A couple weeks ago, they announced over at Marx Foods that they were going to start a recipe challenge. They’d choose a dozen or so people from those who responded to the post, send out some dried morel mushroom samples, and then put the recipes submitted up for a vote. The winner gets two pounds of fresh morel mushrooms.

Naturally, being the stalker-type I am, I had to get in on this, especially since I still had the wild rice sample they sent me last month. I hadn’t yet figured out what I wanted to do with it, and this seemed like a good opportunity to try making a homemade risotto. I was chosen to participate, and got the morels via FedEx a few days ago. On Friday, we threw some steaks on the grill, and I figured that would be a good time to try my hand at this risotto thing.

The thing with me is that I rarely use recipes unless I’m baking (and even then it can be iffy.) I just don’t do a cup of this and a teaspoon of that. So what follows isn’t a recipe so much as it is a guideline. I’m a pretty simple person, and I live in a small town where exotic/extravagant ingredients just aren’t available. So when I make something, I try to make it (mostly) from the things I think most people have in their kitchens already. In this case, obviously, the morel mushrooms are not something I’d normally have. Everything else, though, we tend to have in the house.

First, put the dried mushrooms in a medium-sized bowl of hot water to reconstitute them. It took about 30 minutes for the largest one to fully soften. Do not toss the water!

So, in a skillet:

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

1/2 a medium onion, chopped

enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan

Cook until the garlic is lightly browned and the onion is soft.

Add in about 1½ cups of arborio rice and about ½ cup of broken wild rice. I added in some white wine – maybe a half cup or so – and let it reduce, then added a couple cups of the mushroom water (a trick I learned when I was researching dried mushrooms.) Cook until most of the water is absorbed, then add the mushroom water a cup at a time, letting it absorb before adding more. If you run out of mushroom water, you can use chicken broth or stock.

When the rice is almost tender enough, add in the morels, chopped but kinda chunky. At this point, I put in another half cup or so of water, turned off the heat, and put the lid on the pan. As it sat for the next 15 minutes, it absorbed what was left of the liquid and the rice was a perfect consistency.

Now, I have to admit something. While everyone else in the house loved it (including Emily’s dad, who doesn’t care for rice or mushrooms,) I wasn’t so crazy about it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about the dish just didn’t sit right with me and I was kinda sulky about it, despite compliments from the others.

Anyhow, I don’t expect to win any awards for this dish, particularly given that it’s such a simple one that’s going to compete with some pretty fancy ones.. but when the voting opens up, I’ll put a link up and you guys can go vote for me because you love me even if my risotto doesn’t, right?

Right?

Bueller?