Tomato and mushroom risotto

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Tomato and mushroom risotto, originally uploaded by yongtze.

More risotto please! Having had the oily chicken risotto few days ago, it’s been decided no more butter should be consumed in the very near future.

This is pretty much a vegetarian risotto. However, I used chicken stock. Substitute it with vegetarian or even just boiling water is fine. Also, I used dried shitake mushroom for its flavour. You can use any good dried mushrooms that you fancy.

Serves 2:
- 30 g dried mushrooms
- 250g tomatoes, fresh or canned, peeled and chopped
- 1 small onion and 1 shallot, both finely chopped
- 40ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 2-3 cups boiling chicken stock/vegetable stock/boiing water
- salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons parmesan

Soak the mushrooms in a bowl of warm water until soft. Slice the mushroom coarsely. Reserve the liquid, you can add it to the boiling stock/water for the flavour.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, saute the onion and shallot until tender. Do no brown. Add the mushrooms and after another 1-2 minutes or so, the tomatoes. Cook the sauce for 10 minutes over low heat, covered.

Add the rice, keeping stirring. When part of the liquid has been absorbed, begin to add the boiling stock/water, pouring it a little at a time and stirring frequently.

Just before the rice is cooked, season with salt and pepper. Serve the rice, sprinkle the cheese on top.

I finally finished using all the arborio rice Guess no more risotto for a while, unless I really feel like eating it.

Wednesday night dinner

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With recipes to come soon..  I’ve just found another use of my favourite Hup Seng’s Cream Crackers

Chicken fricassee with Wine sauce, onions, tomatoes, and carrot

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Chicken fricassee with Wine sauce, onions, tomatoes, and carrot, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Fricassee is halfway between sauté and stew. In a fricassee, the chicken is first cooked in butter, until its flesh has swelled and stiffened, then the liquid is added.

    * 2 drumsticks and 2 thighs
    * 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil
    * 1 large onion, sliced
    * 1 clove of garlic, minced
    * 1 large ripe red tomato, chopped
    * 2 carrots, coarsely sliced
    * 1 and half cup of dry white wine
    * 1 cup half cup of chicken stock
    * 2 tablespoon Beurre manié
    * Salt and pepper

Brown the chicken in hot butter and oil for about 5 minutes, turn them every 20 seconds or so. Remove to a side dish.

Stir the onions into the pan, sauté with the remaining oil over moderate heat until tender, then raise heat and brown lightly. Remove to a bowl.

Season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper, return to the pan. Add the browned onion, garlic, tomato, and carrot.  Pour in the wine and stock to cover the ingredients. Bring to the simmer. Cover and simmer slowly for 20 minutes or until the chicken is tender when pressed.

Remove the chicken to a side dish. Boil down the juices and the vegetables and check the seasonings.  Off heat, whisk in the beurre manié to thicken the sauce and mix with the juices. Bring briefly to the simmer. Pour the sauce and vegetables on the chicken. Serves 2.

This dish is very hearty and should go particularly well with rice. Too bad I just finished all the rice at home..

Rice standing up straight?

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Cooked long grain rice, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Have you seen long grain rice standing up vertically after cooked?

I wonder how and why this happened. You can see from the picture that how they were standing up vertically.

Interesting.