GCC Mushroom Risotto

This week for the Gutsy Cooks Club Mushroom Risotto was on the menu from The Illustrated Kitchen Bible.

We've definitely made our fair share of risotto recipes as G loves risotto especially mushroom risotto. And given we had dinner plans out on Friday and our monthly supper club dinner on Saturday I knew we needed to get this one done during the week and this is simple enough to pull off on a Thursday so I went for it.

 It also served good timing as the snow has finally came back to the Northwest after quite a hiatus which meant G  took a personal day to hit the slopes while I slaved away in the school house. But I still knew he'd be psyched to come home to the smell of mushroom risotto on the stove.

This is really a simple version. I decided to do a mushroom combo of fresh baby bellas and dried porcinis.

 I started soaking my porcinis as I prepped the onions and bellas. In one of our well used risotto recipes we started heating the broth for our risotto, it helps speed the absorption process somehow so I heated the organic vegetable broth and started sauteing the onions.

I then added the rice for few minutes before adding the heated broth 1 ladle at a time.

While the rice was absorbing I also started sauteing the bellas in a separate pan. I chopped the porcinis once they were fully reconstituted.

Baby Bellas

Chopped Porcinis

After 30-40ish minutes the rice was ready for the mushrooms. I also added a splash of heavy cream just for a bit more depth and a good portion of grated Parmesan-reggiano.

We served the risotto with a Gorgonzola pear salad, garlic bread and big shocker a non-Washington red wine (a rare deed in this household), Dynamite Vineyards Cab from Sonoma which was actually very good and well suited with our simple, comfort meal. 

Not a tru challenge or a huge change of pace this week for my participation in the Gutsy Cooks Club this week but a perfect inspiration for a simple mid week meal. Which in itself after a very busy week is just fine too. Trust me having Valentines Day fall on a Monday made  for a very long elementary school week.

Sweet treats hangovers for kiddos and a full moon made for an interesting combination of student behaviors this week. But for many of my little ones Valentines day at school is just as exciting, if not more so than Christmas, which also made for some joyful excitement and precious encounters as well.