Wild Mushroom Risotto

Risotto in one of my favourite quick, special and versatile dishes to make for date night with my hubby or for company. I love this risotto in particular because I love, love, love mushrooms and the dried porcini mushrooms add a lot of depth. You can top this risotto with some pan seared scallops. Yum! 

Risotto leftovers? I will show you in a later post how to make cheese stuffed risotto balls with Arrabaita sauce.  - Desi

What you will need:

1 large shallot finely diced

1 cup of arborio rice (serves 2-3 for a meal or 4 for appetizer portions)

4 tbsp of butter divided

3 tbsp of olive oil

1/4 cup of dry white wine 

250g of crimini mushrooms (sliced)

1/4 cup of dried porcini mushrooms 

1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for serving

4 cup of chicken stock (I prefer low sodium)

Lets get cooking...

In a pot bring your chicken stock to a gentle boil and then reduce heat to medium-low and keep warm. This is a very important step. Once you start adding your stock to your risotto it is key that the stock is warm so that it doesn't stop the cooking process.

In a bowl steep your dried porcini mushrooms with hot water (about 3/4 cup) and let sit for 15 min to rehydrate.

In a pan over medium heat melt 1 tbsp of butter and saute your fresh mushroom. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large heavy sauce pan melt 1 tbsp of butter with olive oil over medium-low heat and saute your shallots until soft (3-4 min).

Add your rice and increase heat to medium. Toast your rice until it starts to look translucent (3-4 min).

Add in your wine and stir until the liquid has evaporated.

Add a couple of ladles of your chicken broth and stir until almost all the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth 1-2 ladlefuls waiting until each is absorbed until half way through the cooking process (10-12 min) while continuously stirring.

Strain and reserve the liquid from the the porcini mushrooms and coarsely chop your mushrooms. Add the liquid to your risotto (make sure to either strain it or just be careful when pouring since the bottom of bowl will contain sediment that you don't want).

Add in your chopped porcini mushrooms and your sauteed crimini mushrooms

.

Continue adding broth until rice is tender but still firm to bite and risotto is creamy, probably an additional 10 min. Add in remaining butter and Parmesan cheese and season with black pepper to taste.

Enjoy!