Mushroom & duck liver risotto with truffle oil

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of arborio rice (for 2 portions)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 large shallots/1 large onion
• 1/3 stick of english salted butter (cut into 2 blocks)
• 2 large portobello mushrooms
• 25g of duck liver
• 1.2 litres of chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• salt & pepper
• shaved parmesan cheese
• fistful of parsley
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Method:

Finely chop the garlic and shallots

My choice of lipid is salted butter – heat it (see ingredients list), sauté garlic and shallots over a gentle heat for 3 minutes until soft but not brown

Add the cup of arborio rice and coat it evenly with butter; stir in 1/2 cup of chicken stock and stir (to even out the liquid) ; in fact – i shld tell you right now, this dish is about the stirring action.

Keep the pan at low/medium heat, stir in 1/2 cup or ladleful of chicken stock and stir occasionally to keep it from sticking to the pan (avoid temptation to over-stir, it slows the heat transfer process)

the liquid does get absorbed quite quickly so stir in the next ladleful before it gets too try (or the rice will flake); keep going until all the rice are consistently opaque. The color of the rice gradually darkens as you can tell from the pictures.

meanwhile, prepare the mushrooms – sauté them in half of the remaining butter, season with salt & pepper; in haste, I forgot to photograph the duck livers but i basically followed the same procedures as the mushrooms and set them aside.

stir in the mushrooms & duck livers when the risotto is done; served it with shaved parmesan cheese, dash of lemon juice, parsley and truffle oil.

As you can you tell, my risotto was quite thick and starchy but it can also be served quite soupy and loose like the texture of a thick soup if you like. I also strip the acidity in the dish by not adding alcohol (oh wait, maybe that has to do with me not having white wine/cognac on tap!) but  if you must know, most recipes suggest adding some sort of wine/alcohol to deepen the flavor. I didnt and it’s fine. Not the end of the world, still has all the fireworks.

Actually, almost all the risotto are made with the same basic ingredients and by following the same procedures but with variations. For example, by replacing chicken stock with vegetable stock , this could be a sumptious and divine vegetarian dish. Enjoy.

p.s: am i the only one who thinks my risotto is shaped like the continent of Africa?