and this time, the real (slow) mushroom risotto

my commitment to whole grains cost me a very very late dinner, but boy, was it worth it!

i adore risotto, but don't like the fact that it's made with white arborio rice. so, in a bid to "healthify" it, i decided to use short grain brown rice.  i knew it would take longer to cook, but i didn't anticipate that it would take nearly 2 hours! but time consuming as it was, it was completely divine and every bit worth the effort.  because of the time commitment, it may not be a week night quick meal, but it would make a great special saturday or sunday meal. so if you want to spend a little time in the kitchen, indulge, and still keep it healthy, i highly recommend it...just make sure you give yourself plenty of time, have a good glass of wine to sip on while cooking and some good music in the background!

1 1/2 cups brown, short grain rice
4-5 cups veggie/herb broth
1/3 cup cooking wine (red)
1/3 cup dried porcini/boletes
3 cups mixed mushrooms (brown, portabello, shitake) (sliced)
1 leek (chopped)
2 cloves garlic  (minced)
1/2 cup grated hard goats cheese
2T fresh tarragon

soak the dried porcini in 1/2 cup of hot water.  let sit until softened (15mins). drain and chop the porcini, reserving the liquid.

in a skillet, saute the leeks, garlic in some olive oil.
add the chopped porcini and half of the raw mushrooms and saute until browned (7mins).
(in a separate pan, saute the rest of the mushrooms with olive oil and set aside.)
stir in the rice (to the original pan with leeks),
add the wine to de-glaze the pan and turn down the heat.
let the rice absorb the wine, stirring frequently.
once wine is absorbed add the pornici water, cook while stirring.
when absorbed, add the hot broth, one ladle at the time.  let the rice absorb the broth, stir frequently.  you may want to partially cover the skillet because the brown rice takes a long longer than white arborio.  repeat this until all broth has been added and absorbed.  you should be getting a creamy consistency as you stir and as the starch releases from the rice.
towards the end, add the remaining browned mushrooms, leaving a few for garnish.  if the rice is still tough when all broth has been used, you can add another cup of hot water.  this whole process could take from 1 to 1.5 hrs.
finally, when the rice is cooked (though it should retain a bit of crunch), you can stir in the goats cheese.  let it sit for 5 mins.
serve garnished with tarragon and the browned mushrooms.