Don’t you have some dishes that you love to eat and rarely cook?
Risotto is one of them for me. It’s really easy, just requires a bit of a commitment and you have a delicious dinner.
When I came upon an incredible bunch of chanterelles at the farm recently, I knew immediately what they were destined for.
This is tweaked from Fine Cooking and serves 2:
Wild Mushroom Risotto
- 3 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade; more if needed
- 1 handful dried porcini mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in 1 cup warm water; mushrooms roughly chopped, soaking liquid strained and reserved
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup arborio rice
- 2 cups assorted fresh wild mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup dry white wine
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
In a medium saucepan, add the chicken broth and the reserved strained porcini soaking liquid and cook over medium heat. When the broth starts to simmer lower the heat and keep in on a slow simmer.
In a medium, heavy-gauge saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter.
Stir in the rice, toasting just until it starts to sizzle and pop, about 1 minute. It should not color. Stir the porcini, the wild mushrooms and the wine into the rice.
When almost all the liquid has disappeared, after about 2 minutes, add just enough hot broth to cover the rice. Lower the heat to maintain a vigorous simmer; stir occasionally. When the broth is almost gone, add enough to cover the rice, along with a pinch of salt. Check on the risotto every 3 or 4 minutes, giving it an occasional stir to make sure it isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan and adding just enough broth to cover the rice when the liquid has almost disappeared.
Continue this way until the rice is just al dente, about 20 minutes total cooking time. Bite into a grain; you should see a white pin-dot in the center. Take the risotto off the heat. Add the remaining butter and stir vigorously for a few seconds. Add the parsley, cheese and more salt, if needed. The risotto should be moist and creamy, not runny. Stir in more broth to loosen the risotto, if you like. Serve immediately and enjoy!
My verdict: Great! Need to make risotto more often. I was lucky to have good rice, homemade chicken broth, fresh and dried mushrooms. I like this recipe because the addition of the soaking water for the mushrooms gives it a great depth of flavor. Just make sure to strain it before using it as sometimes dried mushrooms can be gritty.
I was worried that the chanterelles wouldn’t last, so I sautéed them in butter with a little garlic and salt. Because they were pre-cooked, I waited until the rice had been cooking for about 15 minutes before adding them in. They were delicious!
So, pull out some arborio rice, and a chair and make yourself some risotto. 30 minutes later you’ll be happy.
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