Safety first!

So after sitting at my desk for a good 5 minutes staring into space thinking about what I should have for lunch, I finally settled on either sushi and a summer roll from The Daily Market or salad from Organic to Go - yah, I know two TOTALLY different ends of the spectrum. They were located close enough to each other so I could easily make a gametime decision at a crosswalk!

The light changed in Organic to Go's favor, so salad it was! I started getting really excited about dumping a bunch of salad toppings into my to-go box when I looked up to see that IT WAS NO LONGER THERE! Big sad face! The sign was still up but the doors and windows were all blacked out. No salad for me :( Since I was already on that side of the street, I walked on over to Wasabi to pick up some sushi. A few words on Wasabi - not my favorite, but when I'm lazy or already nearby it I'll pick up some 'safe' rolls. Safe rolls for me usually meet this criteria 1) cooked seafood like eel, shrimp or crab 2) California rolls in any shape or form 3) all veggie rolls. Why do I have safe rolls and when do I get them?

Raw fish is not something to mess with. Every now and then I find myself seriously craving sushi, but I'm not into getting sick. What's a girl to do?! Enter, safe rolls. I generally get these at 'grab n go' lunch spots or if I'm at a Whole Foods when the craving hits. I tend to do this more at Wasabi since they have their grab n go stuff wrapped up like this:

Um, I like being able to see/inspect the contents of my roll before purchasing! I mean I want to know I've got a gorgeous, rich green slice of avocado in my roll. I may also want to know that the ratio of eel to cucumber is ok. Call me a control freak, but it's important to me!

Anyway, I walked out with a Spicy California roll and an Eel Avocado Cucumber roll. My spicy california roll only had the spicy sauce on the first piece (no joke, I examined) and the eel roll was just ok. I kinda wish I just crossed the street to Daily Market :(

What I really should have done was bring in tasty leftovers from last night's dinner! Have I mentioned that I have a hard time making small batches of food? I worried that 1 cup of Arborio rice wouldn't be enough to balance out the goodies (aka onions, mushrooms and artichokes) in the risotto so I decided to add a 1/2 cup of rice. Um, huge vat o risotto!

Mushroom & Artichoke Risotto

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 c white mushrooms, chopped

1 can artichoke hearts, quartered

1 1/2 c Arborio rice

4 c chicken stock, heated

1 1/2 tbsp white wine

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 c parmesan cheese

Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until they are translucent and add mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add herbs, salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add white wine and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Stir in rice for a minute before adding 1 cup of stock. Bring to a boil, stir and reduce heat to medium low. Stir constantly and when all the liquid has been absorbed, slowly add the remaining stock, 3/4 cup to 1 cup at a time. About halfway through the cooking, stir in the artichoke hearts and continue cooking and stirring.

Once risotto is cooked, stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

I served it with some sole I picked up at Whole Foods. It looked like a fun new fish to try, so I did some research and found that almost every sole recipe involved a roll of some sort. I like to roll things.

Asparagus Sole Roll

2 sole fillets

1 tbsp lemon zest

6 spears asparagus, trimmed

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

sprinkle garlic powder

handful capers

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

toothpicks

Rinse fish and pat dry. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt and pepper on each fillet. Place a bunch of 3 asparagus spears crosswise on each fillet and top with some capers and lemon zest. Roll fillet up and secure with two toothpicks.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Place rolls in pan and cook for 3 minutes. Add wine, lemon juice and some capers to the pan, flip fish rolls and cover loosely with a small lid or foil. Cook for 2 minutes and serve.