An easy mushroom risotto
The regular recipes call for Arborio rice. Today my daughter had friends over and out of the blue, one of them asked if I could make the 'same yummy risotto you'd made the last time, aunty'.. oh oh.. like in that ole nursery rhyme of old mother hubbard, slightly changed, the cupboard was 'bare' of arborio! But I'd just bought some superb basmati - and hey, risotto basically calls for a 'high-starch' rice.. so I decided to 'substitute' - and yaay! It was soooooooooperb (if my young taste specialists opinions count!) They do to me, and so here goes with my recipe for an easy Mushroom risotto
About 3/4 glass (approx 80g) good quality Basmati rice
2+ glasses stock , and 2+ glasses plain water
1 packet mushrooms
1 big carrot
2 baby corn
1 medium sized onion
3-4 cloves garlic
10 - 15 ml olive oil
about 15-20 g butter
cheese - chop into small cubes about 50g and grate some more for the topping
(original recipe calls for Parmesan, but I've substituted with available good quality, local available cheese. (I also used a small bit of smoked processed cheese)
one handful finely chopped coriander leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1. Slice onions, grate (or chop fine) garlic. Set aside.
2. Wash thoroughly and thickly slice mushrooms
3. Wash and soak your rice in a little water from the measured 'plain water' glass.
4. Diagonally slice carrots and baby corn (thick)
5. Cube some cheese, and grate some separately
6. Heat your pan, olive oil in, garlic followed onions - saute till light
7. Toss in the mushrooms, a pinch of salt, and allow them to sweat.
8. Take part cooked mushrooms out into serving bowl. (Just so you save a wash-up)
9. The carrots and baby corn go into the watery mushroom left-overs in the pan. Another pinch of salt and pepper
10. Put in 2 and a half glasses of water and half the coriander leaves. Gas on high, allow it to come to a quick boil. Let it boil down a little bit. Carefully take out 2/3rds of this stock and keep aside.
11. Put the basmati rice into the stock in the pan and bring the gas back up on high. Once it starts to boil, bring gas down to medium. Slowly stirring, keep adding small quantities of stock alternating with water. You will see the rice cooking through, and it becoming slowly creamy at the same time
12. When your liquids are nearly done or the rice is cooked and creamy, put in the mushrooms you've kept aside with the last of the coriander, butter and the chopped cheese.
13. Adjust the salt and pepper.
14. When you are ready to serve, top with cheese and grill (the grilling is just so that all the cheese melts and the young ones go 'ummmmmmmmmmmm')
I wish I could say that this is as easy as 1-2-3.. but umm, if you are willing to go a few more .. lets say its as easy as 1 - 14 ?? ;-)
