Naked & Wild Rice Risotto
As we have been experimenting with using whole Naked Oat groats in rice form, we have found that risottos work particularly well. The method of roasting the rice with onions and butter before adding liquid brings out an amazing nutty flavour, and adding vegetables makes for a nice one-pot meal, or a side dish if you’re planning somewhat of a fancier affair.
Sundried Tomato Variation
Combine the stock and water in a pot and bring to a boil. It needs to be kept hot until it is added to the rice.
Sautee the onions and garlic with the butter over medium heat.
When the onions are soft, add the Naked & Wild Rice Blend and continue to sautee for several minutes, until some of the oat 'rice' begins to brown and they acquire a toasted aroma.
Stir in the tomatoes.
Add the wine and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed by the rice.
Now start adding the hot stock. Most recipes recommend adding just one ladle at a time. I rushed this a bit by stirring in half a cup at a time and it seemed to work fine, but i'm no expert on the whole risotto thing. Apparently it's important to allow the stock to be mainly absorbed by the rice before adding the next amount, never letting the stock entirely dry up, but getting close each time. Again, others might have improvements on this technique, but even my half-diligent method seemed to work out nicely 🙂
Continue adding stock until the rice is tender. Depending on your stovetop temperature you may need to adjust the liquid somewhat - adding more boiling water or stock.
Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the parmesan and parsley, leaving some extra for garnish on the top.
This makes a great side dish to serve with meat, or just enjoy it on it's own!
Morel Mushroom Variation
As i've been making this risotto a pile over the past few years, i've gotten more adventurous and less recipe-bound. So the other day I had a morel bonanza on my hand, and substituted a few things here and there. I can't say that I measured anything, or even looked at the original recipe, but from my best guess, this is probably how it went down.
Replace the sundried tomatoes with about 1 cup chopped mushrooms. I used wild harvested morels, which was amazing (in part because of the magic of finding food on the ground) but I imagine that other types would work as well. I added the mushrooms about 5 minutes before the risotto was done cooking, but if you were using dried mushrooms you'd probably want to toss them in earlier.
I also steamed about 2 cups of broccoli and added them to the mix just before serving. You could probably add the broccoli raw, but I'm not a huge fan of overcooked greens, so didn't want to take the chance.
I left out the parsley, but added some thyme and oregano instead.
Yum.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the stock and water in a pot and bring to a boil. It needs to be kept hot until it is added to the rice.
Sautee the onions and garlic with the butter over medium heat.
When the onions are soft, add the Naked & Wild Rice Blend and continue to sautee for several minutes, until some of the oat 'rice' begins to brown and they acquire a toasted aroma.
Stir in the tomatoes.
Add the wine and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed by the rice.
Now start adding the hot stock. Most recipes recommend adding just one ladle at a time. I rushed this a bit by stirring in half a cup at a time and it seemed to work fine, but i'm no expert on the whole risotto thing. Apparently it's important to allow the stock to be mainly absorbed by the rice before adding the next amount, never letting the stock entirely dry up, but getting close each time. Again, others might have improvements on this technique, but even my half-diligent method seemed to work out nicely 🙂
Continue adding stock until the rice is tender. Depending on your stovetop temperature you may need to adjust the liquid somewhat - adding more boiling water or stock.
Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the parmesan and parsley, leaving some extra for garnish on the top.
This makes a great side dish to serve with meat, or just enjoy it on it's own!