I'm just mad about saffron!

We are mad about saffron. What a special spice--long the world's most expensive spice by weight. Xandria's mom gave her some... the Lord knows we can't afford such an exotic luxury!

What to do with saffron? Risotto! Who doesn't love moist, rich risotto on a chilly evening? Today was perfect for such an indulgent treat--a sunny spring day, flowers petals floating down from trees all over the Hill, yet with enough of a nip in the air by evening to call for warm comfort food.

We lament, however, that risotto is typically made with nutrient-poor white rice and salty broth that's heavy on MSG. We decided to attempt a risotto that not only tantalizes our taste buds, but nourishes our bodies as well.

Last week left us with an abundance of vegetable scraps (onion, cilantro, kale and chard stems, and celery tops). We had chopped and boiled these for about an hour to make a hearty stock, then strained into a glass mason jar. The nutrient-dense brew was further inspiration to once again pull out the stock pot.

When eating a lot of carbohydrates, it is always a good idea to include some good fats and proteins. And putting together this with the ample vegetables we have on hand... here we go.

Scanning our cupboards once again, we found our ingredients:

Butter and liquid from the can of salmon for the sauteeing fats
2 onions, one red, one yellow -- diced until (we were) sobbing plus a few spring onions
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons organic short grain brown rice
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
Wild Alaska canned salmon (you could probably use good tuna as well)
3-4 stems each organic kale and chard (any greens will work, even ones that have been in the fridge for a few days too long)--chopped to your liking
1/3 cup organic diced (canned) tomatoes
Saffron

We were relative novices at making risotto; if you are too, you should know that it can take quite awhile--but it's well worth the wait.

We began by adding fat to the bottom of our stockpot--about 1/2 tablespoon of butter and the liquid off the can of salmon. We warmed this over medium heat for a few minutes before adding the diced onions. The onions should simmer (always so aromatically!) in the fats until they become soft and translucent. At that point, we added the rice to the pot to allow it to toast for a few minutes.

Once the rice was toasted (2-3 minutes), we added the broth bit by bit--we went in 2/3 cup increments as it was absorbed by the rice. This takes patience. We stirred the risotto to make sure the bottom did not burn, but we did not stir constantly--to be on the safe side, you probably can't go wrong with more stirring! [After the fact, we noticed that some recipes call for bringing the broth to a boil separately before adding it to the rice--this might make the process faster!]

We kept adding broth until it seemed as though the rice was not absorbing any more liquid. Then we dissolved the saffron in a bit of hot broth and added it to the rice mixture, allowing it to infuse for about 3 minutes.  We then added the tomatoes and the salmon (which had to be de-boned). When the tomatoes and salmon had warmed through, the greens were the last addition before serving. We wanted them to maintain some of their texture. We stirred them in and allowed them to wilt, then topped the risotto with salt and pepper to taste.

The short-grain rice resulted in a sticky but creamy risotto. If our delicious risotto is any indication, saffron's just mad about us, too!