Do angels eat? Do they even know how to cook?
If they live in a human body for any length of time, the answer to both of those must be yes.
In See You in Hell, the second part of my Mel Goes to Hell series, Mel invites her boss, the archangel Raphael, over for dinner. On the menu is her home-made mushroom risotto.
Everyone knows how much I like to do research, because I like getting my details as perfect as possible. Plus, I'd never made a mushroom risotto before, though I definitely love to eat them!
So I found some recipes, modified them into a melange that's uniquely mine…and today I get to share it with you.
(And yes…I will be making this for dinner tonight. What can I say? Angels have good taste)
You can use any type of fresh mushrooms you please for this recipe. I prefer Portobello or Swiss brown, but I've made it with 500g Portobello and 500g white or button mushrooms.
Ingredients
20g dried porcini mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil or olive oil spread (I used the spread)
I kg fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
1.5 L chicken stock
0.5 cups dry white wine
1.5 cups Arborio rice
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Place porcini and a cup of warm water in a small bowl to soak for 20 minutes.
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil/spread in a large frypan over medium high heat, then add sliced mushrooms, porcini and the water it was soaking in. Cook until tender.
Remove cooked mushrooms and liquid from pan and set aside.
To the same (and now empty) pan, add the last tablespoon of olive oil/spread and stir through uncooked rice, until it's completely coated.
Transfer rice to a large microwave safe dish and add wine and chicken stock. Cook covered on high until all the liquid is absorbed. Depending on the power output of your microwave this could be 15-30 minutes. I'm told this also works in a rice cooker, though I haven't attempted it.
Once the rice is cooked, place mushrooms, liquid, parmesan and rice into the pan. Heat through, stirring constantly until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Serves 6 and is an ideal side dish to complement chicken.
Mel Goes to Hell
For the record, as there is some down-time while cooking this meal – porcini soaking time and microwave time – I wrote the risotto chapters in See You in Hell while cooking the meal, so I can recommend this as suitable for archangels and authors.