52 Cookbooks: the challenge is to cook a new recipe from one of my (many) cookbooks each week for a year...
This week it's not only another Jamie recipe but it's also MOH's second appearance in the 52 Cookbooks guest slot, which is more than fine by me!
The recipe this week is Jamie's Grilled Mushroom Risotto from his Jamie at home book. I like this book as the recipes are split into sections by season and by vegetables which form the main ingredients for many of the recipes; there's also tips for how to grow that veg too.
This one was in the autumn & mushrooms section but I have to admit the only place I really want to get my mushrooms from is the green grocers, farmers market or supermarket.
I admire foragers and anyone who knows their mushrooms but really think I should leave it to those who know. It's probably safest that way!
MOH likes a mushroom risotto and has been known to choose it when we're eating out; I like risottos and will happily eat one but they're not usually my first choice when we're out, I'm not sure why. I say to MOH that they make me snore, but he says he hasn't noticed it to be any different after eating risotto... as I always snore! Hmmnn...
Jamie's risotto has the mushrooms grilled and served on top of the risotto - the recipe suggests shiitake, girolle, chestnut or oyster mushrooms and definitely no button mushrooms! We had a mixture of chestnut and oyster mushrooms - so phew! and after much debate MOH chose to stir them into the rice as because of a pan shortage the mushrooms had been fried early on...
I don't think it was any worse for it, many mushroom risottos are like this and it meant there were mushrooms all the way through the meal.
As usual I was called in for onion chopping duties and these were fried along with the celery before adding the rice and vermouth and soaked porcini.
Then it was the many ladlefuls of stock which Jamie's recipe says "keep adding ladelfuls of stock, stirring and massaging the starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next" - that's quite flowery language there. And this is where risottos and I don't get on - I'm way too impatient to wait for the stock to reduce before adding the next one, perhaps if I thought about massaging each piece of rice it might be different?
Then again, probably not. I'll leave the risotto making to MOH as he does it so well!
As well as the usual seasoning there was also lemon juice and some fresh herbs and it was served with a good shaving of Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Yum.
The verdict:
- I'm very happy to eat any mushroom risotto made for me, I'm less fussed about cooking them though
- We stirred the mushrooms through the risotto rather than serving the grilled mushrooms on top, however if you had some more unusual mushrooms they would be good to have a few on top.
- I always think we could make arancini balls with the leftover risotto, but then again what leftover risotto - we never have any!