Harper’s Risotto

Serves 10

18 cups water

4 tbsp beef tallow, divided into two parts

3 onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic

12 handfuls of rice *rinse once

2 splashes vinegar

1 cup dried mushrooms

5 salt-cured anchovies

 

Add mushrooms, anchovies, and water into the big pot. Boil until mushrooms are reconstituted and anchovies have more or less melted away.

 

1. Heat tallow. Soften & brown onions and garlic.

2. Add oil. Add rice, stir until edges go clear.

3. Add vinegar, stir until liquid is gone.

4. Add a little broth. Stir until liquid is gone. Repeat until all broth is gone.

5. Add whatever you like.

  

A recipe card, typewritten on an index card, stapled to a torn sheet of notebook paper with a typewritten recipe on it. Both are weathered, torn, stained, and annotated. The card is on top of sturdy, well-worn wood, and is surrounded by a repaired wooden spoon, small dishes holding sprouted garlic, and some scattered short-grain rice. Visible recipe text is as follows (all is typewritten unless otherwise indicated. Recipe card cuts off at the edge of the image; see story text for recipe in full): On the recipe card: Risotto (a handwritten annotation adds “The Abbott.”); Oil—enough; ½ onion, chopped, for every 3; 1 clove garlic for every 3 people; 1 handful of rice for every person; 1 splash wine or juice of 1 lemon; 1½ cups broth for every handful of ri [text cuts off]; Add in: meat, vegetables, mush; The recipe page beneath does not have visible recipe text. A handwritten note in red marker, in a unique handwriting, says: “Fen – Ask The Abbott for the recipe for the stew she brought to serve with this. We can make it for Daneka when we find her.—H”