Butler prepared them a meal. Nothing fancy. Vegetarian spring rolls, followed by mushroom risotto with creme caramel to finish. Mulch opted for a bucket of diced worms and beetles, sauteed in a rainwater and moss vinaigrette.
-Artemis Fowl and The Eternity Code, Eoin Colfer
I’ve never been much of a risotto fan. Having ordered it in restaurants before, I often left half of it behind, and kind of grimaced as I ate my way through the first bit. I guess it just took the right recipe to make me enjoy it. And the head-smacking moment hours later, when I realised I cracked open and poured in a $30 bottle of wine…
I’m hearing crickets.
It’s a good thing it was so damn good, otherwise I would’ve been mortified at wasting perfect drinking wine. I’m going to tell myself that it made all the difference to the taste to make myself feel better (Bryt, you numbnut). But I’ll tell you that any cheap wine will do. The $4.90 bottle on the shelf, for example. Like I should have done in the first place.
I’ve cut down the recipe to make 2 servings, but they were pretty ample sized servings. A meal and a snack came out of it. Up the measurements if you need, the original recipe was double the amount.
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ brown onion, finely sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1½ tsp of dried thyme
- 100g mushrooms, chopped (1 large portobello mushroom worked out to be ~100g)
- 1 cup arborio rice
- ¾ cup white wine
- 3 tbsp butter
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
- ½ tbsp lemon juice
- pepper
- Start by bringing vegetable stock to a simmer in a saucepan.
- In a large frying pan or large saucepan, heat oil (my favourite is a garlic infused olive oil or chilli if I want a kick) and toss in the chopped up onion, garlic and thyme.
- Stir until the onions are soft.
- Add in the rice and stir it around (I've been taught, only stir in one direction, otherwise you're going to miss areas and make the cooking inconsistent) until coated in the oil.
- Pour in the white wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the vegetable stock, give it a good stir, then let it simmer for 20-25 minutes.
- By then the liquid will be absorbed and the rice cooked. Toss in the mushrooms, cook till slightly softened (few minutes), before stirring in the butter and parmesan.
- At the last minute, add in the parsley and the bit of lemon juice.
- Sprinkle with pepper (the vegetable stock often has alot of salt already in, no need for more), give it one last stir, then serve.
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