Belated anniversary dinner - Shitake Mushroom Risotto

We finally celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. As in the previous year, we were going to celebrate by staying in downtown Winnipeg after going up for Canadian Thanksgiving (Oct. 13). However, with my husband's new job and travel schedule, we weren't able to go.

We finally decided to celebrate Saturday night. We opened a bottle of wine from our honeymoon trip to Napa. It was a 1999 Markham Zinfandel. So amazing! The years had really softened the tannins. We put it in a decanter and let it breathe for about an hour before drinking.

We tried the frozen New Zealand lamb shanks from Costco. They had a mint-rosemary demi-glace. While the serving size said each lamb shank serves two, I find that hard to believe. You just need to realize that this is a splurge dish, as the calories and fat are not low.

Speaking of splurge, I made risotto. Here is my basic recipe.

1. Rehydrate 1 cup shitake mushrooms with 1 cup boiling water. Let sit for 25 minutes.
2. Saute 1 cup onion in 1-2 Tbsp. each of unsalted butter and olive oil (Kirkland extra-virgin). Sprinkle some kosher salt on the onions to draw out the water as they cook. Once they are translucent, add 1 cup arborio rice, saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add 1 can (15 oz + 1 oz water) chicken broth, but add one cup at a time. Cook over medium-low stirring constantly until broth is absorbed. Then add the second cup, doing the same. Your muscles should feel all the stirring. Next time I may try a pressure cooker, no stirring involved!
4. After mushrooms are hydrated, remove with a slotted spoon and saute in a little EVO. Save the leftover mushroom broth, and add that as your 3 cup of liquid for the risottto. My husband doesn't like the mushy texture of mushrooms, so I browned them and salted them a little to draw out more water. Then I chopped them up.
5. Towards the end of cooking, I added the mushrooms and a cube of frozen parsley/olive oil. (read my posts about freezing herbs in oil for cooking). Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. The rice should be al dente, with just a bite to it.

Risotto is comfort food at it's finest, rich and creamy! We served the risotto as our primo piatto, and the lamb as our secondo piatto.

For dessert, I was going to have pane e cioccolata (who knew there was a movie by this name), but instead, we dipped the dark chocolate in Cool Whip. You know my love for Cool Whip!

I was going to grill the bread and melt dark chocolate on it. Had I been thinking, I would have bought some wanton wrappers and Nutella (2-pack at Costco) and tried baked ravioli. The fried are fabulous, but the house smells like frying afterwards. If you ever want to make a dessert to impress, and don't mind frying, this is a good one.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32984,00.html