Mr. VE&T's Nana's Rižot

Well, this is a guest post of sorts... While I have all sorts of foods that remind me of all sorts of people I love, there is one dish that Mr. VE&T always talks about: his Nana's Rižot. Rižot is a Croatian word, and basically it is very similar to "risotto," a word you are probably more familiar with.

Mr.VE&T's paternal side of the family is 100% Croatian/Yugoslav heritage, and they aren't that far removed from it all. Growing up, there was one food that baby Mr.VE&T really identified as super special: rižot (pronounced: riz-ZOOT). It was made on special occasions and the preparation took hours and everyone made a big deal about it.

It made a lasting impression, because pretty much every night Mr. VE&T wants "tomatoes & rice" for dinner. If I make something tomatoey, 100% of the time, he will make one or all of the following comments:
"This would be great with some rice."
"This would be great with a little cinnamon."
"This would be great with some nutmeg."
Pretty much his favorite food is any tomatoey stew or soup with rice in it. It happens a few times a year that I'll make something and he'll say "this tastes sorta like rižot..." And yet, we never had a recipe (his parents both died before we started dating), so it was just something that existed out there in the ether like a big mystery.

Then, I decided that I wanted to tackle Rižot for my Noshtalgia theme on his behalf... and we started rooting around on the internet. We didn't even know how to spell "rižot" so I looked up "Croatian Risotto," and that got us on the right track. Soon enough, we stumbled across this recipe and that was our starting point. We used Soy Curls instead of chicken, and made a few other small modifications as we went along. It was so fun cooking together - and Mr. VE&T would taste it and say "It needs more nutmeg!" or "It needs more cinnamon!" (ha ha, of course), and then we would add a little more. He still feels the need to tweak our recipe a bit more before we share it... like it needs some rosemary and more tomatoes ... but I definitely promise to follow up with you all on this - it's a really delicious dish!

When it was all done, he sat down to eat and declared "I'm eating rižot!" with great joy! 

After all these years... reunited with the long-lost dish from his past!