Oxford SlowFoodStudent

Serves 1

Requires one or two hobs

For the mushrooms

· Oil (about 2 tsp)

· 200g fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced

· ½-1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped/ crushed

· The leaves from 4-5 stalks of fresh thyme, finely chopped

· A squeeze of lemon juice

· 4-5 stalks of fresh parsley, chopped

· Salt and pepper

For the risotto base

· Oil (about 1 tsp)

· Half an onion, finely chopped

· 1-2 sticks of celery, finely chopped

· Salt and pepper

· 100g Arborio rice

· 50ml white wine

· About half a small saucepan of stock or water

· 15-20g grated parmesan

Method

First cook the mushrooms:

¨ Heat the oil in a large saucepan or frying pan on a medium heat.

¨ Add the mushrooms with a sprinkle of salt, stir to coat in the oil, and cook for about a minute, stirring regularly to keep them moving without sticking and cooking evenly.

¨ Tip in the garlic and thyme, and continue to cook for a couple minutes, stirring regularly. By now a lot of moisture will have come out of the mushrooms and they should be quite soft and almost cooked.

¨ Add the parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice, a bit more salt and some pepper if you want, stir, and now they should be ready. You can tell if you taste one- it shouldn’t be chewy and be soft but hopefully with some bite and not completely soggy. There will be some liquid, which you can drain off and use in the stock for the risotto base.

¨ Leave the cooked mushrooms to one side.

Now heat the stock/ water:

¨ Bring it to the boil on a hot hob and then turn down the heat to low enough to keep it hot or simmering

If you’re using an electric hob, the hot hob will be useful in the next stage, so you don’t have to turn the temperature down till after then. It’ll take a long time for the hob to cool anyway, so if the stock is boiling too fiercely just keep taking it on and off the heat so it’s just kept hot.

If you only have one hob you could probably boil about half a litre of water in the kettle instead, and just use it from there as you need it.

And now it’s time to make the final thing!

¨ Heat the oil on a medium heat

¨ Add the onion and celery, with a small shake of salt (to draw out the moisture) and some pepper, and stir.

¨ Cover and sweat for 10-15 mins, until soft, stirring occasionally to check they’re not sticking or burning (you can never tell how hot these college hobs are going to get!)

¨ Now, for a short time you want the temperature increased a bit, so with gas, turn up the heat of the hob you’re using, or with electric, transfer the pan to the hot hob which has the stock on, (just move the stock off it for a bit).

¨ Add the rice to the pan, and stir to coat in the oil and vegetables. With the heat, it should sizzle and the grains will go a bit translucent.

¨ Tip in the wine, which will also sizzle and will evaporate a bit and bubble and be absorbed into the rice.

¨ Transfer the pan back to the medium temperature and tip a small ladleful of the hot stock/ water in (or one quick slosh from the pan). It should quite quickly reach a highish simmer, which is what you want. Stir continually, and the liquid will be absorbed into the rice.

¨ When all the first ladle of stock has been absorbed, add another, and you can add about half of the mushrooms now if you want.

¨ From when you added the first ladle of stock, the rice should take about about 15 mins to cook. You need to stir it the whole time, and keep adding small amounts of stock once the previous lot has all been absorbed.

¨ After about 15 mins, the rice should be creamy, thick and soft but still with a bit of bite.

¨ Stir in the rest of the mushrooms followed by some/ all of the parmesan, and that’s it!

Sorry, this seems like a lot of instructions, but it’s really straightforward when you’re actually doing it!