Cheat's Porcini Risotto

As a good Brazilian I am a rice lover. To the ones of you who don’t know rice is a must at every Brazilian table. It was brought to us by the Portuguese. Oops..I am not here to write about Brazilians eating habits. I just wanted to say that being a typical rice-loving Brazilian risotto is a dish that really appeals to me. Up to coming across this recipe I had only eaten it prepared the traditional way, standing by the stove and doing all the stiring whilst the heat comes up to our faces. It was the charm of it. Or wasn’t it?! Bill Granger came up with this ‘cheat’s’ ristotto recipe and I got really sceptical.
I decided to give it a go. I do confess that I expected it to go very weird and pre-emptied the ‘I-don’t-like-it’ feeling. Well, I was wrong. Very wrong. As much as I tried I really did like the final result.Even ended up having a second go. It was rather creamy, velvety, tasty. Perhaps The only change I made was to halve the parmesan amount – half of it was mixed with the risotto and the other half was sprinkled on the dishes. I just felt that 50g of parmesan cheese plus more sprinkled on the dishes would have been a tad too much. However, this is a matter of taste.

Cheat’s Porcini Risotto

10g (1/4 oz) packet of dried porcini mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 white onion, finely chopped

sea salt

25g (1 oz) butter

250g (9oz) Arborio rice

500ml (17fl oz) chicken stock

50g grated parmesan cheese

freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

3 tablespoons shredded fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

First reconstitute the porcini mushrooms by soaking them in 500ml (17 fl oz) of luke-warm water for 30 minutes.

Heat a large heavy-based saucepan and add the oil, onion and half the butter. Cook over low heat until the onion is translucent but not browned, stirring occasionally. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes until the grains are glistening. Increase the heat to high and add the salt, porcini mushrooms, soaking water and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan, remaining of butter and black pepper. Serve sprinkled with parsley and parmesan.