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. 

Chicken Marsala

Ingredients: 
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup of dry Marsala Wine
1/4 cup of dry Cabernet Sauvignon
1 cup of cremini mushrooms
2 pcs boneless skinless chicken 

* Kosher Salt
* Black pepper
* Flour
Preparation:
Remove stem and slice mushrooms into 1/4" slices and set aside. Season chicken with salt, pepper and coat in flour. 

In a deep walled skillet, mix butter and olive oil together over medium heat until melted. Add chicken to the pan and cook until golden browned / cooked through flipping after about 2 minutes. Add both wines and mushrooms and stir well so that some mushrooms are under the chicken, others are over and the wine coats everything.  Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for about 5 - 7 minutes until the mixture reduces down. 

Serving:
It is recommended to serve this with a side of mashed potatoes (garlic or regular) layering the chicken down first along with the mushrooms and some of the additional sauce. Serves 2. 

Chicken Marengo

This recipe originated from a dinner that I had on the Dandy, a river boat cruise on the Potomac River in Washington DC. My great uncle actually called the chef and had the recipe faxed to my mom. Over the years, I have taken that original base recipe and modified it to taste. 

Ingredients: 
4 pcs thin sliced boneless skinless chicken
OR 
2 pcs of regular chicken breast (approx 3/4 - 1" thick)
1/2 cup Chardonnay (one that you would be willing to actually drink)
28 oz Can of Crushed Tomatoes
1 Large red onion
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

* Kosher Salt
* Black Pepper
* Paprika 
* Garlic Powder

It is recommended to cook this using a large stainless deep skillet: Berghoff Boreal 10-In. Stainless Steel Covered Deep Skillet (Google Affiliate Ad)

Preparation:
Thinly slice the entire onion into 1/8" to 1/4" slices cut in half lengthwise. Heat up a skillet over medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil and add onions and a pinch of salt. Sautee onions until they become translucent. 

In a shallow bowl, mix together the dry spices. Slice chicken into 3/8" or 1/2" strips and coat generously with seasoning until well seasoned. Spread the onions out in the skillet to the edges, add the remaining oil and the chicken to the pan. Mix well until chicken cooks through. 

Spread the chicken and onion mix to the outsides of the pan and deglaze the pan with the Chardonnay.  Add the crushed tomatoes and stir well until well incorporated (may not be all 28 oz of the can), reduce the heat to low and cover.  Stir occasionally and after 5 - 10 minutes of cooking covered, prop the lid open and allow the mixture to reduce. 

Serving:
The serving suggestion for this dish is with brown rice cooked with a small amount of butter and optionally a cooked green vegetable such as green beans. If I recall correctly, the Dandy served this with french cut green beans and sliced almonds but that may be over the top for a during the week dinner. Use a slotted spoon to pile on the chicken including some but not all of the sauce mix. 

Nutrition Information:
This dish can serve between 2 and 4 depending on how much chicken is mixed in. The sauce recipe is the same for the 2 or 4 serving portion of chicken.  In Weight Watchers Points Plus value, this is between 4 and 6 points for the chicken and portion of the sauce. If you add rice, calculate the value of the rice but I find that Carolina Brown rice is 4 points per serving. In total this is a decent portion meal with a fair amount of food for a relatively low point value. 

Coq au vin

This is based on the Coq au vin cooking style from the Melting Pot restaurant. Broth fondue style cooking can be used to cook beef, chicken, shrimp or any other protein you feel like cooking. 

To serve this, it is best done with a fondue pot but any vessel that will keep the liquid just under the boiling threshold to cook the meats. 

Ingredients: 
5 cloves of garlic minced
3 Cremini mushrooms diced
1 14oz can of vegetable broth 
1 can of water (use the broth can)
1 - 1 1/2 cup of Pinot Noir wine

3 - 4 red potatoes washed and quartered 
5 - 6 Cremini mushrooms (whole)

Preparation: 
In a large saucepan, bring to a boil water and broth.  Once boiling, mix in garlic, mushrooms and wine covered until at a boil. Once at a full boil remove from heat and place in fondue pot over high heat. 

Serving: 
This should remain steaming the entire time and be in a slow rolling boil for serving purposes. Meats should be skewered and placed in the liquid for 2 - 3 minutes depending on doneness.  Use a slotted spoon to retrieve potatoes and mushrooms from the liquid (takes about 7 - 10 minutes for these to be fully cooked through)

Serving side suggestions: 
Teriyaki Sauce
Simple and Tasty Barbecue Sauce
Melting Pot style Gorgonzola Port sauce