Christmas Day Mushroom Risotto in Paris

Friday

Christmas Day…  Sleep ins are called for as we are all sick now, although Mama seams to be on the better end of it ...…Light vego lunch of colibroc, red rice and white beans... Enough!

Walks down Rivloi to see, children screaming, over hyped on Christmas reds, bizarre sights of cats being walked on shoulders, merry-go-rounds, sparkling twinkling lights on the Hotel Deville, to the Louvre, where the moon-lit pyramid glistens as the strobe of the Eiffel Tower turns.

Home for mushroom risotto… I realised I only had one pan for rice etc and none for stock; also forgot to buy dry porcini & Parmesan !… Improvise !

It all tuned out well, thanks to a base of sauté Portobello Mushrooms – not too much rice, heaps of thyme, the three shallots and the fresh porcini, morels and chanterelles for eye candy. Sauté of garnish mushrooms finished with a miserish dash of red wine for acid value. Lumps of real camembert, with that real flavour helped, in lieu of the parmesan and the butter I also kinda forgot to buy.

Dessert was part purchased, giant chocolate meringues, jammed together with a compote of juicy demi dried prunes, soaked in mandarin juice and zest, crunched with walnuts, splashed with a folly of a peach liqueur loitering in the back of the cupboard, cinnamon & a blob of crème fraiche (bought by the kg) finished with grated chocolate… a monster dessert.

I did not eat any dessert, it is Christmas Day and it made for a festive end. I looked at all the berries in the shops, could not bring my self to buy such not in season fruits.

Most traditional Christmas desserts in Europe revolve around dried fruit, nuts and spice, wheat & sugar. I don’t eat sugar or wheat and the aim of the game is to eat what is in season, it is quite interesting, as everything is here and I am not so sure of some of the sources. It would help if I spoke French, of corse... !