Mushroom Risotto

Hello everyone! This is the first time I cooked risotto and I have to say it’s so good! Haha. Actually I wanted to start making risotto because I had “Risotto allo zafferano con funghi porcini ” in an Italian restaurant and I fell in love with it. I saw that the ingredients are quite easy so I asked my friend Julia about cooking it on a trip and she told me the main ingredients and how to cook it in brief.

After the trip I read some recipes online and also the recipe on the box of the risotto rice. To be honest, I’m not an expert at risotto so I can’t tell you which kind of wine or kind of rice you should buy so I’ll just show you all the ingredients I bought with boxes and everything, but! I don’t do commercials for any products. Well, I guess showing you which brands of products I use is advertisements for them but they don’t pay me so, yeah, please buy any other brands as you like. I believe they can also be good or even better, and if you think some other brands are better than the ones I use please please inform me, I’d love to improve my ingredients.

Now let’s get started to see how I cooked this dish.

Ingredients

I show you the brands here because I’m sure according to my experience, if you use them, the dish will turn out to be good, but please only use the brands shown here as a reference. For example, I believe you can buy risotto rice of many more other brands, or the white wine. I read online that you should use dry white wine for cooking but when I was in the supermarket, they don’t put labels saying this is dry white wine, but at least this one says it’s suitable for cooking so I bought it. If you know more about wine, I’m sure you will get better ones because I’m totally a blank piece of paper when it comes to alcohol. From FineCooking.com:

A dry white is any white wine that isn’t sweet. But for cooking, you want a wine with a high acidity known in wine parlance as “crisp.” Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sémillon, and dry sparkling wines are especially good.

1. Risotto rice or arborio rice (200g)
2. Mushrooms (130-140g)
3. Olive oil (15ml)
4. Red onion (half)
5. Broth (1, around 28g liquid)
6. White wine (80-100ml)
7. Hot water (700ml, 70 degrees)
8. Butter (20g)
9. Parmesan cheese or grand cheese (50g)
10. Salt (adjust to your taste)

Preparation

1. Chop the half onion into small pieces.
2. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices.
3. Grind the cheese.
4. Put the broth into the water, stir it till it melts and mix well with water. (I suggest you do this while the water is still hot and remember to take out the spoon when the broth is totally mixed with water. Otherwise when the water gets cold, the oil will get stuck on the spoon and it’s not very convenient to wash.)
5. I read online that for the texture of the final dish, you don’t need to wash the rice. However, if you bought it in a huge bag, which looks like it has come directly from a farm, maybe you need to rinse it a bit first. Anyway, read the package of the rice and see whether you should wash it or not.

Now let’s start cooking!

I suggest you use a pot if possible because this cooking process is like one quarter frying and three quarters boiling.

1. First of all, put the olive oil in the pot and turn the fire to 5/6, after 1 min put the onions in and fry for another 1 min.

2. Put the mushrooms in and start frying. When you see all the oil are absorbed by the mushrooms, add in white wine. Change fire to 3/6 and stir it.

3. Add the risotto rice and mix it with the wine and mushrooms. Fry the whole mixture for about 3-5 mins till you see the rice is shiny and turn golden.

4. Add half of the mixture of water and broth in and mix them. Let it boil for around 8 mins or when you see the almost all the water has evaporated, add the other half of the mixture of water and broth. Boil it for another 5-10 mins depending on how soft you want the rice to be. Try the rice from time to time and if you feel the rice id ready but there’s still too much water, change fire to 5/6 and stir it till the water evaporates.

5. Add the cheese and butter in and mix them thoroughly with the rice and mushrooms. By the end the texture of this dish should be quite thick but it can still flow slowly like lava.

6. Don’t forget to add a bit of Parsley or Chive, for some herbal flavor.

This dish should taste quite creamy and rich so the amount of ingredients I suggested should be enough for two people. Adding some herbs by the end is also for adding some freshness to this cheesy dish. I hope you like it. Bon Appetite!