Risotto aux Champignons

Carolyn Kamberlane's Note:

This is an authentic french recipe, translated from one of my cookbooks. This was the 1st risotto I ever made, and I found it was easy. I make it often for my husband the mushroom lover.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 125 g butter
• 1 onion , chopped
• 375 g mushrooms , diced
• 500 g risotto rice (eg. Arborio)
• 1 liter vegetable stock , approx. (can be made with granules)
• 1⁄8; teaspoon saffron
• 40 g parmesan cheese , grated
• parsley , chopped,to garnish

Directions:

1. Sauté the onion in half of the butter until it is translucent.
2. Add the mushrooms and cook 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the rice and cook,while stirring, until the rice gets shiny and translucent around the edges.
4. Add a ladle of bouillon and cook until it is absorbed.
5. Add the safron.
6. Continue adding the bouillon (one ladle at a time and cooking until absorbed) until the rice is cooked and all the bouillon is absorbed.
7. Add the remaining butter and parmesan, stir.
8. Serve topped with chopped parsley.

Reviews

[LilKiwiChicken]

Looking at the comments on this recipe, I think that there is not enough stock. I think you need about 350ml / 100g of rice, which would mean that if you are going to use 500g of rice you would need about 1800ml of stock.

[PeeGee]

Today we made Risotto for the first time. I chose this recipe because it is easy to follow. I must have made the same error as Mianbao as, after cooking until the liquid was all absorbed the rice was nearly cooked but not quite. Next time we make this dish (and we will), I will reduce the amount of parmesan cheese. Once we master the method I will try variations by way of adding other ingredients.

[mianbao]

I've decide to leave comments here, but no star rating. Please don't think that I am dissatisfied with the recipe. I did have some trouble, but I think it was mainly due to my own inexperience with risotto. I think I spent too little time sauteing the rice, and, because of that, it was probably not ready to absorb the liquid. I did cook, add stock in ladlefuls, and stir a very very long time, but in the end, with dinner getting late, I gave in, mixed in the butter, cheese and parsley, and served it. The rice was not sufficiently cooked, and did not get well enough cooked in the meantime to be nice to eat. In the end, I steamed it in a stovetop steamer, and that cured the problem (or at least made it pleasantly edible.) I like the large proportion of mushrooms to rice in this recipe. I did keep the stock hot while making this, which is not mentioned here, but is in other recipes I have seen for risotto. I do think if I try this again I may add less butter, but more grated cheese at the end. Thank you very much for providing me with this recipe to try. I now have a much clearer idea of how to make this and how I would like it.