Day 156: Baked mushroom risotto

Despite the fact that tonight’s recipe was another vegetarian dish, porcini mushrooms were part of the ingredients. Why was that detail important? Well, the recipe did say that the inclusion of porcini mushrooms would result in an ‘almost beefy aroma’. I interpreted that as ‘an almost beefy taste’; therefore, increasing the chances of Dear Husband liking this recipe. I knew I was on to a winner. Or so I thought. Here’s how I made the Baked mushroom risotto…

I began with the porcini mushrooms by putting them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. I then left them for 20 minutes to soak. Next, using my large casserole dish, I melted butter in it before adding finely chopped onions and garlic. I let them sauté for about 8 minutes. In a saucepan, I added vegetable stock and, once it came up to the boil, I let it simmer. While the onions were cooking, I drained the porcini mushrooms but kept the leftover liquid they were in to remove any grit. I then added that liquid to the vegetable stock and seasoned it. Then it was time to add the chopped porcini mushrooms to the onions and let them cook for about 2 minutes. Next, I tipped in the risotto rice and fried for 2 minutes before pouring in wine. I let it evaporate which took about 2 minutes and then poured the stock in on top. Once it came up to the boil, I popped the lid on the dish and put it in the oven. Meanwhile, in a separate frying pan, I melted some more butter and then fried a mixture of flat mushrooms and regular mushrooms. Once golden, I set them aside. After 12 minutes, I took the risotto out of the oven and added grated parmesan cheese and the remainder of the butter and then beat it until everything was melted. To finish, I added freshly chopped parsley and lemon juice. The recipe said to include mascarpone as optional but I didn’t bother.

The verdict…

I was majorly disappointed with this one. And you know that if I was majorly disappointed with this vegetarian dish then there was no way that the verdict was going to be any better from Dear Husband. Except it did. For the first time in the history of this Challenge and, indeed, the entire history of me cooking for him, he scored a vegetarian dish higher than what I did. Dear Husband’s verdict was 7 marks out of 10 and my score was 5 marks out of 10. I just wasn't fussed on it.

Overall, this recipe was a lot of effort but I knew that before I started because it said that it was going to take an hour to get on the table. Of course, an hour in the recipe means that it will take me longer and longer it did take; probably closer to 1.5 hours. Also, there were quite a lot of ingredients and a lot of things going on at once so I had to keep reading and re-reading the recipe to make sure that I did everything in the right order. Will I make this recipe again? Despite the 7 marks, I’d have to say no. There are numerous other recipes in the book that I’d make again before this one so, believe it or not, I’m going to pass on this one. Yes, a real turn-up for the (cook) books…