Roasted Garlic, Shallot and Mushroom Risotto

This is  variant of the butternut squash risotto I've made for years. I made it using the cooking liquid from a venison pot roast but it is equally as tasty when using chicken or vegetable stock.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic

5 Shallots

1 lb small cremini mushrooms

2 Cups Arborio Rice

1 Qt Homemade Low Salt Vegetable Broth

3/4 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay)

1/2 lb Gruyere Cheese

4 Tbsp light butter

* Olive Oil

* Salt

* Black pepper

Tools:

Oven Safe baking dish

6 - 8 qt stock pot with lid

2 qt saucepan 

Preparation: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Rough chop shallots into 3/4" chunks and crush/peel garlic. In a baking dish, add a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper. Put in the oven and roast until it has started to brown. (approx 15 minutes). Feel free to use the broiler at the end for 2 - 3 minutes to finish. 

In a 2 qt saucepan bring vegetable broth with salt to a boil. 

In the stock pot, melt butter and add rice mixing well. Season the rice with salt and pepper and stir until well incorporated.  Spread rice around the edges and add wine again mixing well. Using a small ladle (4oz) add 2 ladles of boiling broth to the rice mixture. 

Repeat this process once the liquid has mixed in and boiled down until half of the stock has been added.  Rough chop the cremini mushrooms into quarters or halves depending on size and add to the pot with the roasted shallots and garlic (chop if necessary) mixing well.  Continue to add broth in the same increments until all broth has been mixed in with the rice. 

Using a fine blade food processor, grind up Gruyere cheese until it is almost a powder and mix in with the risotto. 

At this point, the mixture needs to simply cook until the rice is no longer crunchy being stirred frequently to ensure that all of the cooking liquid has been incorporated in. 

Serving

This serves 6 with roughly 1 cup of cooked per serving. 

For an added kick, dice up bacon or prosciutto and fry until crispy topping risotto with some crunch. 

Arancini Pork Casserole

This is a less healthy variant of https://www.skinnytaste.com/sicilian-rice-ball-casserole/ 

Ingredients:
1 Qt Joe's Homemade Pasta Sauce

1/2 Medium Red Onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 Cauliflower

2 Cups uncooked Jasmati Rice

1 Qt Homemade Low Salt Vegetable Broth

3/4 lbs Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese grated

1/2 cup Progresso Italian Style Breadcrumbs

5 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 whole egg

1 egg white

1 lb Ground Pork

* Olive Oil

* Cooking Spray

* Salt

* Black pepper

* Garlic Powder

* Dry Basil

Tools:

13x9 Oven safe casserole dish

Small oven safe dish (for roasting cauliflower)

Large skillet for pork

2 qt saucepan 

Preparation: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small oven save dish, add olive oil, cauliflower, salt and pepper. Put in the oven and roast until it has started to brown. 

In a 2 qt saucepan bring vegetable broth with salt to a boil. Add 2 cups of jasmati rice, cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. 

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Dice onion and mince garlic, add to skillet with salt & pepper. While cooking, flatten out pork and season with salt, pepper, garlic and basil and fold into the ends over. Once the onion/garlic mix has become fragrant and starts to become translucent, spread to the outside of the skillet and add pork breaking up as it browns on one side. Once cooked through and broken up into small pieces (think taco meat) add enough sauce to mix through but not cover the pork. Cover with a lid leaving partially open and reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix together Parmesan cheese, egg, egg white, and cooked rice with about 1 pint of sauce. Mix thoroughly until well incorporated and set aside. 

Prepare oven safe casserole dish by spraying all sides and adding 1/4 cup of the breadcrumbs, spreading around until all sides of the dish are coated in breadcrumb. Add a 1/2" layer of the rice mixture, cover with pork combined with chopped cauliflower.  Add 1/4 lb of grated mozzarella then cover with another 1/2" layer of rice mixture. 

Top with remaining 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs and remaining mozzarella cheese. 

Bake in oven for 30 - 45 minutes until breadcrumbs have toasted and cheese has melted with a good crust. 

Serving: 

Remove from oven and serve in squares as you would lasagna.