What's Cooking With Dive? Another Sweary Risotto

Hokay … Mark keeps asking for more cookery posts but I've not really got time to do much at the moment so to tide him over, here's yet another risotto (I'm gonna keep on posting risottos until the Yanks learn how to pronounce the word correctly) which I just made after spending the day putting up shelves in the gym.

Today, it's Squealy Piggy And Silly Mushroom Risotto.

Here's the piggy.
You know the drill: Local … Organic … Free range.
This is tenderloin from a local farm where the pigs are given free run of a huge deciduous wood and root amongst acorns, wild garlic, pignuts and herbs. It is my favourite place for pork; the flavour and texture of the meat is simply awesome.

And here are the silly mushrooms: Today I'm using yellow oysters, plus ほんしめじ andしろしめじ mushrooms (all locally grown and organic).
Sainsbury's do a non-organic "Taste The Difference" selection like this but I can get them cheaper, MUCH fresher and of course organic from the mushroom farm.
Flavour, people … FLAVOUR!

Right!
Pinnies on.
Let's get cooking.

First up:
Slice up that yummy tenderloin into greedy bite-sized pieces and whop 'em in a red hot pan.
Slap!
Sizzle!
Yay!
Brown those suckers off.

Here's yet another reason (as if you need another one apart from taste, texture, health and animal welfare) for always using organic: try this with factory-produced industrial/chemical "pork" and all you'll get is a panful of bubbling water with some icky little bits of "meat" floating in it and … er … not going brown.

Not only was this piggy allowed a fun life in the wild woods but it was not pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics, fed on the bits of other animals we deem unfit to eat and killed at six weeks old; this merry little porker took six months of squealing and rooting and running free to reach the same size as an industrial/chemical piglet (poor little fuckers) and got to eat what it damned-well pleased.

And after it was slaughtered, it was not pumped full of water to bulk up its weight for profiteering supermarkets (anyone idiotic enough to buy "meat" from a supermarket deserves a fucking hard slap around the head on top of all the health problems they'll be storing up for themselves).

Hence: Slap an organic piggy in the pan and it browns properly, rather than just sits there and boils in a kind of unpleasant scummy water.

When it's done, slip it onto a plate and then pour a generous glass of good chardonnay into the pan to de-glaze it.

Scrub the wine around until it picks up all of that delicious brown porky-flavour and - when the pan is clean - pour the whole lot into your stock (for which, see many sweary imprecations in past posts and in particular this post on stock-making).

Righto … Whap that pan back on the heat.
Good.
Next - as always - top-bollocks olive oil; I'm using my favourite Gallo "Grande Escolha" as the intensity will complement the richness of the piggy and mushroom flavours.
Sploosh a good load in there and whap the heat up.
When it's hot enough, throw in a rough-chopped strong organic onion and a couple of cloves of the best garlic money can buy, then stir it around and reduce the heat to minimum so that lot sweats out for a couple of minutes.

When that's done, add your organic Arborio rice and hit the heat again, mixing the whole lot well so that every grain is coated in the hot, aromatic oil.

You know what's coming:
Olfactory Orgasm Time! Woohoo!
Add another generous glass of totally excellent chardonnay and a handful of roughly torn basil leaves …
Stir …
I N H A L E …
If that isn't one of the finest experiences in the known universe then I'm Rush fucking Limbaugh.

Hokay; we've done risotto enough times now for everyone to know all about adding the glorious home-made stock a sploosh at a time, allowing each beautiful spoonful to soak right into the rice until it begins to get gloopy.
The wine and pork-browning from earlier will make this particular risotto a nice comforting autumnal brown. Mmmmmmmm …

When you've only got around a cup of stock left, toss in the guppins.
Browned pork and mushrooms.
Yum!

Slowly add the rest of the stock and wait for the Magic Gloopy Moment™ when it's time to add a tablespoon of white truffle oil (fuck me! Can you smell that?) turn off the heat, finely grate a heap of organic Parmesan in there, stir it around and then LEAVE IT for a minute or two to do its sex thang.

While it's doing that, avert your eyes in a decorous manner and rip the shit out of the herbs on the windowsill to make a garnish.

Plate it up.
Roughly grate some more Parmesan on top.
Garnish.

Eat the fucker.

Squealy piggy and silly mushroom risotto.
Enjoy.
I know I did.
And now I'm enjoying the aftertaste with some more wine.
Mmmmmmmmm …