With the birthday hoopla and the post Peking-duck lunch nap, I forgot to plan for Sunday night dinner. So, it was a case of opening the fridge and cobbling together a respectable meal from the available ingredients in 30 minutes.
Last night, the materials I had to work with were: Mushrooms and Tarragon
So, I decided to make a Mushroom and Tarragon Risotto.
Makes 4 Servings
Preparation and Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Roughly Chop:
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
tarragon 3 tbsp.
Mushrooms- cleaned
4 tbsp. good olive oil
1 and 1/2 cups of rice
1/2 cup of cream
1/2 cup of wine
4 cups of chicken stock ( more as needed)
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese flakes
Truffle oil** makes any meal restaurant quality!
In a medium sized sauce pan, heat up the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and rice until everything is well-coated with oil. Pour in the wine. Stir well, and let the alcohol do it's magic to the starch of the rice.
When the rice is translucent, add mushrooms and tarragon. Pour in the stock. Stir constantly. Adjust your flame so it doesn't burn. You may need to add more stock. Taste to see if it needs seasoning and if the rice is cooked.The Heinz chicken stock I use is pretty salty, so I never add salt.
** Risottos need to be stirred, so don't go and watch TV or online now! In cooking school, they taught us to always taste what you are cooking. In this case, taste the rice so you know if it is almost cooked through. I like my rice al dente but my family likes softer risottos. This makes the difference of when you take it off the flame.**
For a softer risotto, remove from flame when rice is cooked through, pour in the cream and stir thoroughly.
Serve up in individual bowls.
Drizzle a bit of Truffle oil, sprinkle some Parmesan and you are ready to go!
I have made this recipe with asparagus, as well. Yummy!
XOXO,
sassy
