Mushroom Medley Risotto.

Greetings, one and all. Welcome to yet another exciting new post from me.

On the menu today I am serving up some fabulous mushroom medley risotto. I am on a roll this week, hurrah! Got my cooking mojo back after an 8-week lull. Life hasn’t been kind to me of late, so I took a little time out from my blog to focus on other more important stuff that has been happening. Bit of a family crisis; it hasn’t completely gone away but things are looking up (slightly). Anyway, so Fall is finally here and this recipe is dedicated to the arrival of the cooler months of the year ~~ time for warming, stodgy meals to help keep the chills away.

For those of you who follow my posts regularly, you may well know that in my house we don’t eat mushrooms as often as I’d like on account of the boyfriend. It’s not like he has a mushroom allergy or anything … he just doesn’t like ’em. If a mushroom so much as touches his food on his plate, he ain’t eating any of it. *rolls eyes*  He isn’t a fan of risotto either, so when I make this dish I know I am cooking solely for myself.

I have tried cooking risotto once before and it was a complete fail. That was 5 years ago and I haven’t attempted it since. But I have had 5 years to contemplate my error and to re-evaluate my understanding on risotto making technique. I have watched a good few video demos by top chefs and my confidence has undoubtedly increased. Last year I was fortunate enough to have had my first visit to Italy, in the Lombardi region, and it was there that I had a mind-blowing risotto experience ~ all I wanted to eat after that was risotto. It’s true what they say : If you want authentic, travel to the place of origin and experience it there at the hands of locals. Italian folks are gods in the kitchen!

Before I get too carried away with holiday reminiscing, let’s get going on the dish at hand.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

• Variety of mushrooms ~ Brown, Shiitake, Chanterelle, Button, Oyster
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 litres vegetable or mushroom stock
• 30 g butter
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup risotto rice
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup hard cheese (I used aged gouda)
• Parmesan shavings for garnish

Get about two litres of stock on the hob simmering away while you prep the other ingredients. I like to use beef stock for richness and colour, but if you want a truly vegetarian meal then just use vegetable stock.

Mushrooms are sliced ~I used a combination of brown mushrooms (for depth of flavour) and shimeiji + brown clamshell mushrooms. The onions are diced and the garlic minced.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet and add in the olive oil. Sautée the onions gently until softened, then add the garlic. After a couple of minutes add all the mushrooms and toss together. The amount of mushrooms might look alarmingly large but they will cook out. It is important to add enough oil at the beginning of the cooking process because the mushrooms will absorb most of it. Once the mushrooms are soft and start to deepen in colour, add the rice. Stir thru and coat the grains evenly with the oil.

When the grains of rice get translucent, turn up the heat and add the wine. It will bubble up ferociously. Stir everything through and allow the alcohol to cook off entirely. When the rice is almost dry, you can start adding the stock one ladle at a time.

Risottos are not exactly your garden variety dump-it-all-in-a-pot and boil-away meal. From that first ladleful of stock you will have to be there at the stove monitoring the situation ~ this can take up to 20 minutes. The process consists of adding a single ladle of stock to the rice and mushrooms and waiting for the liquid to cook off … then add in another. Rinse and repeat. As the cooking process goes on the starch in the rice will turn the liquid creamy and full of goodness.

Once the rice is sufficiently cooked (it should still have a bit of bite towards the center), turn off the heat, adjust seasonings here and stir in the cold butter. Once that is done, stir in the grated cheese. Plate up immediately. Garnish with parsley and shavings of parmesan. Be aware of what type of stock you use … unsalted stock or salted boullion cubes. This will determine if you need more salt at the end of the cooking process or not.

I don’t dictate the amount of mushrooms to use in this post because I don’t think I need to. In my opinion, the more the better … but you can decide how much you want to use. If you cannot get the mushroom variety I used then Portabellos and Shiitakes are good choices as well, because they both impart big flavours to the sauce when cooked.

I have made this three times now and I love it … all those mushrooms JUST FOR MEEEEEE!! It feels pretty special to curl up on the couch with a bowlful of this stuff. God bless the Italians and their amazing home cooking!

~ Enjoy! ~