8-2-Eat: Spring Risotto

8-2-Eat is my food-focused list series. A perfect Friday distraction. Spring always puts me in the mood for risotto, the classic Italian rice dish that makes an ideal foundation for spring produce such as mushrooms, peas and asparagus. Below are 8 risotto recipes perfect for this season.

Risotto with Mushrooms, Sausage and Kale. If you're a risotto newbie, this simple combination is a great place to start.

Mushroom-Bacon Risotto. Another simple classic that will please the bacon lovers.

Roasted Vegetable Risotto Primavera. My most recent risotto, a dish inspired by the classic spring dish pasta primavera.

Pressure Cooker Spring Risotto

Cauliflower, Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto. This wonderful combination of flavors was inspired by a typo on Twitter in a conversation between me, New Morning Farm and Washington Post Food section editor Joe Yonan. You never know where a delicious idea will be born.

Pressure Cooker Spring Risotto. Want to speed up risotto? Try making it in a pressure cooker. You may be surprised at how good the results are.

Peas 3-Ways Risotto with Mint (shown at top). I love eating peas in the spring, and a good risotto is the perfect showcase for them.

Multi-Grain Risotto

Three-Peas Farro Risotto with Bacon. Riffing on the "peas 3-ways" theme again, this version features farro--a wheat grain--instead of the traditional rice.

Multi-Grain Risotto with Broccolini and Brussels Sprouts Expanding upon the non-rice risotto, this version is made with farro, barley and wheat berries supporting a beautiful combination of green vegetables.

Toss the Seasoning Packet: Make Old School Tacos

Have you noticed that tacos you can get today are different from what we had as kids? ("We" being used here for those of us who remember the '80s as a time of our youth.) Tacos today are "authentic" dishes of fillings like carne asada or pork carnitas. They're served on freshly made corn tortillas and garnished with raw onion, cilantro and a variety of fresh salsas. They're amazing.

Thirty years ago, tacos looked a lot different, at least if you were a child of suburban America where Taco Bell reigned supreme. Taco supreme, I suppose. Back then, a taco featured seasoned ground beef with shredded cheese, maybe tomatoes and lettuce, and crunchy corn shell. They were amazing...well, okay not really, but they were satisfying.

Arguably, the tacos we can get today are way better. But sometimes, that nostalgic pull of food memory makes me yearn for the tacos of my youth. When you weren't eating tacos like that at Taco Bell, you could have them at home. All it took was a taco kit, a pound of ground beef and a seasoning packet.

This recipe shoots for reliving some of that '80s taco nostalgia with a few modern updates. I've replaced that seasoning packet with a custom seasoning blend. It's really not that hard to assembled the spices to make good taco seasoning. And you can customize this any way you want. Don't have onion powder? It's probably just as delicious with just garlic. Can't find Mexican oregano? Use the standard kind. Want more chili powder? By all means add more. Making your own mix means you're in control, which includes dramatically reducing the sodium, if you are so inclined.

I also made some alterations to the taco ingredients, swapping in ground dark turkey meat for the beef, using colby jack cheese (you and I probably used cheddar as kids), and garnishing the tacos with a quick spicy corn salsa and fresh avocado instead of tomatoes and lettuce (tomatoes aren't in season right now and lettuce is just boring on tacos). Having a little chipotle hot sauce on the side ain't a bad idea either.

Seasoned Turkey and Corn Salsa Tacos

Seasoning:
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tbsp cumin

Corn Salsa:
1 tsp of olive oil
4 oz frozen corn
2 tbsp minced red onion
1 jalapeño minced
Pinch of chipotle chili powder

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb dark ground turkey
1 tbsp Worcestershire
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Colby jack cheese
1 avocado, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8-10 taco shells

1. Combine the seasoning ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Make the corn salsa: Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the corn, onion and jalapeño, season with chili power and sauté until lightly browned, about 6-8 minutes. Remove salsa from pan and set aside.

3. Make the ground turkey: Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, stirring frequently, until the turkey is cooked through, breaking up with a wooden spoon as the meat cooks (when cooked, I chopped the meat on a cutting board to break it into smaller pieces). Stir in the spice mixture and cook another minute or so until the mixture is fragrant, then add the Worcestershire sauce and water. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce has thickened.

4. Serve the seasoned taco meat with the corn salsa, shredded cheese, avocado and taco shells.

Chicken Dijonnaise and Leeks Dijonnaise

I could have titled this post "Chicken and Leeks Dijonnaise," but that might have led you to believe this about a single dish with chicken and leeks, when it is actually two separate "Dijonnaise" dishes.

What is "Dijonnaise?" Despite marketing attempts, it is not traditionally a sort of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard concoction, but rather a term that refers to dishes with sauces made with Dijon mustard. In this case, there's a simple pan-fried chicken dish with a quick sauce made from mustard, shallots and white wine (or vermouth, which I used in this case), and a wonderful cooked leeks dish with a Dijon-mustard dressing adapted from a recipe for Leeks Dijonnaise served at Convivial, chef Cedric Maupillier's newest D.C. restaurant that opened last year.

You may recall that we visited Convivial and had a wonderful dinner, which included the Leeks Dijonnaise. The recipe for the dish appeared in the Washington Post recently. I simplified the recipe a bit by omitting a couple of ingredients: the fried capers, which I replaced with capers just from the jar and the fried croutons, which I'm sure are delicious, but I wanted to streamline the dish a bit and eliminating the two fried ingredients seemed like a way to make it not just simpler but also healthier.

Cleaning and cooking the leeks

Before we move to to the chicken, let's talk a bit about preparing the leeks. Cleaning the sand from the between the layers of leeks is important, but can be frustratingly time-intensive if you don't do it right. I learned an excellent tip from New York Times recipe writer Melissa Clark that makes cleaning leeks a snap. Her method is to slice off the dark green part first (which is generally discarded in recipes), then slice through the leeks lengthwise with the root-end intact. Keeping the root attached means the layers are secured together at one end, making it easy to fan the layers with your fingers under running water to remove any sand that has collected between them.

The chicken dish below goes nicely with the leeks. I used boneless-skinless chicken thighs, which are first dredged in flour, giving them a bit of outer coating, although far less than the breading for fried chicken. The residual flour that remains in the pan also helps thicken the resulting Dijon-wine sauce. You can use any dry white wine for this sauce. Sauvignon blanc, for example, would work well. I find that dry vermouth is great in these kinds of sauces, and it's a good way to use up dry vermouth if you've opened a bottle to make gin martinis but don't drink them often enough to use up the vermouth before it spoils (of course, you keep your opened vermouth in the refrigerator, right?).

Leeks Dijonnaise
Adapted (pretty liberally) from the Convivial Leeks Dijonnaise recipe by Cedric Maupillier, Washington Post

3-4 leeks, dark green leaves removed (about 1 lb. after the dark green part is removed)
3 large eggs
2 tbsp. minced shallots
2 tbsp. minced cornichons
1 tbsp. small capers (the ones that are no larger than 1/4-inch)

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp. champagne vinegar (or other white wine vinegar)
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. chopped fresh chives
1 cup sunflower microgreens (original recipe called for mustard greens or chervil)

1. Slice the leeks in half lengthwise (note: do not first slice off the root--keeping it intact will hold the leeks together). Rinse the leeks with cold water to remove and sand, separating the layers with your fingers to make sure they are clean.

2. Set a steamer insert in a medium saucepan, fill the pan with water up to the insert and set it over medium-high heat to bring to a boil. Add the leeks to the pan, cover and steam for 8 minutes. Remove the leeks and set aside on a plate to cool for at least 20 minutes (I refrigerated them). Slice the leeks width-wise into pieces no wider than 1/2-inch. Add to a large bowl.

3. Place the eggs in a medium sauce pan and cover with cold water until there is an inch of water above the eggs. Place pan on stove and heat over medium-high heat until the water boils. Immediately remove pan from heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Then place eggs in ice water for 5 minutes (this makes them easier to peel). Carefully crack eggs all over, roll gently on a hard surface, and then use your hands to remove the shell, starting at the less-pointy end. Rinse the peeled eggs by dipping them in the bowl with the ice water. Separate the cooked yolks from the cooked white and chop both into dice. Add to the bowl with the leeks.

4. Add the minced shallots, cornichons and capers to the large bowl with the leeks and eggs.

5. Add the garlic and salt to a small bowl and mash with a rounded muddler or the back of a spoon to form a paste (alternatively, use a mortar and pestle, then transfer the paste to the bowl). Add the vinegar, mustard and pepper and whisk to combine, then whisk in the oil. Pour the dressing over the leeks mixture and toss to combine.

6. Arrange the dressed leeks mixture on a platter. Top with the fresh chives and microgreens.

Chicken Dijonnaise
Adapted from multiple recipes, such as Chicken Dijonnaise by Better Homes and Gardens

2 tbsp. extra-virign olive oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 lb. boneless-skinless chicken thighs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup minced shallots
1/4 cup dry vermouth (or other dry white wine)
3 tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat olive oil and butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels and dredge in flour. Add to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the meat is cooked through and the edges are browned, about 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through. Set cooked chicken aside on a plate.

2. Add the shallots to the pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the vermouth (or wine) and stir with a wooden spoon to deglaze the pan and remove any browned bits. Add the mustard and stir with a whisk to combine with the wine mixture. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste, and cook for a couple of minutes until thickened.

3. Serve the chicken on a platter topped with the Dijon sauce and sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Restaurant: The Dabney (Washington, D.C.)

We're told that alleys are places to avoid. If you enter an alley in video game, expect to see the "game over" screen soon. Alleys are where you go to get robbed or stabbed.  In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne's parents are gunned down in an alley. You might be surprised then if I suggested an alley is the perfect place to go for a delicious meal served in an inviting setting with friendly service.

The Dabney, located in Blagden Alley

I'm talking about The Dabney, which opened last year in the revitalized Blagden Alley in D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood just west of the convention center. Our recent dinner there was extraordinarily good. I'm still thinking about all the ways that Chef Jeremiah Langhorne, who recently worked in Charleston's under famed Southern chef Sean Brock's restaurant McCrady's, and has even worked at Noma (yes, that Noma), used fire, sorghum and locally sourced vegetables to craft a meal of memorable Southern-leaning dishes.

The open-concept kitchen is the focal point of the otherwise simply adorned dining room. The beautiful wooden tables are nicely spaced to allow easy movement through the restaurant. The lights are romantically low--but not so low you can't see the menu. Instead, let your eyes wander over to the kitchen where Langhorne and crew work around a massive wood-burning hearth, using its smoke, flame and embers to do the restaurant's cooking.

Homestead cocktail

I can't wait to talk about the food, but first the cocktails. Bar Manager Tyler Hudgens, an alum of the Columbia Room, which recently relocated near The Dabney in Blagden Alley, has concocted a creative list of drinks that nicely complements the varied yet approachable flavors of the food. We're always up for a Manhattan, and loved the rye-based Homestead, its flavor pushed to a more pastoral place with house-made pecan-infused madeira. Also good was the pine-scented For Evergreen with old tom gin, maple and a wonderful pine liqueur, Zirbenz, which I must procure for my home bar.

Celery root baked in the embers

The Dabney's menu isn't divided into starters and entrees, although it's fairly easy to tell by the way the dishes are ordered and their price points which ones will work best for designing those two courses. After a delightful opening of lightly charred focaccia bread with sorghum butter, we sprang for the arugula salad with carrots--the root vegetable comes in both charred and raw-shaved forms--enhanced with peanuts, herbs and a toasted benne (sort of like sesame seeds) dressing. It's a good reminder to me to use peanuts more in salad, for I love the crunch and flavor they provide. "Celery root baked in the embers," another winner, finds several roasted pieces of celeriac nestled atop a creamy oat risotto flecked with bacon, watercress and topped with a poached egg.

Perhaps we just devoured these starters too quickly, but at this point in the meal, there was a rather long pause before our order of cornbread arrived. For those accustomed to a sweeter cornbread, be prepared for this more savory Southern rendition, nicely browned by that wood-burning hearth. A meal here wouldn't be complete without this--be sure to save some for mopping up the sauces that come with your entrees. Also, if you can save a little of that sorghum butter, it would be really good on the cornbread too.

Autumn olive pork in the style of bacon

Both of our entrees were good, although the "Autumn olive pork in the style of bacon" was our clear favorite. Several succulent pieces of pork arrive atop a pile of caramelized onions cooked in whey and served with spring greens and maple cream. It was one of the best pork dishes I've ever had. Less impressive was the lacquered quail, which was tasty, but when you're sharing a quail dish--as all dishes at The Dabney are shared--it feels insubstantial, since the little birds yield just a couple bites of meat.

Sorghum returns for dessert in the sorghum custard, a decadent treat of brûléed custard topped with brown butter and peanut brittle crumbles, milk ice cream and a drizzle of peanut butter sauce. That's my kind of dessert, another highlight of the night. Along with the bad news (i.e., the bill), comes more good news: tasty little pecan-sorghum and ginger cookies.

Sorghum custard

Besides the food, I was also impressed with the service. Everyone was unfailingly friendly and polite from the hostess to our server and even the chef, who wished us a good night after we paused a bit to watch his team in action around the hearth before we departed.

I have no doubt that Chef Langhorne's name will be rolling off the tongues of D.C.-area restaurant aficionados in no time. In fact, the accolades for The Dabney are already rolling in. Zagat listed The Dabney among eight hard-to-get-into establishments along with Little Serow and Rose's Luxury (fortunately, unlike those establishments, The Dabney takes reservations).

If you're still apprehensive about wandering down an urban alley to find dinner, keep in mind that Diagon Alley is where you go to find all the best magic shops in the Harry Potter world. And in Blagden Alley, you'll find The Dabney brings a touch of magic to the real world.

The Dabney, 122 Blagden Alley NW (between M and N and 9th and 10th Streets NW), Washington, D.C. (Shaw, just west of the convention center). (202) 450-1015. Reservations: Open Table.

Roasted Vegetable Risotto Primavera

Spring is finally here, and spring produce is already showing up in markets. Although there are joys year-round of eating seasonally, there's something about spring produce that fits the season so well. It's so green, so vibrant, so alive, after months of eating imported off-season produce and dried and canned goods during the winter.

I find risotto to be a particularly good vehicle for showing off spring produce, and I find I make the traditional dish of rice cooked in broth with vegetables and cheese most frequently from March to June.

I've shared several variations of pasta primavera, "primavera" meaning "spring" in Italian, usually denoting a dish made with seasonal spring vegetables like asparagus, peas and greens. The vegetables in this dish most closely resemble what I used in my first Pasta Primavera recipe, which was inspired by the primavera recipe in The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.

I treat the vegetables in different ways here. Most of them--the red pepper, broccoli, carrot and squash--are roasted in the oven until lightly browned around the edges. The onion is sautéed and cooked with the rice and the sugar snap peas are lightly blanched in the broth. Everything is combined in the end with a generous helping of finely grated pecorino-romano, the hard-cheese alternative to parmigiano-reggiano that's perfect for spring dishes.

Roasted Vegetable Risotto Primavera

Note: Carnaroli rice is an Italian rice similar to arborio. Both are popular choices for risotto. Carnaroli rice has a higher starch content than arborio rice, is a bit longer and has a firmer texture.

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets (about 1-inch across)

2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 yellow summer squash, cut into 1/2-inch dice

3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth (you can use a mixture and low-sodium or standard depending on your taste preference; for this dish I used 4 cups vegetable broth and 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth; if you use only vegetable broth, the dish will be vegetarian)

8 oz. sugar snap peas, peas larger than 1 inch cut in half

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, diced

1 1/2 cups carnaroli rice (may substitute arborio rice, see note above)

3/4 cup dry white wine (sauvignon blanc recommended)

2 oz. grated pecorino-romano cheese

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste (recommend a generous "dash")

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tbsp. freshly chopped dill

2 tbsp. freshly chopped chives

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. Combine red pepper, broccoli, squash and carrot in a large bowl. Drizzle with 2 tbsp. of olive oil and salt and toss to coat. Spread vegetables in an even layer on baking sheet (line with aluminum foil for easier clean-up) and roast for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned. Stir the vegetables and continue roasting another 10 minutes until most vegetables are browned around the edges. Set aside while you make the risotto.

3. Heat vegetable broth in a large saucepan until boiling. Add the sugar snap peas and cook for 2-3 minutes until crisp-tender. Remove peas with a slotted spoon and set aside. Reduce the heat under the broth to the lowest setting.

4. Heat remaining tbsp. of olive oil and butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 3-4 minutes. Add wine and stir to combine. Cook until the wine is absorbed by the rice (when running a spoon across the bottom of the pot leaves a dry space). Add 2 cups of chicken broth, stir to combine, and simmer over medium heat until the broth is absorbed. Then, continue adding broth by 1/2 cupfuls, stirring to combine, stirring occasionally as the mixture cooks and waiting between additions until the previous addition is absorbed by the rice. In total, this should take about 20-25 minutes. Taste the rice once about 5 cups of broth are incorporated, as it may be done before all the broth is used. The rice should be "al dente"--that is, cooked through but still a bit chewy.

5. Stir in the roasted vegetables, blanched sugar snap peas, pecorino-romano cheese, nutmeg, pepper, dill and chives. Serve in shallow bowls.

Cocktail: Rolls Royce

I came across this drink while perusing The Savoy Cocktail Book, by Harry Craddock, the 1930s classic of cocktail literature. Martini fans should be encouraged to try this drink, a mixture of gin and vermouth (both dry and sweet) with a touch of Benedictine liqueur. I added the orange bitters, as I think most cocktails benefit from their finishing touch.

The original recipe's ratio of base spirit (gin, in this case) to other ingredients is 1:1. I've upped the proportion of gin, making it it 2:1, which is in keeping with our modern taste for slightly stronger drinks. I also stirred the drink instead of shaking it like the book says, since the drink is composed entirely of boozy ingredients (shaking is better employed for cocktails that include juices or syrups--ingredients that won't mix well with just stirring). Similar changes were made when the drink appeared in Imbibe magazine.

Rolls Royce Cocktail
Adapted from The Savoy Cocktail Book

2 oz. Bombay Sapphire London dry gin
1/2 oz. Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Carpano dry vermouth
1 tsp. Benedictine liqueur
2 dashes Regan's orange bitters
Lemon twist garnish

Combine gin, vermouths, liqueur and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir until very cold, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Pressure Cooker Coq au Vin

I've had few foods simmered in wine that aren't delicious. Coq au Vin is one true classic of the genre, but all that flavorful simmering can take time. A Bon Appétit recipe I looked at braises the chicken in the oven for 1 and 1/4 hours. When you consider the other prepping, sautéing and reducing steps, you're looking at a recipe that's easily at least 3 hours to make.

Braising the chicken in a pressure cooker speeds up the cooking time considerably. This is still by no means a "quick" meal--it took me over an hour--but it's certainly an improvement over something that takes all afternoon.

I adapted this recipe from elements from two recipes: a pressure-cooker specific recipe by
Barbara Schieving and Mark Bittman's recipe, combining the elements I liked best from both. These recipes are pretty similar although they call for drastically different quantities of liquid. Schieving's recipe calls for 1 cup of wine and 1 cup of stock, which she thickens with cornstarch; Bittman's recipe calls for twice as much liquid, and the resulting sauce it thickened only by reduction. That can take time. I sought a happy medium by using 1 1/2 cups each of the wine and the stock and letting reduction and tomato paste thicken the sauce.

Pressure Cooker Coq au Vin
Adapted from recipes by Mark Bittman for How to Cook Everything and Barbara Schieving for Pressure Cooking Today,

Note: This recipe uses a stove-top style pressure cooker. My model is a Fagor Duo 8 quart.

1/2 oz. dired porcini mushrooms
4 oz. thick-cut hickory-smoked bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 1/2 to 3 lb. boneless-skinless chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 yellow onion, cut into large dice
8 oz. white mushrooms, quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch thick pieces
1 1/2 cups red wine (I recommend pinot noir)
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Place dried mushrooms in a small bowl and pour 1 cup hot water over them. Set aside.

2. Place the pressure cooker pan on the stove over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally until browned and crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate.

3. Increase the heat under the pressure cooker pan to medium-high. Add half the chicken thighs and brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side, seasoned to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove the browned chicken thighs and set aside on a plate. Repeat with the remaining thighs.

4. Add the onion and mushrooms to the pan and sauté until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and carrot and sauté another 2-3 minutes. Add the wine to the pan and stir to deglaze the pan, then add the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, tomato paste, cooked bacon and browned chicken.

5. Lock the lid onto the pressure cooker and set pressure setting to "high." When pressure is reached (it may take about 5 to 10 minutes), reduce heat to simmer and maintain pressure. Cook for 10 minutes under pressure. Place the pressure cooker in the sink and pour cold water over the lid to release pressure. Remove the lid, then remove the chicken and set aside on a plate.

6. Place the pressure cooker pan with the remaining ingredients on the stove and heat over medium-high heat until boiling. Add the porcini mushrooms along with their soaking water. Boil until the mixture reduced by about half. Reduce heat to medium, stir in the butter, then add the chicken and cook on medium for a couple minutes to reheat the chicken. Serve the coq a vin in shallow bowls topped with a sprinkle of parsley.