magic mushroom risotto

It’s magic because it’s so easy and it is does make you feel great in a lovely, comfort eating sort of way, but probably no hallucinations, which is a good thing.  Making a fantastic risotto is all about the arm muscles, basically you have to stir and stir or you won’t get that lovely creamy texture.  I always keep risotto rice (Arborio is my favourite) and dried mushrooms in my store cupboard, because it means you always have an instant, lovely supper available when the fridge is looking woeful and there’s just a mouldy bit of cheddar and a few pathetic, withered vegetables that are so far gone, you don’t even know what they are. There’s always a bottle of fizz though, after all you have to have some standards!  To serve 2 to 3 for supper or 4 as a dinner party starter, you will need:

• Knob of butter
• 300g risotto rice
• Wild mushrooms, any kind you like, I used fresh shiitake, you can use dried ones that have been soaked
• 1 litre of stock (chicken or vegetable) – you can make with a stock cube or have ready-made, if you want it to be really fancy, make it with half dry white wine, made in a saucepan
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon plus a  few saffron strands (optional)
• Bunch of spring onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan
• A few shaves of parmesan for decoration
• I also added some fresh tomberries – (have you ever seen them before, aren’t they sweet? They are about the size of blueberries, for comparison in the picture, below, I put them next to a cherry tomato) You can substitute with cherry tomatoes, but they are optional
• Chopped parsley or fresh basil – depending on whether you added tomatoes or not

Method

Place the stock, zest and juice of the lemon and the saffron in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then place on a low simmer. 

In a large non-stick saucepan gently cook onion and garlic in the butter  until soft, but not brown. 

Add mushrooms and simmer gently for about 5 minutes until they are soft. 

Add the rice to the onion and mushroom mixture and stir thoroughly.

Add a ladle full of hot stock and stir constantly, when all the stock has been absorbed, add the next one, repeat this method until you have used all the stock, this process will take you at least  20 to 30 mins .Taste and if the rice tastes chalky and not creamy, keep stirring and add a little more water.   Finally, add the parmesan cheese.

 At this point I added the tomberries, but this is optional.  Because of the tomatoes, I added fresh basil, but parsley is good, too.  Garnish with some parmesan and serve!  If you are cooking for a dinner party, you can at least cook the onions and mushrooms in advance and then heat up the stock and start adding the rice, to save time.  

The added bonus of this dish is not only does it taste great, but it stops you getting bingo wings.

Happy weekend everyone!