Mushroom Risotto #Ina Friday

I have no salt at home. I have been planning to buy some for a while, but somehow it is escaping me. How do I run out of salt you ask?

Well, to stretch a short story long, I keep my pantry double stocked. Always. Which means I always stock up on everything. That includes salt. I always have one bottle extra when I open a new one and I immediately replace it. Sometimes, it means I buy too many. And then, at others, I get mixed up thinking I have it in the pantry when in reality I have run out.

But because I tend to be such a forgetful person, I have a back up even for that. I stash away little bottles of non perishable stuff in tiny bottles that I dig out at such times. So I dig out one such tiny bottle with about 2 tbs worth of salt in it. By this time, ‘I have run out of salt’ has been repeated so many times that it is now seared in my brain. I don’t even have to put it down on my list.

Which is a good thing because while I didn’t have quite a few ingredients that could possibly be replaced, this risotto recipe could not really do without salt. This is a quick Ina Garten recipe, which I picked because I love mushrooms, love risotto, it’s quick to make, and I figured I could make, click pictures, eat and post, all in a day’s time (not really, turns out I couldn’t). My little one was home sick, so it also looked like the perfect lunch recipe, but a quick one at the same time so that I could finish up my pile of (office) work for the day as well (which I did).

However, keeping in mind the ingredient restrictions that I had, I made some drastic changes.

For the original recipe, please click here. For my ~~mauled~~ adapted recipe please keep reading.

This recipe calls for wild mushrooms, which unfortunately I didn’t have. But I did have lots of button mushrooms, so I used that instead. Also, I skipped the wine part completely and went with the chicken stock. My son’s bowl had lots of parmesan, mine had none. But the biggest change was that I replaced pancetta with ground pork.

I don’t know how much the taste would differ from the real one, but this came out pretty good.

It even passed the most difficult test with flying colors….

I added a generous dollop of saffron strands and that not only gave a great color, but also gave an awesome aromatic flavor.

add shallots, spring onions in butter

Now add ground meat

Add mushrooms

Add paprika

Add rice

Add saffron strands

add chicken stock

4.5 from 2 reviews

Mushroom Risotto

Author: adapted from Ina Garten's wild mushroom risotto

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
½ cup ground pork (or chicken)
2 cups mushrooms of your choice
2 tbsp butter
½ cup chopped shallots
½ cup chopped spring onions
½ tsp paprika
3 cups chicken stock
fresh cracked black pepper
½ cup parmesan cheese

Instructions

Wipe the mushrooms clean and cut them into halved or quarters
Heat butter and saute shallots. Add spring onions.
Add the mushrooms and toss around for 2 minutes.
Add ground meat
Stir well and cook till mushrooms get a glaze and the meat looks browned.
Put in paprika and salt.
Add rice, stir some more
Pour in chicken stock.
Bring to a boil and then cook the rice for 20-30 minutes till done. You can add a bit more stock to make it a bit more mushy.
Add cracked pepper and parmesan cheese (optional)
Serve hot