Exotic Mushroom Risotto

If you like mushrooms, this is the recipe for you. And if you like risotto too, well, then I think this might just become your favorite food. I love risotto in general, but I’ve found that mushroom risotto is one of the more bland versions of a great food. But after buying a bunch of exotic mushrooms, I thought I might as well see what happened if I made them into a risotto, and the results were great. Turns out, the only reason I thought mushroom risotto was boring was that I was using boring mushrooms!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 400g risotto rice
• 120g exotic mushrooms, I used:
  • 40g pink oyster
  • 40g yellow oyster
  • 40g shimeji
• 120g regular mushrooms (I used forestier mushrooms)
• 1 small red onion
• ½ white onion
• 1 litre (33 fl oz) vegetable stock (boiling)
• splash of white wine
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• salt
• ground black pepper
• olive oil

Preparation (45 minutes)

Drizzle some olive oil on a pan and set on medium heat. Slice the white onion into thin slices and throw in the pan. Chop up the forestiere mushrooms and add them to the pan. Mix around for about 3 minutes, then add half of each of the exotic mushrooms you chose, chopped into large pieces. Stir for 3 minutes, then add the basil, thyme, some salt and pepper, and turn down the heat and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, drizzle some olive oil into a pot and turn the heat to maximum. Chop the red onion into small pieces and throw in the pot. Stir for about 5 minutes or until the pieces start turning brown, then add the rice and stir for about 3 minutes. Add the splash of white wine and stir vigorously until all the wine has evaporated. Add the mushrooms, stir everything well, and add about 200ml of the vegetable stock, as well as about 1 tbsp of salt. Stir occasionally until all of the water has evaporated, then add another 200ml. Repeat until you’ve added 600mls, then, once that has evaporated, taste the risotto to see if it’s cooked yet. If it isn’t, add another 100ml and repeat until it is cooked. In the meantime, throw the rest of the exotic mushrooms into a pan on maximum heat, and cook for about 4 minutes, just to give them a quick grill. Make sure you don’t cook them too much, you really want them to be as little cooked as possible. Once they’re done, set them aside. When the rice is finished (should be at about 800ml or 20 minutes), take off the heat, add the nutritional yeast, and stir it in. Serve, and add the rest of the mushrooms on the plate (as shown in the picture). Buon appetito!