- Hello, I'm Wolfgang Puck,
and today I'm gonna show you
how to make a delicious mushroom risotto.
If you know the technique, you can do it just as well as me.
The most important part is the rice.
Now this is carnaroli rice, it comes from Northern Italy,
which is just perfect for risotto
because it makes the risotto really creamy.
Let me show you how to chop an onion.
You have the root here, and the stem on this side.
So we cut the stem off,
but we leave a little bit of the root to hold it together.
And then you slice it up like I do.
And then one time in half, and look how easy.
And another quick technique,
hold it with your fingers down here, and then we chop.
(knife scraping board)
See that?
Up and down.
Maybe you wonder what we do with garlic.
I just smash it.
See the cloves here.
(knife hitting board)
Like this.
One.
(knife hitting board)
Two.
Three.
Just go like that and you're done.
When you make a stock at home it really depends
if you make a chicken stock,
or a vegetable stock, or a fish stock.
A fish stock, we only cook for 45 minutes.
A vegetable stock, maybe for an hour.
A chicken or beef stock, maybe for five hours.
We don't throw anything away.
There's onion leftover which I didn't chop,
put it in my stock here.
Still get the flavor.
These are three mushrooms you can find
in any store these days.
So we cut off the stem and put it in our stock.
This one, the same.
Root here, we're gonna cut it off just like this
and put it in our stock.
See that?
The shiitake mushroom, the stems are really tough,
so in the stock they go.
I love the flavor of the shiitake, but just the cap.
The best way to clean mushrooms,
use a wet towel and you wipe up the top.
We have this clamshell mushrooms,
and just give the stock a lot of flavor.
Now we gonna turn up the heat a little bit
and let it simmer slowly.
When I go to the farmer's market, if I find peas,
I find asparagus, or great carrots,
any vegetables you like, you can use for risotto.
Risotto is a great flavor carrier,
so you can actually use whatever you like.
Now, we have the garlic, we have the onions.
We gonna put about three tablespoon of olive oil in our pan.
I have a great sous chef,
or he could be a chef anywhere,
in any restaurant, in any hotel, this is Andrew.
Andrew is working with me, how many years?
- 10 to 12, at least.
- We are heating up the olive oil,
throw the garlic, the onions.
Andrew did already some chopping for me here,
so I can add a little bit.
I don't wanna make him feel bad and hurt his feelings.
It's just as good if not better than mine.
Mm, it smells already.
If you do that at home and you have guests over,
naturally, the guests have to wait for the rice.
The rice does not wait for the guests.
We don't wanna brown the onion, just cook them
until they're glossy like I do here.
And then we gonna add the rice.
We're gonna glaze the rice here with the olive oil,
the onion, and garlic.
Now, when I cook at home,
they'll always have a glass of wine for me too, so cheers.
Just use the same wine you drink also for your cooking.
You can see the rice is perfectly glazed here.
A little wine, about half a cup is enough.
(mixture sizzling)
Good. You can measure at home, but you know,
I did that a few times already in my life.
Even I look so young, but I did it many times.
I grew up eating a lot of rice
in Southern Austria, but never really risotto.
The first time a good customer of ours
wanted to have risotto, in his house I did a party
and I say, okay, I bring five pounds of rice,
it was maybe for 20 people.
And I get a big pot, I started to make the risotto.
And you know, once you add the liquid, the stock to it,
it grows, it grows.
I didn't know what to do anymore.
I threw half of it into the sink,
it clogged up the sink.
I had my chef underneath unclogging the pipes
of the sink to be able to cook.
So when you make risotto, you don't need a lot.
I also like it as an appetizer.
I cook the rice with the wine
until the wine is completely evaporated.
The important part of the wine is to give the food balance,
the acidity of the wine gives the food balance.
Our stock is ready here.
Mm, I can smell.
Mm, the freshness of the mushrooms.
I gonna put about two ladle fulls of stock in here,
and we're gonna start cooking the risotto.
We add the stock a little at the time,
like half a cup to a cup at a time.
If you add everything at once,
you're gonna have a soup
and you don't know how much you need.
The stirring really helps to remove the starch
from the outside of the rice,
and make your risotto nice and creamy.
It takes about 20 minutes to make a risotto
so you can go from A to Z in 20 minutes,
as long as you have your mise en place ready.
What is a mise en place?
To get everything ready so all you have to do is cook.
My rice is cooking along here,
so I'm gonna add a little more of the stock.
I have my risotto on about medium heat,
but just be sure that it cooks gently.
We gonna cook our mushrooms.
I always start with olive oil first,
because if I would add butter in here, it might burn it,
so the olive oil.
Now gonna add maybe a tablespoon of butter here.
Okay, and we gonna continue or adding stock to our rice.
Now I gonna saute the mushrooms.
Onion or shallots, and garlic for mushroom is perfect.
I always use fresh ground pepper
because it makes everything taste so much better,
it has more power, it's spicier,
but it's the aroma of the pepper
make everything smell better and taste better.
My mushrooms are pretty dry in here,
so what do I gonna do?
I gonna add a little bit of my stock.
It will steam it up and I can saute my mushroom perfectly.
Often people say, "Oh, the risotto will cook by itself."
No, you have to stay next to it and stir it constantly.
But it's a lot of fun,
you can do it with your children at home.
They learn how to make it.
You saute your onion, your garlic,
put the rice in, a little wine if you have.
If you don't like wine, put a little white wine vinegar,
a few tablespoon.
That way you have the right balance,
and then just continue stirring the rice.
I use some sea salt here,
and don't add too much at the beginning.
I love pepper, my risotto is always a little peppery.
I always tell people you buy the best ingredients
and then try not to screw them up, so that's so simple.
I'm gonna add a little more stock.
Okay, now I think my mushrooms are done.
I'm gonna turn the fire off here.
I gonna take about half of my mushrooms
and I'm gonna blend them.
By blending some of your mushrooms
will give the risotto creaminess, but also extra flavor.
Even if you're a vegan,
you make the risotto with the mushrooms in like that,
it's gonna be perfectly creamy.
You don't need butter and cheese.
(blender running)
Perfect.
Mm, smells delicious, and it fogs up my lenses too,
but it's good.
Now we gonna add our mushroom puree here, look at that.
So it's totally creamy mushrooms.
We are gonna taste my rice.
It might be done, maybe a little more.
(jazzy music)
Mm, getting there.
Mm.
Even if you have a steak, a chicken breast,
or some braised meat, make a mushroom puree, that's magic.
We stir it constantly, so that way it doesn't burn,
it does not touch to the bottom.
Also it's important to make the risotto really creamy.
Let's taste one more time.
(jazzy music)
I would say we are two minutes away.
I gonna add a little more stock to it.
Now I gonna add peas to it, for color but also for taste
because the peas are very sweet.
I always put hot food on hot plates.
It's very important, you don't wanna put hot food
on a cold plate, the food will get cold.
So you put your plates in the oven,
that way they are nice and warm.
We love butter and we love parmesan cheese,
that makes everything taste better.
Butter here, I gonna turn the stove to low
and incorporate the butter.
Butter fat emulsifies the liquid even more so
with the starch so you even get more creaminess
into your risotto.
Parmesan, very important.
I always buy a chunk of parmesan and then grate it freshly
into my risotto.
Don't buy the one which is already grated
in little plastic bags in the supermarket
because they use all the leftovers they can't use in chunks.
Parmesan has the umami flavor,
it makes everything taste better
so be generous with the parmesan.
We call it a microplane, it is a great grater.
Just be careful when you grate it, maybe even use a towel
so that way you don't grate your fingers in there.
I gonna turn off the heat now, stir in the parmesan,
and we gonna taste it one more time.
Let's taste it.
You taste it Andrew.
(jazzy music)
What do you think?
- I think the rice is perfect.
- It's perfect?
- Maybe a little, little.
- All right, put a little salt.
(salt grinder running)
Not too much because I have high blood pressure.
You wanna be sure when you cook a risotto
is not like a porridge, should have just a little bite to it
so that the grains are not mushy.
I gonna taste it how it goes with my chardonnay here.
Mm, a good rich chardonnay or a pino
is a perfect accompaniment for your risotto.
If the guests are not seated right away,
be sure stop your risotto,
and in case your risotto gets too thick,
a little bit more stock.
You want the risotto being nice and creamy.
My last taste.
Amazing.
Now I gonna show you how to plate it.
We have our warm plate here.
(jazzy music)
Put it in the center, as much, or as little as you want.
If you just eat the risotto, like for me at home,
with my children, with my wife, we just cook the risotto
and that's our dinner, maybe a salad on the side.
But you can have a grilled chicken breast,
whatever you like.
I remember I did the Academy Awards once,
I made a truffle risotto
and then served it with a chicken breast.
Look on my plate here.
The risotto's consistency should be if you move it,
the risotto should be able to move.
So it flattens out on our plate here, see that?
I have my mushrooms here, a spoonful in the center,
and again, more parmesan.
We have a little fresh herbs, chives, parsley,
whatever you like you can chop it up, sprinkle it over.
Andrew found pea tenders
because I have peas in here already,
so we're gonna add a little pea tender.
So to make it look good, you know,
we eat with our eyes first so it's really important
to make the presentation really beautiful.
But you don't have to do a lot,
you can go to the farmer's market or to your local market
and find things like pea tender, also edible flowers.
Take off the petals and then your sprinkle a few on it.
So now all of a sudden it looks like spring or summer.
Now you know how to make the perfect risotto,
just don't open a restaurant next to Spago
because I wont like you if you do that.
Andrew, what do you think?
- [Andrew] It's gorgeous chef, all the different colors.
- But the taste is the most important part.
- And a few mushrooms in your first bite.
- Mm mm.
And now you know how to make a great risotto.
Until next time, we are gonna show you more.
But you also can watch my documentary on Disney+,
it's called "Wolfgang".
(jazzy music)