Baked mushroom risotto

One thing I have never been able to understand is people who can plan a whole weeks worth of meals in one day go grocery shopping for the whole week and not stray from the menu . I admire the organisational skills and discipline of these people but I just don’t think it is for me… What I feel like today I can promise you will not be what I feel like eating tomorrow let alone 5 days from now.

Honestly, I can not bear the thought of having to commit to such a hideous task, and let’s not mention the stress of having to eat something I simply do not feel like is enough to send me over the edge.

Fortunately for me I am one of those people who live to eat, not eat to live. I adore my ritual of waking up in the morning and planning my day of eating. You see as soon as I wake up I plan my breakfast, during breakfast I start thinking about lunch and at lunch time I start planning my grand finale of the day which of course is dinner. Captain Vegetarian thinks I am positively mad and  tells me all I talk about is food to which I remind him that doing this makes me happy and you know how the saying goes “happy wife, happy life”.

I also go through food fazes, at the moment I am going through a comfort faze, I want soothing, feel good food which is why I am leaning towards pasta, risotto and home style cooking. I will continue with this until I feel like something else. I can not be restricted to a weekly list…I can only commit to cooking what I feel like that day and I will not apologise for that…

Today I was feeling mushrooms, and lots of them. I had recently bought dried porcini mushrooms so I new they would be used and I was also thinking about some lovely delicate oyster mushrooms and the rich earthiness of the swiss brown mushrooms. Combined with my desire to eat nothing but comfort food, I though a mushroom risotto was in order.

Like my oven baked pumpkin and sage risotto this was also cooked in the oven to avoid the boring and tedious stirring. I did however cook my mushrooms first in butter to release their lovely mushroominess which is a step I’m sure I can handle…

Serves 2

1cup arborio or carnaroli rice

1 leek cleaned and sliced finely into little half moons

2 cloves garlic chopped finely

100gram oyster mushrooms sliced in half

200grams swiss brown mushrooms sliced

10gram dried porcini mushrooms

30 grams butter

2 ½ cups of chicken/vegetable stock

½ cup dry white wine

1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup chives

Juice of half a lemon

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat your oven 190◦C

Soak porcini mushrooms in boiling water (from the kettle) for 20 minutes. Rinse and set a side.

Over medium heat melt butter in an oven proof heavy based pan. Add mushrooms, leek, garlic, salt & pepper and cook gently for 10 – 15 minutes. This step is important so you get maximum flavour from the mushrooms. Stir continuously so the mixture does not burn or colour too much.

Remove from heat and add stock, wine. Stir well and cover with a tight fitting lid or aluminium foil. Place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes.

Once cooked add parsley, chives, parmesan, lemon juice and adjust seasoning to taste. Stir well and leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Serve in warmed bowls…enjoy

Note – To make this dish vegetarian add vegetable stock. I use chicken stock as Captain Vegetarian isn’t a fan of mushrooms…Something I simply do not understand!