From Chef's Table · 2015- · Reconstructed
Rotation Risotto
Serve when
Serve when Dan Barber explains why the course before the bread at Blue Hill at Stone Barns isn't rice at all — it's the crops that keep his farmland healthy.
In the series
Volume 1
- S1E2 · ~00:33:45 Dan Barber describes building a rice-less risotto entirely from his farm's rotational cover crops, served just before the bread course so guests eat the grains that keep the soil alive
In the series
Barber built this dish backward from a farming problem: a healthy field needs grains grown in rotation that no one particularly wants to eat, so he decided to make people want to eat them. Serving it right before the bread course was deliberate too — you don't get the bread unless you eat the grains that make the wheat crop possible.
Ingredients
Method
- Rinse the buckwheat and barley separately.
- Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent.
- Add the buckwheat and barley and toast for a minute, then deglaze with the white wine and let it mostly evaporate.
- Add the warm stock a ladleful at a time, stirring frequently and waiting for each addition to be mostly absorbed before adding more, the same way you'd cook a rice risotto — about 30 to 35 minutes total, since both grains take longer than rice.
- When the grains are tender but still have some bite, stir in the Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and finish with chopped herbs.
Substitutions
- Buckwheat and barley: Any two hardy grains you'd find in a cover-crop rotation work in the spirit of the dish — farro and rye are a reasonable stand-in if buckwheat isn't available.