This plate of rich risotto, morels, asparagus and cream chive sauce actually takes less than 30 minutes if you get the timing right. Also note that this is the first vegetarian dish featured here. I used the fresh stuff I got from the farmer’s market this weekend.
You can follow Simmerstock’s recipe or this lemony mushroom risotto from Epicurious. Cooking risotto while sauteing the mushrooms and preparing the other ingredients is a great way to sharpen your cooking prowess. Risotto requires constant attention and frequent stirring, but at $32 a pound, you don’t want to wander from your morels either. But I need to be honest with my readers, I used a boxed risotto. You still need to keep an eye on it and stir it once in a while, but it only took twenty minutes.
Packaged Risotto or ingredients from above recipes
At least 3 large morels, and 4-5 smaller ones
3-4 ozs of mixed mushrooms - oysters, shitakes, or other woodsy shrooms
3-4 sprigs of fresh chives, I used some asian flat leaf chives.
1 T goat cheese
2 baby leeks
6-7 asparagus tips
2 shallots
heavy cream
butter
While cooking the risotto, saute the other mushrooms in some butter, with a chopped shallot. When the shrooms are brown, deglaze the pan with some sherry, add some chopped chives. In a separate pan, boil some chopped leeks for about 40 seconds. Add to the mushrooms, add a tablespoon of goat cheese and mince in a food processor.
You’ll need some big morels if you want to properly stuff them, plus some smaller ones for garnish. I had three big morels and four or five small ones. I cut the stems off and sliced the small ones lengthwise.
Saute all the morels in plenty of butter and add some more chopped chives, than whisk in some cream. After a minute remove the morels from the sauce, shaking off the excess. Stuff the big morels with the minced shrooms mixture, leaving a big dollop overflowing at the top. Lay on a cooking sheet or pan and lightly broil until the stuffing on top browns. Don’t burn the morels! Or you can do like the restaurants and cheat - put a few dollops of stuffing on a sheet of tin foil, put it under the broiler and when its brown, take them out and stick them on the top of your morels.
Boil the asparagus tips in a bit of rice wine and more chives, just until tender. Slice some leeks thinly and throw in the boiling liquid for about twenty seconds.
Plate everything - first put a pile of risotto in the center of the plate, arrange the asparagus tips and slices of morels around the pile. Put the stuffed morels on the pile of risotto. Drizzle the cream sauce over everything and drape the thinly sliced leeks on top of the pile.