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Hashweh Risotto

Hashweh Risotto

Mezze, Los Angeles

Cool Plates features dishes from across the country to help inspire chefs' creativity.

Mezze executive chef and partner Micah Wexler uses the typical ingredients of hashweh — a Lebanese rice pilaf made with burnt onions, spices, lamb and almonds or pine nuts — to make risotto.

He starts by making a typical risotto with Carnaroli rice, rather than Arborio, and finishes the dish with the hashweh ingredients.

Those include finely diced onions that he fries in vegetable oil in a “ripping hot” wide-bottom pan to quickly bring out the sugars and char them a bit. He also adds a baharat spice blend of black pepper, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and a little salt. Those ingredients, along with cooked ground lamb, the yogurt cheese labneh, butter and a squeeze of lemon juice all are added to the risotto at the last minute.

He plates the dish and tops it with a small salad of toasted almonds, parsley and lemon zest mixed with a little olive oil and sea salt.

Finally, he tops that off with fried lemons, made by thinly slicing the citrus, dusting the slices in instant flour and flash frying them.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

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