This is great as a main dish on it’s own or as a side to a great piece of roasted venison or other game meat.

1 1/2 cup dried Porcini Mushrooms
4 - 5 cups venison (or beef broth if you don’t have venison broth) - heres the recipe for Venison Stock
2 tbsp. Butter
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp finely chopped shallots
1 cup uncooked italian arborio rice
3 tbsb freshly grated parmigiano cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine the porcini and broth in a small saucepan and heat to boiling.
Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand covered for 20 minutes.

Drain the porcini through a sieve lined with a dampened paper towel or cheese cloth.
Set aside the broth separately.
Rinse the mushrooms under running tap water and rub with your fingers.
Cut off and discard any gritty pieces.
Drain well and pat dry.
Finely chop the mushrooms and set aside.
This should product about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of porcini.

Return the strained broth to the saucepan and heat to boiling.
Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted.
Add the shallots and saute until tender (about 3 minutes)
Add the arborio rice and saute over low heat for 2 minutes.

Add just enough of the hot broth to cover the rice (about 1/2 cup).
Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer.
Cook the rice while stirring constantly until almost all the broth has been absorbed
This should take about 3 to 4 minutes.

Add another ladle of broth (about 1/2 cup).
Continue to cook stirring constantly until all the broth has been absorbed.
Continue adding the broth about 1/2 cup at a time and cooking and stirring.
Only add the next 1/2 cup of broth when the almost all of broth is absorbed. The rice will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan as it is stirred.

About halfway through the cooking time add the reserved chopped mushrooms.
Cook until the rice is creamy and firm but not chalky in the center when it is tasted.

The total cooking time is about 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat.
Stir in the Parmigiano Reggiano and salt.
Sprinkle with black pepper.

Serve at once with additional cheese on the side.

Serves four

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Tags: Rice, Risotto, side dish, Vension

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 am and is filed under Recipes, Side Dishes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.