Risotto

Risotto and mushrooms

Risotto from the Italian language means rice. A secret of its popularity is great number of cooking variants. Invariable is one rule: rice in risotto has to be tender outside and hard inside. It is very important to choose right rice kind. The best one is middle grains. When you cook such rice, it discharges enough starch and rice mass become soft and sticky. But for all that, grains keep hard. The best choice of rice is Arborio, Vialone and Carnaroly. Don’t wash rice before cooking! And always when you add meat or vegetable bouillon, it has to be very hot. Cook risotto 20 minutes stirring slowly but continuously.

Step 1: Saute onion with 1 tbsp butter. To make more juice, add pinch of salt;

Step 2: Add 300g rice and stew it during 3 min stirring slowly. Pour in 150 ml wine and let it boil away. Add mushrooms, stir;

Step 3: Add 1l hot bouillon gradually as rice will take it up. Stir constantly;

Step 4: Dissolve pack of saffron stamen with hot bouillon and mix with prepared rice (over 20 min);

Step 5: In conclusion add 40g grated cheese and 1 tbsp butter to rice, stir. Strew with parsley, stir. Serve at the same time.

Saffron imparts appetizing yellow color and gives piquancy to risotto. If you haven’t saffron, use turmeric.

Fresh green is part and parcel of Italian cuisine. You can put basil, thyme and parsley to risotto. Don’t chop green, just tear leaves off.

Ceps (fresh or dried) impart especial, nut flavour to risotto. If you use dried mushrooms, soak it into hot water during 20 minutes. Then pour water out and add mushrooms to the rice.

Parmesan is one of the most appropriate cheeses, but you can also use moccarella, mascarpone or gorgonzola.

Bon appetit!

Soup with mushrooms

If the weather don’t bring you happy today, cook something tasty. But, what can be tastier than hot aromatic soup with field mushrooms? The best choice is to go and breathing fresh air to pick mushrooms in a field or steppe, I can add that you may take white mushrooms (brown cap boletus, cep, orange-cap boletus) – pick in a forest. Or, if you haven’t such opportunity, take marinated mushrooms – good equivalent for lazy people :).

Very easy soup consists of:

500g mushrooms

2 tbsp semolina

3 potatoes

2 tbsp butter

salt, pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tuft fresh green

Step 1: If you have fresh mushrooms, peel it, wash and slice mushrooms;

Step 2: Heat up 1 tbsp butter in a large thick-walled pan, take out mushrooms there, add 2 tbsp water, make little fire and stew 15 min covering above.

Step 3: Slightly dry semolina in a pan without oil;

Step 4: Peel potatoes, wash them and dice;

Step 5: Powder mushrooms with semolina and fry stirring slowly around 7 min.;

Step 6: Add there potato and pour 3l hot water in, reduce to boiling, salt, pepper, add bay leaf and cook 10 minutes (small fire);

Step 7: Prepared soup strew with chopped green and tbsp sour-cream.

Note: You can cook with meat bouillon – very interesting variant.

Meat with “nameko” mushrooms

Meat with "nameko" mushrooms

This is a dish liked by everybody who eats meat. Aromatic smell and ingredients composition put together extraordinary range of gustatory sense. I cooked this dish using my imagination and products that I had in refrigerator at this moment. So, if you'll want to try it you can vary ingredients composition.

We need:

1kg meat (pork, mutton or beef but use marinade for this one. For example, combine some tablespoons olive oil, basil, pepper, salt (sea salt is better). Rub beef with this mixture and leave for 20 minutes)
100g mushrooms (you can take marinated. Usually I take namekoes but if you haven't take another kind)
1 glass of dry red wine
2 large onions
2 handfuls of cranberries
little handful of flour
salt, pepper, species

Step 1: Wash meat, dry it up, dice or carve average pieces;

Step 2: Dice onion rather finely (but not too finely);

Step 3: You can use deep pan or cauldron. Fry meat in a cauldron with 1-2 tsp olive oil some minutes, add flour, mix.
Step 3a: Add onion, mix and close cauldron. Let to stew in meat's own juice;
Step 4: Over 10 minutes add mushrooms (if mushrooms are large, cut it), mix;

Step 5: Later some minutes add glass of wine and mix. Stew;

Step 6: After 15 minutes add cranberries.

Step 7: After 15 minutes more season meat with salt, pepper and species, dry or fresh greens;
Step 8: Total cooking time for fresh pork should be around 1-1,15h, for beef - 1h and 30min.

Great! Fantastic!