Recipe: Apple Risotto From Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars)

Food Porn is the best way to describe Shokugeki no Soma. In Food Wars, great food tends to involve exploding clothes. As expected of an anime. Of course, since I was feeding my family, the lack of exploding clothes is a good thing.

Today, I decided to recreate the dish in Episode 16 of the Anime (Chapter 42 in the manga). The battle between the titular character Soma and his father Joichiro, a challenge to create a rejuvenating breakfast* dish for their 490th battle. The APPLE RISOTTO!

*However, due to my preference to cook during the afternoon, this became a dinner dish instead.

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So let's begin with the ingredients (These are the ingredients I used with the quantities I prepared. My portion served around 6-7 people):
250g arborio rice
2 apple (American Fuji)
1 large yellow onion
1/2 Stick of Butter
1/4 bottle of white wine
Half lemon of lemon juice
5 apples' juice
1/2 bag grated parmesan cheese
Bacon
Pork Belly
Salt and pepper to taste

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Instructions:

Rice:
Prep
Step 1: Chop up your onions and apples.
Step 2: Squeeze some lemon juice on the apples to add a zesty flavour to the dish while reducing browning.
Step 3: Squeeze your apples and sift out any floating bits.

Cooking
Step 1: Heat up your apple juice.
Step 2: On a separate pan, add 3/4 of your butter to the pan to melt.
Step 3: Add your onions and cook them till they are lightly browned.
Step 4: Add your Arborio Rice.
Step 5: Add in your white wine (Another alternative to consider is cooking sake but due to lack of availability I couldn't try it) to add to the aroma and to prevent sticking.
Step 6: Once your rice is slightly transparent on the outside while maintaining a white center, start adding your apple juices one ladle at a time, stirring for a few minutes between each addition.
Step 7: Make sure that you aren't making the rice dry. If you run out of apple juice, you can make some stock soup or add hot water to the rice. Likewise, don't put too much liquid as you don't want a risotto porridge!
Step 8: Add in another drizzle of white wine and your remaining butter and let the rice cook.
Step 9: When the rice is cooked, add in your apple chunks and continue stirring.
Step 10: Add in your parmesan. It helps balance out the flavour and helps to hold everything together.
Step 11: Add some salt to taste.
Step 12: Turn off the heat but keep the rice in the pan so the residue heat will cook it further without burning anything.

Pork Belly and Bacon

Step 1: Marinate the Pork Belly in Salt and Pepper.
Step 2: Grill it under high heat.
Step 3: Cut a slice to check if you have undercooked or overcooked it.
Step 4: Put in the bacon and cook it with the leftover oil from the pork belly. Do not add extra oil.

Serving
At this point, the dish is ready to serve! Feel free to add chopped up italian parsley to the top or some veggies to garnish. Serve this dish with some ground black pepper. Black pepper gives this dish an additional kick that helps elevate it to new heights!

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Feel free to check out my other recipes:
Cauliflower Cheese

Family "Flavourite" Lasagna