Jamie's 30-Minute Meals - Oozy Mushroom Risotto

We had the TV on the other day (a rarity for us in our house) and were randomly channel surfing, when we happened upon Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals.  Jamie makes three meals in 30 minutes.  In this episode (Season 1, Episode 8) he was making a yummy risotto, salad and desert.  I thought I would give it a go:)  

I have tried to write down what Jamie has done word for word and tried to add some pics (originally for my own use - but thought I would share).  I then realised I had never made risotto before, in fact I had tried it once or twice at restaurants and hated it!!:) But this looked too yummy to let go.  So I gave it a go. I didn't have some of the ingredients but the result was yummy - yummy - yummy.  Here is Jamie's recipe with my little notes added in.  I hope you enjoy:)

Oozy Three Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

One or two sticks of celery (I didn't use these)

One large brown onion

Handful of dried porcini mushrooms (I didn't have these)

Fresh rosemary (I only had home dried rosemary)

Chicken or Vegie Stock Cube

Boiled Water

500g of mixed fresh mushrooms (I used oyster, swiss brown, king brown and enoki mushrooms)

300g of arborio rice

glass of white wine (I used Chinese cooking wine - ha!, as that's all I had!)

fresh thyme (I had fresh lemon thyme)

clove of garlic

parmesan cheese

butter

fresh lemon juice 

handful of parsley (I forgot about this too!!)

salt and pepper to taste

Method (note I didn't use some of these ingredients but have added in Jamie's recipe, in case you wish to use it)

Destring some celery (click off the top section and pull off the outside stringiness)

Place in food processor.  Peel one large brown onion.  Quarter or halve and place in food processor with celery.  Place in a handful of dried porcini mushrooms.   Place in a fresh sprig of rosemary (destemmed).  Whazz.

Place 3 tbsns of olive oil into a pan (Jamie uses a casserole dish).  Warm through and then add the mix from the food processor.  Fry.  Add 300g of Arborio rice.  Add a glass of white wine.  Stir. Add one veggie or chicken stock cube.  Add a splash of freshly boiled hot water (I reckon half a cup maybe).  Turn down to a medium–low heat.  Stir very well.  You keep doing this for 18-20 mins – adding hot water and stirring well. 

Get 500g of a variety of three mushrooms.  Slice into big chunks. Half will go in the rice now, half will be grilled later.  Add your mushrooms to the rice mixture. Add a little bit more water and stir.  Season lightly with salt and stir.

Place the other half of the mushrooms in a baking tray or something that can withstand grilling.  Season with salt, pepper and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.  Add in some fresh thyme and rosemary and crushed garlic.  Mix it all with your fingers like you are dressing a salad.  Place small nobs of butter in and around the mushrooms.  Put aside for grilling later.

Add some more hot water and stir your risotto well.

At the 15 minute interval Jamie makes a yummy looking desert.  I am going to try and copy this out later and see how I go with it. It is ginger nut and hazelnut base with Crème fraîche and lemon, raspberries and chocolate (drool)

Give the risotto more boiling water and have another stir (make sure it doesn't dry out and stays wet and almost sloppy).

Place your pan of mushrooms into a hot grill.  Jamie leaves this for about 8-10 minutes.  They have to be caramelised and soaked in the garlic, olive oil and pop in your mouth.  Not crunchy and burnt:)  I add some extra olive oil to keep mine ticking over.

At the 21 minute mark Jamie makes a yummy salad.  I gave it a go. It’s very fresh so would go well with the risotto. Pinenut and Sundried Tomato salad.

At about the 23 minute mark, take your risotto off the heat and add a couple of big knobs of butter and grate about 50grams of parmesan to taste.   The risotto must be oozy so add stock or water if needed.  It should be runny and able to fall off the mixing spoon easily. Taste and check if it needs salt or parmesan.   Add a small squeeze of lemon juice.  

Finely chop a handful of parsley and stir through the risotto.   Pop a lid on the dish and leave it for 2-3 minutes.

Serve with more parmesan cheese (if desired) and a scoop of grilled mushrooms on the top.  I added way too many grilled mushrooms. Be warned they taste very strong. You don't need alot.  Enjoy:)

All pictures are taken from Season 1, Episode 8 of Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals.