Masterchef Mushroom Risotto - our attempt

Yes Mr Mel & I are Masterchef tragics, we watch it every night and cook things that catch our eyes. We've tried the pumpkin risotto from Season 1 (delish), and this season: Frangipane Tart (lovely but I'm proving to be pastry challenged), Pork Ribs (finger licking good).

Last weekend we tried our hands at one of the Master Class recipes, George's Risotto with Wild Mushrooms & Mushroom Powder, altho we didn't make the mushroom powder.

Here in our small country town the mushroom selection isn't huge, altho since Masterchef came along, have noticed alot more range in the fresh produce. The recipe asked for :

Slippery Jacks - we replaced with Swiss Brown
Pine Mushrooms - we replaced with big field mushies
Swiss Brown - we had, yay
Nameko - replaced with Buttons
Oyster - replaced with Shitake
Enoki - we had

We also made the mushie stock from scratch, we had to replace the Madeira (noone in town stocks it) with a liqueur Verdelho we had. The stock was really intense after it was reduced, very strong flavour, but I think it was worth the effort, plus I've never made stock before, so it was good to do it. We've frozen the left over to use with couscous/polenta.

We didn't have Carnaroli rice, so substituted with Arborio.

I really enjoy the process of risotto, it's good meditating time, just adding stock, agitating away for an hour or so.

The risotto was lovely and creamy, with a good gutsy flavour, the mushrooms for the most part were very tasty. Have to say the Enoki mushrooms were nothing special, if anything they were a negative in the dish, found their texture offputting, and their flavour wasn't anything to write home about.

Next time I'd definitely use less butter, G & G seem to love it, the mushies were swimming

Both Mr Mel & I agreed, we liked the pumpkin one better, we wouldn't rush back to cook this one again, but I liked the stock, so will probably make that again.

Oh and we had a go at making Scones too, the less said about that the better (think flat little round bread rolls!)

Till next time,