The Risotto Fiasco
I love food and cooking, I'm pretty good at throwing dishes together, understanding tastes and knowing how different things go together to create a pretty fabulous meal. With all that evidence, it should be pretty simple for me to produce an amazing Risotto, right? Wrong.
I have struggled for years to get the balance right - too much wine, too strong a stock, too many ingredients, too much hope. The list goes on. So I stopped trying. No more stirring continuously, no more adding more stock and no more believing that this time I've got it right. No. I decided that risotto and I weren't made for each other and I, in fact, had bigger fish to fry. I sent the Arborio rice to the back of the cupboard and decided the next time I was going to indulge in a stunning risotto was when I was at another's table enjoying someone else's risotto talent.
So we come to last week. I'm at the home of a beautiful friend of mine who has just arrived in Darwin from Italy with her husband. They have come to Australia and more importantly Darwin, in search of an adventure and a life-changing experience. Interestingly enough, I got one instead.
Paola ushered me into her kitchen and there she gave me a master class in the art of cooking the lightest and creamiest mushroom risotto I've ever tasted. And you know what? It was a lesson in simplicity.
Filled with the joy of that experience and excited about the prospect that at last I had learned 'risotto art', I decided last night to create my own mushroom risotto remembering - or so I thought - the essential steps to make my taste-buds sing, at last...
I won't go into what went wrong because, to be honest, I have no idea. All I know is my porcini and fresh mushroom offering was only fit for the rubbish bin and that's where it has ended up. What else can I say?
I was going to post a photo of my culinary fiasco here, however I decided that it wasn't fit for public consumption. So instead here is one of what a Risotto con Funghi should really look like.
And here for the adventurous folk amongst you is the recipe.
So what is this story really about? Well it's about the fact that it doesn't matter how proficient you are at something, whether it be writing, cooking, sailing or knitting, you always have more to learn. I may never - and I mean that in all probability - master risotto, but I've decided to keep trying. Meanwhile, to keep my spirits up I'll find another dish to learn and master.
Ooh I think I'm onto another story...
