For this months challenge we made risotto. As part of the challenge we were asked to make our own stock, i made mushroom stock. i make my own veggie stock b.c. of my food allergies (celery in this case), but i had never made mushroom stock. james has been bringing me interesting mushrooms home from the union square market, like maitake and pom pom mushrooms. We had to look them up to figure out how to eat them. The maitake was quite large, and i needed to use it up so it became the inspiration for the risotto and the stock.
I made the stock a few days ahead of time using a recipe loosely based on this one.
I whipped up the risotto along with stuffed portabello mushrooms (with veggie sausage, bread crumbs, onion, mushroom stems and herbs) spinach salad, and steamed asparagus.
For the Risotto (below) use any type of homemade or store bought stock, and i used diced onion and left it in (instead of the quartered onion) and also saute’ some chopped mushrooms (portabello, and button) along with the onion. There are endless ways to do up risotto with the basic recipe below, saffron, lemon, butternut squash, or asparagus are a few other options. we also added some shaved parmigiano on top, but the meal could have been made vegan without it.
Risotto Base
Ingredients:
olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml
1 small onion, quatered
rice 14 oz 400g
Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.
white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml
(chicken) vegetable or mushroom stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L
Directions:
- Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
- Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
- Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
- Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don’t actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
- Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
- Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
- Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
- Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation.
The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.
Thanks to Eleanor and Jess.
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