India Pale Ale Risotto

By: Matt Frazier

Just a quick one today; I’m hard at work on my new Veggie Cooking Tips page.  It’s coming along well and shaping up to be a really good resource for those new to cooking.  I wish I’d have had it when I started!  It really could be called “How to Follow Recipes,” because it’s much more about how to do the things cookbooks tell you to than about how to put together meals.

IPA Risotto

India Pale Ale (or IPA, to those in the know) has enjoyed a not-so-cult following over the past few years.  The beer style is extremely hoppy, evident in the bitter “green” taste and the strong aroma, and relatively high in alcohol (usually 4-8 percent).  Legend has it that the style came about out of necessity; to ship beer from England to India back in the day required lots of alcohol and hops to prevent spoilage.  There are even some “imperial” IPA’s with alcohol content over 10 percent; these are a delicious way to start off an evening, just don’t plan on it being too long an evening.

So I picked up a few of these babies the other day, and decided to use them in some risotto primavera that I was making.  I figured the hoppy taste would go nicely with all the spring vegetables, and since I didn’t have any decent white wine on hand, there wasn’t much choice anyway.

was delicious but wasn’t much of a looker, and this one isn’t pretty either (I swear it looks more appetizing in person).  But it did taste good again.  Although I must say, I don’t think the IPA really did all that much; it probably would have tasted much the same with white wine.  But it’s fun to put what you’re drinking in your food, so why not?

To make this risotto, just use the previous risotto recipe, adding about 3/4 cup of IPA when the rice starts to squeek, and waiting for it to evaporate before adding any vegetable broth.  Replace the sun dried tomato, asparagus, mushrooms, and basil with some spring vegetables of your choosing.  I used sugar snap peas, asparagus, and broccoli, sauteing them instead of steaming and just adding them to the risotto at the last minute.

Bel Air Town Run

My 5k is tomorrow, July 6, 2009; I’m really looking forward to seeing how I do at a short race.  Amazingly, with all the marathons and halves I’ve done, I’ve never run a 5k race! So my time is anyone’s guess, but anything with a “1” in front of it will make me very happy.  I’ll post results and photos tomorrow to let you know how I did.