MEATLESS MONDAY- MUSHROOM RISOTTO

3/6/2013

How was your weekend? For me it was happy feasting!

We celebrated my sister-in-law, Evon's birthday on Friday night at the Big Tree Lin Kee Restaurant. Its speciality was Steamed Fish Head.  We ordered the Steamed Fish head with extra chilies to kickstart the weekend!  

On Saturday, we attended to a cousin's son wedding dinner at the Jumbo Restaurant at Kampong Pandan.  The parking at this place was really terrible- Not only are there not enough parking spaces for the 2 restaurants at the same venue and  you can imagine the traffic jam  if there were 3 or 4 wedding dinners being held at these venue at the same time! They make use of the parking spaces under the highway and surrounding areas too!  Besides the parking woes, the food is mediocre- the only dish that I liked that night was the Steamed Tiger prawns in Ginseng soup- succulent and fresh and the soup was delicious.

While cleaning the fridge on Sunday, I discovered that I still had some dried porcini mushrooms and a packet of Mushroom Risotto which I bought from Melbourne.  By the way, I did throw away a few bottles and packets -all passed their expiry date. It was a waste of money and time (occupying the space in the fridge for so long!)  I once again pledge to myself that I will not buy unnecessary- which is always easier say than done! sign! ):

So it is Meatless Monday- Mushroom Risotto. Ingredients: packet of Mushroom Risotto rice, dried porcini mushroom and fresh brown mushroom, the remaining bottle of white wine (actually only about 1/2 cup left); salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

  

Saute diced onions with butter and olive oil till soft, add minced garlic and rice. Mix rice well before adding the white wine before adding  chicken stock (today I used hot water only). Add a ladle of liquid at a time, making sure water is absorbed before adding the next ladle.    

Add the fresh mushroom just before the rice is thoroughly cooked. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately.
A cube of butter is normally added to finish the dish but I omitted this-too fattening!

Serve with grated parmesan cheese and blanched brocolli and lettuce.

I baked this Marble Butter Cake on Saturday and the cake was a bit dry after tasting on Saturday. However  I am surprise that the cake became soft and more moist by Monday!  

The basic ingredients: 225 gm salted butter, 225 gm self-raising flour, 225 gm caster sugar (I used only 180 gm); 4 eggs, 1/2 cup buttermilk ( as I did not have buttermilk, I used 125 gm sour cream + about 1/4 cup milk) vanilla extract; 2 tablespoon cocoa powder.  Basic creaming method of butter and sugar and eggs are added one at a time before adding the flour. 

I baked another one- adding about 4 tablespoon of green tea powder (the leftover bit of green tea powder instead of cocoa powder) and it became a pretty GREEN TEA BUTTER CAKE too!    

Enjoy the rest of the week!