A dish that we always love cooking in our household and that even all the kids seem to like is a risotto, and whilst bacon and sun-dried tomato and chicken risotto are always popular, interestingly this shiitake mushroom risotto is a big hit too!
This tasty shiitake mushroom risotto is delicious as any time of year, but in chilly January it’s definitely a great comforting dish, full of warmth and earthy flavour. This recipe feeds our family of 5 comfortably, often with a bit leftover.
You will need these ingredients for your shiitake mushroom risotto:
- 1.5 Onions (white)
- 2 Crushed garlic cloves
- 500g Arborio rice
- 65g dried shiitake mushroom
- 2 glasses of white wine
- 1.6 litres chicken stock (but prepare to top up as needed)
- Course black pepper
- 2 or 3 knobs of butter
- 80g grated parmesan cheese
- Teaspoon of truffle oil (optional, M&S does a cracking one!)
- Half a tablespoon of dried thyme/ few sprigs of thyme
Method:
- Firstly, whilst you’re starting to prep the rest of your ingredients for the shiitake mushroom risotto, you should rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms in 500ml of boiling water and leave for 40 minutes. Once the mushrooms have softened, remove from the water (keeping the stock) and then squeeze out any excess liquid, pat dry with a paper towel and roughly chop and set aside. The above is how to prepare shiitake mushrooms for risotto, although others might do things a bit differently.
- Heat a few glugs of olive oil in a large heavy based pan or skillet (that’s what we use), on a medium to high heat. Once hot, add the shiitake mushrooms and fry for 5-8 minutes or until golden, before adding the chopped garlic for the final minute. Transfer the mushrooms to a dish as these will be use in the risotto later.
- In the same pan, fry off your onion with the knobs of butter, add salt and a generous grind or two of coarse black pepper. Stir until the onion is softened then tip in the risotto rice along with the glasses of wine. Turn up the heat and let the liquid reduce down until absorbed, then holding a sieve over your pan, pour in the reserved mushroom stock. This will catch any mushroom sediment.
- Add your dried thyme, a little at a time as it can be quite a strong flavour, so taste as you go. Turn the heat to medium and let the stock cook down till mostly absorbed, keeping on stirring the rice so it remains loose and creamy, and doesn’t stick to the pan. Then add the chicken stock bit by bit, add approximately half a cup or so at a time and again cook through until mostly absorbed stirring all the while. Repeat this process until the risotto rice is cooked through.
- Towards the end of cooking return the shiitake mushrooms to the pan and stir through until warm. Turn off the heat and add the parmesan cheese (plus truffle oil if you’d like), mixing until the cheese is melted.
Serve and enjoy! This shiitake mushroom risotto is definitely one of my favourite meals to make, and will be on the meal plan over the next couple of months!
Like this Shiitake mushroom risotto recipe? See some more of my recipes here!
