I have always enjoyed mushrooms. However, my sweet husband does not. As of late, we have tried to eat vegetarian at least twice a week. I wanted to try and make Blake a mushroom believer with this recipe. I think I was pretty successful. The balsamic vinegar and toasted rice made this dish earthy and delicious. I call this recipe mushroom "risotto". I would offend generations of Italians saying this was a true risotto. A true risotto can take hours (I'm not even kidding) to make. This recipe takes on average about 40 minutes to make but I think the dish will speak for itself.
Balsamic mushroom "risotto" with toasted pine nuts.
serves 4
2 c. of risotto rice or short grained white rice (I'm a cheapo. I never buy risotto rice)
1T butter
4T Olive oil
2 c. sliced mushrooms of any variety. We used plain old white mushrooms but I am assuming this recipe would ROCK with portabellos
1/8 c balsamic vinegar
5c chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 pine nuts
I like to gather all my ingredients before I start. I cannot tell you how many times I have started a recipe and then realized I didn't have a main component. Preheat oven to 400
Slice mushrooms a quarter inch thick
Mix mushrooms, 3T of olive oil and balsamic vinegar until all mushrooms are covered. Let sit while the oven preheats and you start the rice. once the oven is preheated, roast mushrooms on a baking sheet for 15 minutes.
The key to risotto is toasting every grain of rice. I don't have time for that. Although, I do like to toast the rice slightly before I begin. It brings a nuttiness to the dish.
Add butter and remaining olive oil to pain on medium heat. Add rice and toast until you begin to smell, well, toasted rice. This will take about 10 minutes. Mix occasionally. Otherwise, rice will burn.
Once the rice is toasted slightly, add 1/2 c of broth to the mixture and reduce heat to medium low. Continue mixing until all the broth is absorbed. Keep adding broth in 1/2c increments until the broth is gone and rice is cooked. Honestly, this dish is very tedious and you really can't leave it alone. You have to constantly baby it and mix it until the rice is cooked. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add more stock or water to cook the rice.
toast pine nuts on low heat
After the rice is cooked,(DO NOT OVERCOOK!! Nothing is worse than overcooked rice. Cook until it has a slight bite) Add toasted pine nuts and mushrooms. Mixture should be creamy. After I add the last of the stock, I turn the heat to low so the liquid doesn't absorb the whole way.
** after eating this dish, I felt like it was missing something. An herb of sorts. Possibly rosemary? If you are brave, add a few tablespoons of rosemary to the dish and let me know how it tastes.
**The dish is good leftover but the rice absorbs most of the liquid overnight so it turns in to more of a rice pilaf second day. still delicious
