Mushroom Risotto

From Mushroom Risotto

A good risotto can be pretty hard to come by in a restaurant. At your local Olive Garden the consistency ranges from that of rice pilaf to glue, and the flavor can usually be described as "cardboardy" or like a dense ball of cheese.

Only have 31 minutes to make dinner for the family? Tired of Smashed Potatoes? A risotto should be that recipe you have tucked away for just this occasion!


Risotto doesn't exactly refer to a rice dish, but instead more of a cooking style of constant stirring and the addition of cooking liquid throughout the process. Typically though, they're made with a certain short-grain Italian rice called Arborio, from the northern region of Italy... Although almost any short grain rice can be substituted if you don't want to buy another variety.

If you are actually trying this recipe in 31 minutes or less, you're going to need a helping hand, or the ability to multi-task. Every risotto recipe uses the same basic steps listed below:

• Heat Stock
  
• Cook Aromatics 
• Brown Rice
• Add Wine
• Stir
  
• Add Stock
• Stir (Repeat)
• Add in Butter, Cheese and Herbs
  

 Seems pretty easy yeah?! Want to make an Asparagus Risotto? Add in mouth-size pieces of fresh green asparagus as your cooking the aromatics. Mushrooms? Brown the mushrooms before adding in the aromatics.

Some important tips:

• Keep your cooking liquid (stock) hot! If you add cold liquid to the rice, you'll stop the cooking process and ruin the creamy texture.
• A shortcut is to dump all your stock into the rice after the wine has cooked off. If your busy preparing other parts of the meal in a rush, go for it. If you have a nice glass of wine and need an excuse to look busy over a pot, add a cup of stock when the pot starts to look dry on the bottom.
• A properly cooked risotto will be a bit al dente
  

I used Cooks Illustrated recipe for Mushroom Risotto, which stuffed my family of four. I had a few left over duck legs that I pan roasted to add some protein to the dish.