Cold Mediterranean Orzo Salad

I love pasta salads.  I love risotto.  Hmmm...how can I combine the two loves?  Ding dang it!!!!  Use orzo.

I don't know what orzo really is.  I knew a person named Orzo Hamhock up near Grungeville, Tennessee, who operated the town's main company, Hamhock's Vi-EEN-Ya Sausage House.  The place ran well until old Orzo decided to train somebody on the sausage grinder.  Now we call him "Lefty."

Anyway, a great orzo salad is the one named, "Cold Mediterranean Orzo Salad," and here it goes!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb uncooked orzo;
• 1 cup of pitted, chopped kalamata olives (don't say "what the..." as they sell them at Harris Teeter!):
• 8 oil-packed sundried tomatoes, finely chopped;
•  3/4 of chopped onions;
• 4 chicken boullon cubes;
• 7 cups o'water;
• 1/4 cup o'butter;
• 1/3 cup of olive oil;
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar;
• A smecklin' o' salt and pepper;
• 5 oz of crumbled goat cheese (don't say "what the..." as they sell this at Food Lion!);
• 1/2 cup of thinly sliced basil and four full basil leaves.

First, in a sauce pan, heat 7 cups of water that has 4 little cubes of chicken boullon in it to a boil.  While you are doing that, take a cast-iron skillet and put the heat to it.  Put one-half of your dry orzo in the pan and toast it until it begins to turn a little brown, about 4 minutes.  Take the orzo out of the pan and put in a bowl to cool off.  In that cast-iron skillet, heat it up again and add 1/4 cup of butter so it can melt.  When melted, add the chopped onion and let it cook until you can almost see through the onion bits.  Add the combined orzo into the onion butter mixture and  cook for two minutes.  The fake chicken stock should be boiling by now.  Add 2 cups of the stock to the orzo mixture and stir it so the broth is absorbed; continue one cup of stock at a time thereafter.  You should use most of the stock...however, you don't want your orzo to be gummy...each grain should pop in your mouth when you bite into it.

When finished with the stocking, get a collander and put it in the sink.  Pour the hot orzo in it and then rinse it with cold water until the whole she-bang is cool.  Allow the stuff to drain and then pour the orzo into a nice-sized bowl.  Pour in the olive oil, the chopped olives, the sliced sun-dried tomatoes, and the salt/pepper mix into the orzo.  Cover the bowl and put it in the Kelvinator for about 2 hours. 

After two hours or so, take the orzo out and stir it a bit.  Put in the sliced basil and the crumbled goat cheese and stir those in gently.  I usually put a few slices of sun-dried tomatoes and a few basil leaves on top to make it fancy.  Then go ahead and serve to those who don't care that you slaved over a hot oven to make them something good and European to eat.  If your guests are like that, tell them the story about Lefty.

PS...if you cannot find sun-dried tomatoes, then you can do the following (and you have to add about 8 hours to your meal-prep time)...oh, what the heck...I'll put it in another recipe!