Black Rice Mushroom Risotto (Vegetarian Recipe)

We made this dish during the last week of this year’s Easter fast, when we wanted to try something substantial but also smooth. 

For this recipe we used:

• 1 ½ cups of rice (black rice also known as Emperor's rice or forbidden rice), 
• 150 grams of honey agaric mushrooms, 
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped, 
• 1 medium eggplant, diced and 
• parsley (about one handful). 

You can always add some butter and parmigiano in the end and give this dish more depth, but I works just fine in its vegetarian version. Honey agaric is a wild type of mushroom, similar perhaps to the Chinese Mun mushrooms. You can substitute these with black chanterelle or golden chanterelle.

Start up by heating up 2 tbs of olive oil in a heavy base tall, pan, and saute the onions on high heat for 3-4 minutes, and add the diced eggplant, cook for another 3-4 minutes, and then add the mushrooms (i didn’t  chop or dice them, i liked to use them whole).  Let the mushrooms cook until they remove part of their water, then add the rice and cook it on high heat, for another couple of minutes, stirring ocasionally so the rice doesn’t stick. After this, add salt, pepper, 3 cups of water (or vegeatble stock), cover the pan, reduce the heat to a medium and let it cook for 15 minutes, checking from time to time so the rice doesn’t burn (feel free to add more liquid if necessary). After the rice is done, sprinkle the chopped parsley on top of it and serve.

We loved the taste of this black rice, fit for an emperor indeed. :)

Enjoy!