Monday, May 16, 2005

Recipe for Low-Fat Mushroom Risotto (for Genevieve)

Makes 4 Servings

3 cups Fat-free Chicken Broth (plus some water, maybe)
1 cup Arborio Rice
1 large onion (or 2 shallots)
1 pkg sliced mushrooms (or you can slice 'em yourself, but why?)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 splash madeira or marsala
1/4 cup freshly grated parmasan cheese

In a large sauce pan, warm the chicken broth. In a small sauce pan cook the mushrooms until they are tender.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the onions until they are transluscent. Add the rice to the onions and toast the rice (stirring frequently) until it is transluscent with little white spots in the center (about 4 minutes). Over high heat, add one ladleful of chicken broth to the rice and stir constantly until the bottom of the pan looks dry when you move the rice away from it. Continue adding broth ladleful by ladleful, stirring constantly, until the rice is tender with no crunchy bits. This will take 20 to 40 minutes. If you run out of broth before the rice is done, start using warm water. The liquid you add to the risotto must be warm.

Add the mushrooms and the madeira to the rice and stir. Add the cheese and stir until the whole mixture sort of looks like oatmeal.

Serve in bowls with a salad (tomatoes and balsamic vinegar go very well with this.)

HINT: The person who is doing the stirring should NOT be the person who tests the rice for doneness. Trust me on this. You'll end up with crunchy risotto if you don't pay attention to this hint and nobody likes that.

UPDATE: Weight Watchers 3 points a serving.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Thanks so much, Liz!

Yum, can't wait to make it . . . if I can figure out how to stir for 20 minutes or so without the kiddo calling and calling me to go into another room (guess I'll tell him a story while I stir, or do it while he and DH are snuggled up reading or watching a movie).

Liz Miller said...

According to Alton Brown (Good Eats), you can stir frequently instead of constantly.

Mr. Spock tells me he tried this for the last batch and it worked fine. Frequently, according to MS, is at least one VIGOROUS stir every 2 minutes.

Anonymous said...

Frequently sounds good to me!

Ooh, 3 points, even better! Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

What do you cook the mushrooms in? I usually cook them in olive oil, but since that's used elsewhere, perhaps spray-on Pam?

Liz Miller said...

Olive oil, pam or even in the madeira.