Wild Mushroom Risotto

I could be asking one of those “meaning of life questions”, but I really just want to take an opportunity to introduce the people behind Savvy Foodie, and explain how this food blog got started. Let’s start with the “who”. That would be me, Sherée Young, and my husband, Corey. We also have occasional input from our wise family and friends, and even our three children: Chloe, 10, Aiden, 8, and Kellen, 5.

Why? Well, that requires a longer explanation.

When Corey was in dental school, and I was in nursing school, we began to seriously study . . . food. Maybe it was just a nice distraction from anatomy and physiology. Fortunately for us, that was when The Frugal Gourmet was king of PBS, and a man named Emeril Lagasse was teaching everyone how to boil water on a new cable channel called Food TV (later known as The Food Network). There was no lack of information. This was before the internet really took hold. But, at the time, just the food shows on television felt like an avalanche of information. There were ingredients we had never heard of, ethnic cuisines we were dying to try, and techniques that promised to elevate our meals to new heights. So, we started playing with our food.

Years passed and we graduated and pursued careers, but our gastronomic interests continued to grow. We enjoyed cooking for family and friends – trying all kinds of cuisines and methods and ingredients. Eventually, we started our own family. The focus switched to healthy foods that could be prepared quickly with local ingredients. We no longer lived in a large city, and had to make do with a small town grocery store most of the time and occasional trips down to Columbus (Ohio) to stock the pantry. We had good friends and family that liked to cook too, and we often spent Friday nights together cooking for each other. We talked about food and nutrition constantly and helped each other get over those moments of “what to make for dinner”. We gathered to make our own baby food, and shared garden bounty. We had theme dinners: Greek, Lebanese, Italian, Spanish, Indian, etc. It wasn’t a restaurant that gave me my first taste of Spanikopita or Paella; it was in a home kitchen. And it was delicious!

Throughout all this, we enjoyed traveling and eating everywhere we went. We went to Blue Ribbon in New York, Charlie Trotter’s and Topolobampo in Chicago, half the Vegas strip, Delmonico, Spago, Nobu, and more. Each one was such an experience of new flavors and great wines. We came home motivated to recreate the meals and share them with our friends.

As the years passed, more and more people began asking for recipes and tips for putting interesting meals on the table night after night. As my youngest child gets ready for all-day kindergarten, I’m thinking about how I want to spend my time. I realize how much I want to do something with food. I already had a collection of meals on my laptop, ready to email when asked. So, first we decided to put all the recipes on a website. As that grew, I enjoyed writing a little extra about each recipe. And so the Savvy Foodie blog was born.

This brings me to the reason we are here: our food. I want to share my recipe for Mushroom Risotto. It’s the perfect example of the sum being greater than the parts. Something as simple as mushrooms and rice, and yet it will knock your socks off. Risotto is usually made with Arborio rice, an Italian short-grain variety, but any short-grain will do. Hot liquid is added in batches, while gentling stirring the rice. This causes the rice to give up its starch into the liquid. The result is a very creamy rice dish, that doesn’t require any cream. Risotto is cooked al dente, like pasta, so the rice has a bit more bite to it than traditional long-grain rice does.

If you haven’t tried it, here’s the perfect opportunity. It’s a classic (and classy) dish that looks a lot more difficult than it actually is. In 22 minutes, with easy-to-find ingredients, you can make it tonight.

Click here to read more about Wild Mushroom Risotto.