Summer will give way to Fall soon, so the mind looks ahead to new delights.
One thing I am looking ahead to: pine mushrooms and native morels. Enjoyed the native morels once last year. Oh My Gawd, so rich in flavor, just a few grams are all you need for a delicious meal. Mushrooms on toast is a nice, simple way, maybe a light sprinkle of herbs.
Last year they were only available for a VERY short period, too much rain or something, drat it! will dream of a kilo of morels, hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I did have French morels a couple of times: they could be imported after the dimpled surface of the morel was blasted with high pressure air to remove the soil. Our native morels? 1000 times better than the French junk!
Soon too will be available: pine mushrooms. These yellow mushrooms DO look a bit unappetising I will admit. They grow in clumps in pine forests and where the cap of one pressed on the gills of another there is an offputting green mark.
Just buy some and cook them. You will love them! Oh yeah, I am a convert, hmm hmm! And the way to cook them? Not delicate and expensive like the morels I would use them in mushroom risottos.
For four, 1L vegetable stock (I suppose you could add a cream of mushroom soup tin to boost mushroom flavor??? Not something I would do, YMMV.) A glass of a nice dry wine, good size piece of butter. Get the stock simmering then melt the butter in a biggish heavy saucepan. When that is all melted and frothing up nicely add the rice, stir stir stir until all the rice is coated with the butter then add the wine all in one go.
Stir stir stir (there ARE some very good stirrers here, n'est–ce pas?) until the wine has bubble bubbled and boiled away/absorbed into the rice.
Add a ladle of the vege stock and, you guessed, stir stir stir. Repeat until the rice is al dente and the stock is absorbed and the rice fluffy.
JUST before that, get the pine ’shrooms sliced and fried till not quite done. Bung into the not-quite-done risotto adding a sprinkling of herbs if you like, stir, serve.
Or put the pine mushrooms on top of the done rissoto—its YOUR meal!
Now there has been a bit of a hullabaloo (or stir
) in the serious cookers of risotto saying they add all the stock at once. OK, I love the ceremony of the serial additions of stock, the stirring etc. Gives me a little bit more control but whatever floats your boat.
Personally, can’t wait!
Mushrooms on toast, mushroom omelette easy counter lunch meals, the risotto can be made to 3/4 done then individual serves cooked to order.
Go visit your fresh produce markets, not disgusting “super” markets. Or visit a farmers market.
If you can find some native morels you will be in heaven!