Mushroom Risotto
In my formative cooking years I was always afraid of risotto. The whole idea of standing over a pot for 20 minutes and slowly adding ingredients at just the right time was very intimidating. And it seemed that measuring the ingredients correctly was an important aspect. Which is, admittedly, not my forte.
When I was a private chef my employer informed me that risotto was his favorite comfort food. I got over my fear of risotto very quickly at that point. In fact I turned cooking it into somewhat of a ritual almost as if those 20 minutes were a sacred part of the day. Stirring the pot while sipping a glass of wine also made it more enjoyable. There are a million ways to cook risotto. My favorite includes mushrooms.
- 3/4 cup arborio rice
- 2 cups chicken stock (about 1, 14 ounce can plus a little water)
- 3 to 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms (or a mixture of your favorites)
- 1/4 cup frozen peas (optional)
- 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
- 1 clove of garlic, finely diced or put through a garlic press
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive olive
- 1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Place the peas in a wire strainer and run under warm water to defrost and set aside. Heat the chicken broth to just below a simmer in a sauce pan. Remove the stems from the shiitakes and cut in half.
In a medium size sauce pan add the olive oil and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is heated add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Add the arborio rice and stir coating the rice with the olive oil and heat through about 2 minutes. Add the white wine to the rice and allow the wine to soak almost completely into the rice. In regular intervals add a ladle of chicken broth to the rice allowing the broth to simmer and soak into the rice slowly. You may have to reduce the heat to allow this process to proceed rather slowly. Once you have used up about 2/3 of the chicken broth add the mushrooms and continue the ladling process. The process from adding the rice to the pot and finishing the ladling should take about 20 minutes. Check the rice for doneness and flavor. The rice should be al dente and there should be a little creamy liquid with the rice. If you need more liquid you can add a little water at the end. Add about 2/3 of the parmigiano-reggiano to the rice mixture and add the peas as well. Add salt and pepper as needed. The cheese is very salty so I usually save this step until the end.
Divide the rice into servings and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. This recipe makes about four appetizer portions or about two full meal portions.