Wild Mushroom Risotto
Wild mushrooms or not, this is a simple and warming meal with lots of love.
Equipment
- 1 Large Pot
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Fresh Mushrooms Chicken of the woods, Morrell, hen of the woods, golden chanterelles or whatever you have access to in your area (domestic or wild)
- 1 Stick Salted Butter, Divided Use more for serving
- 3-4 Bulbs Shallots, Chopped Finely About 1/2-3/4 Cup total
- 1 Head Garlic (or about 8 cloves) Garlic is good, and good for ya
- 2-4 Twigs Thyme I grew lemon thyme and loved it in this dish, using dried works great too. Measure with you heart.
- 1 tsp Salt More to taste, you get a good salty flavor from salted butter and cheese
- 1 tsp Black Pepper Ground peppercorns at serving add a bit something something.
- 3/4 cup Dry White Wine I've used a Brut Champagne before and it worked wonderfully. Sweet wines, not so much. You want the acid, not the sweetness.
- 2 TBSP Lemon Juice I've skipped this before, so don't fret.
- 5 Cups Broth or Stock Chicken, vegetable, water, beef, whatever stock or broth you have.
- 1.5 Cups Short grain brown Rice, Unrinsed Any short, stubby grain rice should work. The starch from unrinsed rice makes this a bit chewy and delightful.
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Cup Parmesan Cheese Freshly grated, or anything similar
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven melt half of the butter over medium heat
- Add mushrooms and shallots and saute until tender, about 8 minutes.
- Add garlic, thyme (strip the leaves off), salt and pepper and stir for an additional minute. Remove mushroom mixture from pan and set aside.
- Add remaining butter to pan over medium heat.
- Once butter has melted, add rice and stir until rice begins to look translucent, 3-4 minutes but up to 10 minutes.
- Add ¾ cup dry white wine and lemon juice and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until liquid is mostly absorbed.
- Add 1 cup of broth and stir until almost all broth is absorbed.
- Continuing adding broth 1 cup at a time, and stir until liquid is almost absorbed. (This step takes 20 or so minutes but is absolutely worth the effort!)
- Add mushroom mixture into the rice and stir to combine.
- Gently stir in heavy cream and parmesan cheese and cook until well incorporated on low heat.
- Risotto should be creamy, but still have a bite/firmness about it. Add extra parm for smiling faces.
