The whole reason for developing a really good vegetable stock was so that I could make a really good vegetarian risotto. Well, it worked. I made a nice roasted portobello to go with it, as shown below:
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Risotto
- 1 Tb butter
- 1 c risotto rice
- About 3 c vegetable stock (see separate recipe)
- salt to taste – if the stock is unsalted, you’ll need a lot of salt!
Over medium heat, melt butter in saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.
When butter is melted, add rice and stir for a few minutes, letting the butter coat the rice, and perhaps letting the rice brown a bit.
Continuing to stir (you’re going to be stirring a lot) add about 1/2 c stock and cook until the stock is mostly absorbed. You might want to reduce the heat to medium low for this and the next steps. Add some salt at this step if you’re using unsalted stock. You’ll need at least 1-2 tablespoons by the end.
Add more stock, continuing to stir until the stock is absorbed, and then do it all again. After about 15 minutes of this, check to see if the rice is cooked through. If not, continue adding stock and stirring. Continue tasting for salt and adding more if necessary.
(You’ll want to start the portobello around 10 minutes into this process, if not sooner.)
If you get really bored, add some more stock – 1/4-1/2 c by this time, and then cover the pan, reducing the heat to very low and let cook another five minutes or so to finish.
When the risotto is cooked, serve onto a plate or bowl, arrange sliced Roasted Marinated Portobello pieces (see below) on top, and serve to yourself.
I found that I could eat this whole recipe myself in one sitting. Not necessarily saying that was a good idea, but there were NO leftovers.
Roasted Marinated Portobello
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil or other oil
- 1 Tb balsamic vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- salt
- pepper
- (other marinade ingredients as desired)
- 1 Portobello mushroom, stem and gills removed (scrape the gills out with a spoon, save stems and gills for future stock making if desired)
Combine marinade ingredients in a small ziploc bag, mix together a bit, and then put the mushroom in the bag with the marinade. Manipulate the bag, marinade, and mushroom so that the mushroom gets marinade all over it. Let sit for five minutes, then do the manipulation again and let sit. This can be done well-before cooking, but ten minutes of marinading was adequate.
Preheat the toaster oven to 400.
Put the mushroom on your toaster oven baking pan grill, gill side up. Cook for five minutes, then turn the mushroom over, cook for five more minutes. When mushroom is cooked, remove from oven and cut into thick slices. Arrange on top of the risotto and serve.
Does this sound good? Are you going to try my recipe (or the stock recipe)? Let me know in the comments!
Hi Nils,
Thanks for your vegetarian stock recipe – it sounds great! Will try it soon since I’ve not yet found one with enough flavor. In the fall I’ll cook at a week-long vegetarian retreat and am starting to plan the menu now. My only trick to beefing up veggie stock is to throw in a large handful of dried porcini, but it darkens the stock, and rich mushroom flavor (although fabulous) isn’t wanted for all applications. Looking forward to trying your method.
Laura – nice to hear from you! I hope you enjoy the stock – and good luck with the retreat! That sounds challenging indeed.
This recipe definitely makes a very dark stock, which I think was due to the caramelization during the roasting process, although the mushrooms may contribute as well. One thing I’ve learned as I’ve started to hack my way through cooking is that caramelization is the easiest way to get flavor, so I take every advantage I can. It’s why I was drawn to the roasting idea in the first place.
Laura – Also, thanks for being the first commenter on the new blog!