{"id":272,"date":"2011-10-23T16:25:56","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T15:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2012-12-13T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T16:42:51","slug":"mushroom-artichoke-risotto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"Mushroom & Artichoke Risotto"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m probably not the best person to ask when it comes to making vegetarian meals.\u00a0 I generally feel duped when I find a meal doesn’t involve meat.\u00a0 Most chefs who aren’t vegetarians themselves don’t enjoy having to serve up meals for vegans.\u00a0 I recently watched an old episode of Top Chef: Masters where the four chefs had to cook lunch for Zooey Deschanel – the catch?\u00a0 She is a vegan, who is also gluten intolerant.\u00a0 I thought that was pretty evil, but at least they could do something nice with Tofu!\u00a0 Clearly Anita Lo was thinking the same thing, only for Zooey to then reveal that she also doesn’t eat soya.\u00a0 So, grass then?<\/p>\n

That whole episode got me thinking, what vegetarian dishes can I do?\u00a0 I know quite a few vegetarians, some stricter than others but what could I cook?\u00a0 Gazpacho is one idea, but that’s really only a summer dish.\u00a0 There are a couple of Tofu recipes that I can think of that usually have meat, but could be easily made into vegetarian dishes. Then there are quite a few pasta dishes that could easily be vegetarian.\u00a0 Then I thought of risotto…\u00a0 I have a recipe for a really nice tomato essence risotto that I love and it’s completely meat free.\u00a0 Not bad for a guy who likes his steak so rare it should moo.<\/p>\n

I thought I would try something new and make a mushroom and artichoke risotto.\u00a0 I don’t use artichokes that much, but it’s used quite a bit in Italian cooking.\u00a0 So what better excuse do I need for adding it into this recipe?\u00a0 Risotto is really easy to do, doesn’t take very long and when done right makes a really tasty dinner.\u00a0 The trick to a good risotto is to have everything prepared before you start and then just focus on cooking the rice.\u00a0 If the rice is done well, the rest is easy.<\/p>\n

I don’t put any butter in to my risotto, I let the rice create the cream for me – as it should!\u00a0 I’m following the top Italian chefs on this one, I know a lot of other chefs do use butter.\u00a0 Based on what I’ve been told and on what I’ve tasted, I prefer not to use butter.\u00a0 It means you have to do more work stirring but I think it’s worth it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves 2):<\/strong><\/p>\n

280g Carnaroli Risotto Rice<\/p>\n

250g Chestnut Mushrooms<\/p>\n

200g Artichokes<\/p>\n

2 Ribs of Celery<\/p>\n

1 Medium Onion<\/p>\n

175ml Dry Fino Sherry<\/p>\n

1 Litre Chicken \/ Vegetable Stock<\/p>\n

5 tbsp Rapeseed \/ Vegetable Oil<\/p>\n

1 tbsp Olive Oil<\/p>\n

Pecorino Cheese<\/p>\n

Sea Salt and Black Pepper<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 First prepare all the vegetables.\u00a0 Clean the mushrooms, thinly slice the artichokes (preserve in cold water), dice the celery and onion.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Set a large saucepan to a high heat and put in 1 tbps of Rapeseed oil.\u00a0 At the same time, heat the stock to a steady boil in another saucepan.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Fry the onions in the oil until they turn soft and translucent, but not brown.\u00a0 Add a good pinch of salt and pepper.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Add the rest of the rapeseed oil and once back up to heat, add the risotto rice and stir well.\u00a0 Toast the rice until it becomes slightly translucent and coated in the oil.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Pour in the Sherry, it should sizzle immediately.\u00a0 Stir the risotto again and allow the Sherry to be absorbed by the rice.\u00a0 Reduce to a medium heat.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Now add the stock to the rice, one ladle at a time.\u00a0 Stir constantly and only add the next ladle when the previous has nearly been completely absorbed. As you add the last one or two ladles of stock, add in the sliced artichokes.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Check the risotto’s seasoning and add more salt and pepper if required.\u00a0 Set the risotto to a low heat at this point.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Heat a frying pan with the olive oil and fry the celery, once it starts to soften add the mushrooms with a little bit of salt and pepper and cook until the mushrooms begin to shrink.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Combine the mushrooms and celery with the risotto which should now be starchy and soft on the outside, but fairly firm in the middle.\u00a0 Remove from the heat.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 Grate some Pecorino into the risotto, stir and then garnish with some fresh parsley.\u00a0 Serve immediately with more grated Pecorino.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep the risotto pan hot while cooking.\u00a0 Ensure the wine or sherry is at room temperature when added to the rice.\u00a0 Also keep the stock at a simmer when adding it to the risotto.<\/p>\n

Continually stir the rice.\u00a0 If you let it burn it will lock in the starch and end up like fried rice.\u00a0 Stirring also helps the rice release all of its starch, creating the rich creamy sauce.\u00a0 A risotto spoon really helps but a wooden spoon will do the job.\u00a0 This is why having everything prepared beforehand means you can focus on stirring the rice because if you stop stirring for more than a few minutes you won’t get the starch out of the rice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m probably not the best person to ask when it comes to making vegetarian meals.\u00a0 I generally feel duped when I find a meal doesn’t involve meat.\u00a0 Most chefs who aren’t vegetarians themselves don’t enjoy having to serve up meals for vegans.\u00a0 I recently watched an old episode of Top Chef: Masters where the four chefs had to cook lunch for Zooey Deschanel – the catch?\u00a0 She is a vegan, who is also gluten intolerant.\u00a0[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[34,37,5,52,19],"tags":[8,53],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gluten","category-main","category-recipes","category-vegetarian","category-west","tag-cheese","tag-risotto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/IMAG0344.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PTCG-4o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}