saffron mushroom risotto

I recently came into a large bag of spices from Egypt thanks to my coworker, who got them from a friend and thought I would get more use out of it since I, "make a lot of that vegetarian stuff". I'm not exactly sure what everything is (guesses in comments are welcome, as is coming over to my house and sniffing for yourself). Saffron is something I never buy because it's expensive, so I was excited to try out my usual risotto recipe with a new spice. Since the vegetables get stirred in at the very last few minutes of cooking the dish, its easy to make a couple different versions at once. James had his with green peas, which is why I'm tagging this as 'james approved' when my version has *gasp* mushrooms. I also like to make a version using sweet potatoes and lots of rosemary. Risotto is just cheesy rice, so the possibilities of what you can add are endless. Keep in mind this takes awhile to make, so its not a good rush dinner choice.

1 1/2 cups arborio rice
4 cups vegetable stock
one small onion chopped
2tb butter or olive oil
pinch of saffron (about 1/4 tsp)
mushrooms or other vegetables (for my half portion I used about 5-6 cooking mushrooms and 1 cup of green peas for the other half)
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Heat vegetable stock in saucepan on low heat until simmering.

In a large frying pan or saucepan melt butter (or add olive oil) and cook onion on low heat until clear

Add arborio and saffron stirring so butter coats all the rice. Allow to cook for a few minutes.

Add about 1/2 cup of vegetable stock and stir until the liquid is totally absorbed by the rice. Repeat process until you've used up your vegetable stock and rice is soft but not mushy. I taste it before every new addition of stock just to keep track. If at the very end you run out of stock and the rice is not quite done, you can always use hot water.

This process will take about 20-30 minutes so now is a good time to call you Mom, put on some record you haven't listen to in a long time, or master the art of reading and stirring (not recommended if it's a library book and you are a messy chef).

While rice is busy absorbing you can cook your vegetables in a separate frying pan. I sauteed the mushrooms with a couple cloves of chopped garlic and a little olive oil.

Once rice is finished cooking, stir in your vegetables and cheese. You may want to add some salt or pepper to taste depending on which vegetable stock you buy.

If you end up with leftovers, consider yourself lucky. You'll see why in the next post...