Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Most Kick-arse-est Mushroom Risotto in the World

This is dedicated to Herr Peter Wenzel - friend, flatmate, artist, mushroom scientist and six foot two worth of inspiration.

You will need:
Home made chicken stock* x 2 cups per serve
Aborio rice x 1/2 cup per serve
Porcini mushrooms (dried) 25g per serve
Button mushrooms x 2/3 cup per serve - sliced
Oyster mushrooms x a handful - roughly chopped
Black or yellow fungus x a handful - roughly chopped
Another selection or two of field/flat/straw/wild/shitake variety of mushrooms fresh if poss - sliced if its a big mushroom, roughly chopped if its a little mushroom.
Cheap bottle of white (but be reasonable)
onion - 1/2 per serve, diced
garlic - 3 clobes, crushed
Olive oil - 2 Tbsp
butter - 1 Tbsp
Italian (continental parsley) - shopped- 1/4 cup per serve
Parmesan or pecorino cheese - shredded - 1/4 per serve plus garnish

Method
  1. Soak porcinis in 1 cup of boiling water. Set aside to cool.
  2. Heat up stock in a seperate sauce pan adjacent to the main cooking stove, keep on medium heat.
  3. In a sturdy hard based pan, saute oil, garlic and oninos with a dash of salt in med-high heat till just clear
  4. Remove porcinis from water, squeeze all moist back into the liquid, save the liquid while adding porcinis into onions. Turn heat to medium-low. Add all the other mushrooms and saute lightly before turning heat to low.
  5. Add aborio rice, stirring quickly to coat it all in oil. Only allow this to be in the pan for less than one minute before adding a ladel of stock. Quickly stirr stock evenly into the rice.
  6. When the first ladel of stock is almost evaporated - but not quite - otherwise it will burn and that is NO GOOD - add a splash of white wine. Stirr this again till just it almost evaporates. Then add another ladel of stock.
  7. Repeat this alternatively with stock and wine, stirring constantly to allow even absorption and protect from burning or the rice sticking at the bottom. Ensure the heat remains low.
  8. By now the contents should be expanding quite well - switch off the heat just as rice is beginning to 'melt into each other'. Remove from heat and stand (you may choose to give it a cover) for 5-7 minuites.
  9. Stirr in evenly firstly the butter, then the parmesan, then the parsley.
  10. Serve immediately and garnish liberally with more parsley and parmesan.
*Home made stock: Boil two chicken bones (very cheap from the supermarkets) in water with a couple of tablespoons of salt and two onions roughly chopped. Simmer in low heat for around two hour before disgarding solid content.

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