, really, really good.   I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and I substituted 1 Cup of white wine (Ferarri Carrano Fume Blanc) for part of the liquid.  I added the wine first and used the broth/water mixture for the additional liquid.  I also did not cover up the zest with plastic or wrap the zest strips in plastic.  As you can see in the photo, I didn't really have stripes, I had chunks.  I didn't measure my rosemary oil or the cheese, just added what seemed like a reasonable amount.

This was one of the best risottos I've every had. The orange zest and rosemary combo is just amazing.  Make it, you'll love it.

Red Cabbage and Mango Slaw

I heard about this slaw on The Chew where they made it to put on BBQ Chicken sandwiches.  I'm not a big lover of chicken but I love fish and thought the slaw would go well with that too. I was correct.  I grilled some Wahoo (aka Ono) fish to have with my slaw and the meal was delicious.  If you haven't had Wahoo, it is pretty yummy, both in sushi and grilled.  I did marinate my fish in some olive oil, rice vinegar and garlic before grilling.

You can see from the picture that my slaw is kind of chunky.  It was good but I made it again later in the week and did a better job of shredding the cabbage and the mango.  Also, the riper the mango, the better, in my opinion.  I got my mango from Trader Joe's pre-peeled and sliced.  My first batch was not quite ripe enough.  The second batch, riper and shredded was even tastier.