Truffled Mushroom Risotto

A guilty pleasure of mine is watching cooking competitions, but not just any cooking competition. I watch Top Chef, Masterchef and all that, but I quite enjoy watching the original Australian version of My Kitchen Rules. I’m not sure why, probably because their catch phrases make me giggle. My husband and I always joke about how we would act and react if we were on the show. Since there always seems to be something going wrong in the kitchen.

Although we’d probably never go on a cooking show, it’s still fun to cook together at home and we often do. Trying different recipes and going outside the box to make dishes to see how we can handle cooking different cuisines. One dish that often seems to cause issues is a risotto dish. I can see why since people all like their risotto a little different, more or less runny, al dente, etc. Plus it would be hard to get it right for a large group of people if you’re not serving it straight out of the pan. Once risotto cools a bit it automatically turns gluggy.

So the other day I was craving risotto after watching an episode of MKR and decided to whip some up, expecially since I recently was sent a lovely bottle of truffle extract. What better way to use up some truffles that in a lovely Mushroom Risotto. Here is my recipe below, I thought it was lovely right off the stove top…but not sure how it’d handle being served to a group or a team of judges. Luckily for me I’m not going to be needing to worry about that, just about how great it tastes when I gobble it up!

Truffled Mushroom Risotto Recipe

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped
A handful of cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1-2 tbsp Bitarome truffle extract*
2-3 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper

Preparation:

In a medium skillet, warm up 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat and stir in the onions.

Let the onions cooks until translucent, approximately 8-10 mins.

Stir in the mushrooms and let them cook down for another 3 mins.

Spread the mixture to the side of the skillet and add in the rice. Cook for roughly 2 mins. This allows the rice to slightly crisp on the outside and create that al dente texture.

Pour in the white wine to deglaze the pan and stir until the wine evaporates.

Add in the truffle extract as well and also cook out the alcohol in the extract.

Scoop in 1/2 cup of the broth and slowly stir the rice so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

Keep adding stock once the rice starts to absorb the liquid. Add a bit at a time to allow the flavour to develop in the risotto. Don’t add too much at a time to prevent the rice from being overcooked. Adding about 1/2 cup of liquid a time allows you to control the consistency of the risotto.

Once the consistency of the risotto is what you’d like or try some (best way to cook!), remove from the stove and finish with the butter. Stir in the butter and let it melt. If you choose to use cheese as well you can shave some over top or mix it in.

Flavour with salt and pepper to taste and serve with your favorite protein or on its own. You can also top with additional truffle oil to really bring out the truffle flavour!


*Bitarome truffle extract provided by Qualifirst