When the side dishes outshine the main course...

Coming back from France this summer, my mom convinced me that I simply had to take some of the dried wild mushrooms with me. I decided not to complain too much. So I've been trying to create a recipe in which these little treasures would really be able to shine. And for weeks now, I have been biding my time, waiting to create this dish at the perfect moment...which was apparently last night!

Wild Mushroom Risotto

2 shallots, diced or thinly sliced

3 tbls olive oil

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

2/3 cup dry white wine

1 box chicken, beef or vegetable broth

2 portabello mushroom caps

1 package mixed mushrooms (mine had crimini, shitake and oyster mushrooms)

1 container dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes (I had porcini)

3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed and chopped

Salt and Pepper

Handful chopped flat-leaf parsley

A few tbls chopped chives

2/3 cup grated parmesan

Pour the container of broth into a sauce pan and leave over very low heat throughout the process (it needs to stay warm).  Heat a large skillet to medium and saute the shallots in half of the olive oil until just softened, a couple minutes. Add the rice and stir until it begins to become translucent, 3-4 minutes. Pour in the wine and continue to stir until all the wine has been soaked up by the rice. Then add the broth in 1/2 cup increments, allowing the rice to soak up the liquid in between additions. All risotto recipes say this will take about 15-20 minutes; they lie. It will probably around half an hour, but its worth the effort. In the mean time, saute the mushrooms in the other half of the olive oil until cooked through (making sure to keep a close eye on the risotto). When the risotto is creamy and cooked through (taste it--if its soft but still has a slight bite to it, its done), take it off the heat and stir in the parmesan. Then add the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

I also wanted to have a nice fancy salad with the delicious risotto. I mean, it its the meal of the side dishes, right? Now, I normally just dress an herb salad (you can buy a pre-mixed herb salad--it's my FAVORITE) with good olive oil, lemon juice and a lot of salt and pepper, but I wanted to do something a little more special this time. Simple, but special. So here it is!

Beet Salad:

A large handful of herb salad

1 cooked beet, thinly sliced

2 tbls crumbled blue cheese

For Dressing:

2 tbls balsamic vinegar

1 tbls honey

2 tbls olive oil

Salt and pepper

In a bowl, whisk together the balsamic, honey, olive oil and salt and pepper. You can definitely adjust the proportions in this--I didn't actually measure the ingredients for the dressing, so I'm sure you don't need to.  Put half the salad on each plate and arrange the beet slices along the pile of salad. Pour the dressing over the salad and crumble the blue cheese on top. This salad is crazy simple, and CRAZY delicious.

I dont eat much meat and would have been totally fine with just the salad and risotto, but my boyfriend, Matt, generally prefers some meat with a meal. So we just sauteed some chicken sausage in the pan we cooked the mushrooms in. Now, warning, this meal is quite heavy on the clean-up (lots of dishes) but you get a LOT of risotto, so you can just throw it in the microwave for meals for the rest of the week. Happy eating!