Yen Can Cook: Mushroom Risotto

Risotto, a northern Italian rice dish cooked in a broth to a creamy consistency. The rice is slowly cooked in stock and it takes a while to cook properly. The cooking process requires attention as well as rather time consuming. There are wide variations of risotto such as mushroom risotto, seafood risotto, saffron risotto, bacon, broccoli and Parmesan risotto, just to name a few.

Although this dish sound difficult to be prepared at home but it’s really is simple to make, just that the cooking process requires your attention. If you don’t trust me, I’ll let you do the judgement after checking out my recipe!

Arborio rice, the short-grained rice is usually used for making risotto but I’m using Taiwan Yue Guang rice 越光米 which I got from a food expo not long ago. This Yue Guang rice 越光米 is a type of short-grained, high-starch rice which I think is suitable to use for cooking risotto.

Ingredients (serve: 3-4)

300g rice

100g Button Mushrooms & Shimeji Mushrooms, thinly sliced

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1500ml stock (vegetable or chicken)

100ml dry white wine

4 tablespoons olive oil

30g unsalted butter

50g Parmesan cheese powder

salt and black pepper to taste

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Step 1: Heat the stock to a simmer, then lower the heat so that the stock just stays hot.  Note: This is important because its heat ensures even, continuous, and thorough cooking.

Step 2: Heat the oil in a shallow saucepan over a medium flame, add the onions and fry until soft.

Step 3: Add the rice to the pot and stir it briskly with a wooden spoon so that the grains are coated with the oil. Sauté for another minute or so,but don’t let the rice turn brown. Add the wine and cook while stirring, until the liquid is fully absorbed and the alcohol evaporates.

Step 4: Add a ladle of hot stock to the rice and stir.

Step 5: Add in the mushroom and continue to stir until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. When the rice appears almost dry, add another ladle of stock and repeat the process. It’s important to stir constantly.

Step 6: Continue adding ladles of hot stock and stirring the rice while the liquid is absorbed. As it cooks, you’ll see that the rice will take on a creamy consistency as it begins to release its natural starches. After 20–30 minutes or until the grains are tender but still firm to the bite, without being crunchy (al-dente).

Note:

1) Continue cooking to your preferred rice texture if your are not use to the al-dente rice.

2) If you run out of stock and the risotto still isn’t done, you can finish the cooking using hot water. Just add the water as you did with the stock, a ladle at a time, stirring while it’s absorbed.

Step 7: Add the butter and scatter over half the cheese powder. Give the risotto a final stir, serve and scatter with the remaining cheese.

Combine a few simple ingredients with a little bit of patience and you’ll be rewarded with a hearty memorable dish.

HAPPY COOKING & have a enjoyable weekends ahead!

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