IMBB #24 - a quick fix

I came home fully planning to make stuffed red onions, a recipe from Pille - but when I got home from the store, it was 7.30 pm and I was hungry. So, plan B. Which incidentally happens to fit very well with this month's edition of Is My Blog Burning - "Make It in 30 Minutes!" Excellent theme, hosted by Too Many Chefs. I was going to enter anyway, and 30 minutes was reall all I could take before completely starving to death. (That's how it felt, anyway.) So, what to make..?

I decided on a risotto with mushrooms and broad beans, flavored with marsala and mascarpone. To go with this, I cooked up some steak, and fried a couple of left over slices of halloumi, that gorgeous squidgy cheese. The meal took exactly 30 minutes! Ok, and two extra minutes for the photography - but that was optional.

I'm only giving the recipe for the risotto, because you all know how to cook a steak the way you like it, and the halloumi - well, just fry it in a bit of olive oil until it's brown all over. Season with some dried chili flakes, and you're good to go. The key to this meal, time-wise, is to prepare stuff as you go. Start with the risotto basics - stock, onion and garlic - and you can do the rest while it's cooking.

Mushroom Broad Bean Risotto with Mascarpone and Marsala
Serves two, generously

olive oil
butter
150 g arborio rice
50 ml marsala wine
1 litre of chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
1 yellow onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
200 g fresh button mushrooms, in pieces
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese
100 g shelled baby broad beans
handful of parmesan
salt
white pepper

If you're using fresh beans, you need to blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water. I'm using frozen beans that I just zap in the microwave, then peel to get the bright green "inner" bean.

Start by melting the butter and the oil, and frying the onion and garlic in this. Bring the stock to a boil. Add the rice to the onion, and let fry for a couple of minutes, until lightly browned. Add the marsala, and stir while it all evaporates. Make sure your pot is on high heat, or it will take way longer to evaporate.

Then proceed as usual, adding the stock one ladle at a time. Stir more or less constantly, and let the stock slowly melt into the rice. As soon as it looks dry, add more stock. Add the mushrooms after ten minutes. Keep tasting - it'll take about 20 minutes in total. You might not use all the stock, and you might need more (just use hot water).

When it's pretty much done, stir in the mascarpone, the parmesan and the broad beans, and if needed add salt and some ground white pepper.

Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes

Champinjonrisotto med bondbönor, marsala och mascarpone