Orzitto

The other night we watched Andrew in Venice where he eats this awesome looking sea-food risotto. You know, Andrew from Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods........ he visits different places all over the world and eats pretty much anything and everything. So anyway, in the last episode, he was in Venice eating all kinds of sea-food and this yummy-looking and oh-so-creamy sea-food risotto. Ever since the kids and I watched that, we have been craving for the exact same risotto! Sadly there's no Venice for us right now and so well, I decided to just make some at home myself.

Now they use a very specific kind of rice to make risotto. Well, I just thought I'll use orzo- I mean I know it is pasta, but it does resemble the short-grained semi-round rice and cooks fast. OK, so it is not really risotto then. No probs- I shall call it Orzitto! I couldn't go get all that amazing sea-food and so stuck to good old tilapia.

Ingreds:

A packet of orzo, onion roughly chopped, sliced mushrooms, garlic, 1 tomato, bite sized pieces of tilapia, frozen green peas, oil, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, veggie stock cube(s), hot water.

Last moment Addition:

Whipping cream (for the creamy factor).

Method:

1. I took my favorite cooking pot and poured in a few teaspoons of cooking oil, got the heat going and threw in some chopped onion, garlic. Sauteed it a bit and then threw in some sliced mushrooms and a chopped tomato.
2. Added a couple veggie stock cubes, salt, italian seasoning and some freshly ground pepper. I then poured in that packet of orzo, stirred it all and then added hot boiling water to completely immerse the orzo. Since the water was hot anyway, didn't take long for it to come to a boil. At that point I covered the pot with the lid and turned down the stove to a minimum.
3. After about 10 minutes, I opened the lid and all that orzo had cooked up and all the water was gone. I poured in some more hot water into it and stirred it.
4. And then finally I folded in the tilapia and the frozen peas and a dash of whipping cream. Covered the lid, turned off the stove and meanwhile set the table. The fish cooked up perfectly in that heat and of course, the frozen peas too.

Mmm, that creamy delicious tilapia orzitto!

The final consistency of my orzitto was perfecto. Nice and creamy (yep, the whipping cream sure helped!) and flavorful. I did make a mental note though that this preparation is best when served immediately, else orzo tends to get separated and then the risotto consistency no longer prevails. That's right- risotto ought to be made with proper short grained rice. Hey, I will make sure to keep some Arborio for the next time around.

The good thing is that the leftover orzitto is now really orzo and still delicious. Hmm, sorta like killing two birds with one stone!