We went to work on Sunday which was suppose to be the last day of work for the week. The day before the heating wasn't working and we worked with our coats on cooking for deliveries. My feet were frozen in my boots.
The owner wouldn't answer any of our calls or messages. The manager was having her last day in Mexico and she tried to call him as well from Mexico. No answer.
The caretaker of the building came to silence the smoke alarm. Our hood fan breaker kept tripping and set off the alarm. The hood fan was bringing in more cold air so we kept it off. The caretaker was mad as hell.
On Sunday the temperature was at 4 celcius. After we walked in there was some kind of constant buzzing coming from the alarm. There was no way I was going to face the mean caretaker again, let alone work with our coats on, so asked the girl in charge to call him to deal with it and we left. I told her we are taking the day off. She is in charge of the system but I am making those decisions. She was happy. We already had two weeks off which broke us financially but what was one more day.
When we got home we wanted lunch. All the stores are closed on Sundays including grocery stores, due to the restrictions. There were several items still left in the fridge fortunately. I also had some items in the freezer and some arborio rice and lentils in the cupboard. I managed to put together a proper and satisfying lunch.
Lentil mushroom risotto
- 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
- 1 box mushrooms (3 or 4 sliced)
- 1 cup brown lentils
- 1 carrot diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper diced
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup chopped broccoli
- 2 or 3 cloves minced garlic
- bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon thyme or sprig of fresh thyme
- 4 tablespoons wine (I used cooking wine)
- 1 or more liters of vegetable broth
- 1 or 2 tablespoon powdered vegetable broth or 1 cube (optional)
I still had a jar of homemade vegetable broth which I almost always have.
I wanted the dish to be less rice than usual and more of everything else. This way it would be more of a main dish then a side, although would be good as a side as well.
After caramelizing the onion and garlic add the carrot, pepper and mushrooms. I don't know if this is the way an expert would do it but this is how I did it. I have only made risotto two other times in my life. I added the cooking wine after the onions and garlic were cooked. I didn't have actual wine because we stopped drinking and we wouldn't be able to buy it anyway. We are no longer allowed in the liquor and wine store without "papers", so we just stopped drinking wine which is a great thing. I feel much better now as well.
Then I added the rice and stirred cooking on medium for a while.
After a while I added lentils which had soaked for several hours. I stirred everything together then started adding the broth a little at a time.
One thing I've learned is to add the liquid to the pot a little at a time while stirring frequently and making sure it doesn't stick. Don't add more liquid until it has evaporated.
When the rice is done it should be tender but not too mushy and still have a bite to it. The lentils are done as well. This is when I added the chopped broccoli and the peas just to cook through maintaining as much color as possible.
I had some flat leaf parsley that I chopped and put on top along with some green onion.
I still had quite a bit of romaine lettuce and a few other items so I was able to accompany with a salad.
For the dressing I blended some soaked cashews which I had in the fridge, a couple cloves of garlic, the juice of a lemon, a tablespoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and a dash of agave nectar.
This was very filling so we had leftovers for the next day.
Thanks for dropping by.
