Main course - Roasted mushroom risotto with parsley (Jamie Oliver)

To my knowledge, I have yet to put a risotto recipe on here. I have no idea why as it is pretty much one of my favourite meals to make, a go to recipe and I have made it so many times that I have my own risotto routine really! I took my inspiration for this from Jamie Oliver's, Jamie's Italy cookbook who had such a yummy recipe, where he roasted the mushrooms in a delicious buttery garlicky sauce and then added the parsley which really gives the dish more flavour.. Mushrooms always give the rice such depth and richness, which makes the meal feel a lot more decadent than it actually is.

So to start you need to make the risotto bianco, now this is my way of doing it, it might be different (or very similar) to other people's methods but it always works for me. Some people (my mum included) like to put the risotto in the oven after it's been made in the pan, it does turn out nicely but I prefer the risotto straight from the pan as it has a better texture and is more creamy. You will also notice that the recipe calls for a LOT of stirring, this is because stirring is pretty much the basis for direction in making risotto, all the ingredients need to be mixed and infused together well to get the right consistency.

Ingredients

(for 4 people)

A knob of butter

Olive oil (a couple of tablespoons)

1 onion (chopped)

1 garlic clove (finely chopped)

1 glass of white wine

400g risotto rice (arborio)

1.5 litres of stock (chicken/beef stock will give more depth to the dish and vegetable will be lighter but still just as nice!)

A very generous grating of parmesan cheese (the more the better I say!)

200g wild mushrooms (chopped - I only managed to find regular mushrooms and chestnut although chestnut do have a lovely flavour, shitake mushrooms would be even better for this and would definitely add a different taste)

Sea salt and black pepper

1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled and halved

A small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked

1 tablespoon butter

A small bunch of fresh parsley, very finely chopped

1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 200C.

You want to make this using a fairly large, deep pan as you will be pouring in quite a bit of stock, so the pan needs to hold all of that! Heat the pan and add a drizzle of oil, a small knob of butter, the chopped onions and garlic. Stir so all the ingredients are nicely mixed, and cook until the onions are starting to slightly brown.

Add the risotto rice and mix everything together well for around 10-20 seconds so the rice is covered in the butter and onions. Then add a glass of white wine and stir again.

When the wine has been reduced by half and the rice has started to soak it up, start adding the stock. You will need to add enough stock to just cover the rice, then keep stirring, and when it has been absorbed, keep adding some more a little bit at a time. Try the rice to see if it tastes cooked, if not add more stock!

While the rice is cooking and soaking up the stock, start on the mushrooms.

Heat a non-stick pan with a little oil and then add the chopped mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes until the mushrooms are slightly browned and shrunk in size. Add the garlic, thyme and butter and mix together well. Then empty onto an oven tray and pop in the oven for around 10 minutes, so the mushrooms are completely roasted and full of buttery garlic flavour!

At this point I served the starter, so I left the pan on the stove with the heat off and the lid on and turned off the oven, but left the mushrooms in there to keep warm.

After the starter, get the heat going on the risotto again, give it a good mix. Then add the roasted mushrooms, grated parmesan and chopped parsley.


Squeeze some lemon juice over it and stir well. Serve straight away!

Nigella's Potato and Mushroom Gratin (with lemon chicken)

So as I mentioned before, a favourite cookbook in my house at home is "Nigella Express". My mum has made some of the soups from the book, all of which are lovely and very easy to make! Nigella may use fancy ingredients, and sometimes the recipes are not that healthy, but they are lovely warming recipes to make for friends or for a dinner party and they're usually something quick to rustle up.

I have never made a gratin so I wanted to give it a go and I'm very glad I used this recipe because it was quite quick! There was a lot of chopping but after that it was very easy. I wish that I had taken a photo of the gratin all nicely cooked out of the oven in the dish I made it in but I just was excited to eat it so had spooned it onto our plates before I realised! So it looks quite messy in the picture sitting next to the rocket and the chicken, but it was lovely and well worth making if you want to make a quick dish that will look quite impressive! Another great thing about the gratin, is that it uses just full fat milk and not cream, so it isn't as fatty as a gratin could be!

Again this is Nigella's recipe, so I am not claiming it is my own! :

Ingredients:

3 average-sized baking potatoes ( 750g) - thinly sliced

350ml full-fat milk

3 x 15ml tablespoons white wine

2 x 15ml tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons garlic oil (I didn't have any garlic oil, so crushed two cloves of garlic instead)

250g chestnut mushrooms - finely sliced

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220c and butter a shallow baking dish or gratin.

Put the sliced potatoes, milk and white wine in a saucepan and bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper to taste and stir occasionally. Then leave at a simmer while you get on with the mushrooms.

Warm the butter and oil (or crushed garlic cloves) in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened for about 3 minutes.

Pour the mushrooms and their garlicky, buttery juices into the pan of potatoes, stir to mix and pour straight into the gratin dish. Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes or until the potatoes and mushrooms are golden and crispy on top.

I also marinated a chicken breast in lemon and finely sliced garlic and cooked in the oven for around 30-40 minutes to go with the gratin and then arranged it on a plate with the gratin and a handful of rocket.

Enjoy!

Love FF x