Brown Rice and Arborio Risotto (with chicken breast fillet, leeks, red spinach and porcini mushroom)
Risotto is one of those things that you can make at home better than most restaurant can.
Do not make the flavours too complicated, as one of the wonderful about this dish is its simplicity.
There are a few important things to remember when making risotto, use arborio, carnaroli or nano rice.
I mixed arborio and brown nano rice in this recipe. I also used organic red spinach from my garden.
Ingredients:
-500 grams chicken breast fillet
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-2 tablespoons butter
-1 large leek or 2 small leeks
-1 garlic clove, finely chop
-1 small sachet of dried porcini mushroom
-1 bunch red spinach
-1 cup arborio rice
-1/2 cup brown nano rice
-1 1/2 litres chicken stock
-200 ml white wine (optional)
-25 grams grated Parmesan or Pecorino, plus extra to serve (optional)
Method:
Put the chicken stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil and keep warm.
Soak dried porcini mushroom with 1/2 cup of hot water.
Cube the chicken about 1 cm size pieces and seasons with sea salt and pepper.
Wash the leeks thoroughly and use only the white part as the green part will taste bitter. Cut the leeks into thinly slices.
Heat a saucepan, add the olive oil, then put in the leeks and garlic. Pan fry for approximatelly 1 to 2 minutes until translucent then add the rice and chicken and keep stirring for 3 minutes, or until the starch starts to come out of the rice. The rice will start to stick and become opaque.
If you choose to use white wine: add white wine and simmer, stirring constantly until the wine has been completely reduced.
Add the soak porcini mushroom.
Add the just-below-boiling chicken stock to the rice mixture one ladle at a time. Add enough stock to cover the rice and simmer slowly, stirring occasionally. As the rice absorbs the stock, add more to keep it moist, but do not drown the rice. If you do, the risotto will lose some of its untuous quality, but if it is too dry it will stick and loose the creaminess of the finished dish. It is important to continue stirring at this early stage or the rice will sink to the bottom and stick.
After 15 to 18 minutes most of the stock should be used and the rice tender. Add spinach, along with the cheese, butter and any remaining stock.
Cover, remove from the heat and rest for 2 minutes.
Sprinkle with cracked pepper, olive oil, grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese.
Serve immediately and serves 4.
