Roasted Pepper and Chestnut Risotto

Ever since I first made risotto back in May, my wife and I always look forward to this delidious and creamy dish. I coined the term "Conference Call Risotto" when I crafted the way I make risotto back in May, and since then only have made it once more in late December, when I made Butternut Squash Risotto. Today, I took advantage of some nicely packaged roasted chestnuts I found at Trader Joe's.

I recently purchased some dried porcini mushrooms - I can't remember ever reconstituting dried mushrooms (in fact, I have some dried Brazilian mushrooms sitting in my refrigerator that I should now use), but tried it today and it worked great! I simply soaked the mushrooms in hot tap water and white wine for about 20 minutes till they were softened. Then I poured the liquid through two layers of paper towel to trap any particles and save the mushroom liquid, and gently squeezed the mushroom pieces.

As described in making my Conference Call Risotto, I used a 6 ounce container of soy yogurt as my unit of measurement. I prepared about 3 1/2 units of vegetable broth and mushroom liquid. I chopped into a medium dice about a third of a medium onion, a fifth of an elephant garlic bulb, and a small shallot and, in a heavy nonstick pot, sauteed the onion, garlic, and shallot for a few minutes till they were becoming clear, then added the mushroom for another minute or so.

Next, I added a unit of arborio rice and stirred till the rice was mostly clear and not white, maybe two minutes. I added a unit of white wine and stirred till the wine was absorbed, another minute or so. Then I spent the next half hour or so adding a ladle or so full of the hot broth, stirring the mixture. I made sure to never have the rice swimming in liquid, but always moist. Near the end, I added about twenty of the roasted chestnuts (just to heat them), some salt, freshly ground black pepper, vegan Parm! "parmesan cheese", maybe a teaspoon of dried oregano, and maybe 2/3 of a large chopped roasted red bell pepper (I had roasted the pepper before the risotto got underway - I simply let the pepper sit on the gas burner, occasionally turning it, till it was mostly blackened, then put it into a bag to absorb the smoke flavor; when I needed to cut it, I first teased off under running water the loose black coating). It was so creamy that it didn't need any margarine - we loved it!

I also served (purchased) roasted red pepper and artichoke bruschetta served atop seedless rye. We continue to love the cute yellow pear tomatoes! On my (but not my cheese-of-any-kind-averse wife's) salad, I included cubed blue "sheese" from Bute Island Foods.

Yesterday we had a vegetarian society potluck dinner. Like today (we are enjoying very nice weather!), my wife and I enjoyed bicycling much of the day, and I had less than an hour to put the potluck meal. I sauteed tempeh, onion, and asparagus, and mixed in broken pieces of rice fettucine, along with lime, salt, and pepper. It was good and I'd like to make something like it for one of my dinners at home.