kook & wijn

Mushroom risotto

Comfort food to the max. Risotto. If I plan a movie night in with blankets and wine and in winter a roaring fire, there is a big chance that risotto is on the menu…. Usually we eat at the dinner table, but for risotto we make exceptions. Cuddled up on the couch with a bowl of warm mushroom risotto, your favourite person(s) around and a glass of wine…. There is not really more to wish for! Today I will share my recipe for the perfect Mushroom risotto.

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Ingredients

For two people

250 gram mixed mushroom melange (mushrooms, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, cantharelles etc)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
160 gram (nice) risotto rice, for example Arborio or Carnaroli)
600 ml stock (this could be mushroom, vegetable or chicken/beef stock – whatever you prefer. I always use mushroom stock/fond)
glass of white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
a few drops of truffle oil (optional)
knob of butter for frying the mushrooms
15-20 gram butter to finish off the risotto at the end
75-100 gram Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper
handful of Italian fresh parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
handful of green garden peas, fresh of from deep freezer
optional: black truffle or crisp fried pancetta to finish off, a poached egg is also yum

Method

Do some preparations:
Boil water and make your stock. Clean mushrooms and cut in even slices. Grate Parmesan cheese. Measure your risotto rice. Chop your onion and garlic cloves. Clean your Italian parsley and roughly chop. Open a bottle of white wine for the risotto and poor yourself a glass during cooking. Now you can start.

Fry the mushrooms in butter until golden brown. Take your time with mushrooms: first there will come a lot of moist, and then they start to turn brown. Add your garlic in the end and the parsley too. Some pepper and salt to taste and turn off the heat.

Take a bigger pan and place over medium heat to sauté the onion in some olive oil. Let the onion become soft in about 5-8 minutes, slow and gently, soft but not brown.

Add the risotto rice to the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, until you can almost look through the rice grains. Then add a dash of white wine, about a glass, into the pan.

From now on you will add a big spoon full of stock at a time and stir into the risotto, medium heat, not lid. You have to be patience, a little bit liquid at the time and you wait until the rice grains are ‘dry’ again so the stock can do its work into the risotto rice. Repeat this for about 25 minutes. The risotto can simmer a bit, but not cook too much. You have to wait every time until the small amount of stock is evaporated.

At the end, after about 20-25 minutes you can taste a bit of the rice to see if you are happy already. If not, go on with adding liquid, if the stock is finish you can use a small amount of water.
If you are happy with the result, add 3/4 of the Parmesan, together with the butter. Stir in until it’s melted. If you use it, you can add now some truffle oil too, or a nice truffle/mushroom paste. Season the risotto with lots of black pepper, not too much salt as the cheese and the stock contain salt already. At the end you add your pre-fried mushrooms, together with some garden peas and stir in.

Serve the risotto and finish of with 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese.
You can add some fresh black truffle (very posh!) or crisp Pancetta now, too. But without – how we most of the time eat it – it’s delicious too.

Bon Appétit

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