Houston: a friend and a plate of risotto.

A good friend and former roommate of mine, Ramesh, gave me some of his free air miles to spend this past weekend in Houston. On Friday, we saw Julie and Julia (huge thumbs up), had dinner at a great Italian restaurant, and saw Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood at the Alley Theater downtown. Saturday, after being treated to incredible homemade pumpkin-cranberry muffins, we spent the entire afternoon at the enormous Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The crowning achievement of the weekend, however, was the enormously successful dinner we cooked last night. Boursin and spinach risotto, with seared herbed salmon. This was my first real attempt at making risotto, and it certainly won't be my last.

Ramesh had eaten a boursin-spinach risotto at a restaurant and wanted to replicate it, so we combined a couple recipes we found online. We pureed some cooked spinach with vegetable broth, and gradually added it to the arborio rice on low heat, taking care to stir continuously. After about 40 minutes, the rice was al dente and the perfect consistency, at which point we stirred in the creamy boursin cheese. The salmon was sprinkled with a mixture of basil, thyme, rosemary, and fennel seed and seared til a beautiful brown. Paired with asparagus and pomegranate wine, this was perfection in a meal.


Always a pleasure to see an old friend.