Chef Jose Mendin's Recovered Risotto

If you love mushrooms, shallots, and garlic AND have a thing for cage-free eggs - have we got the perfect recipe for you!

Chef Jose Mendin of Pubbelly Group shares with us the how to on a savory dish he created on the fly using Hungry Harvest produce this Spring.

Mendin’s passion for food and learning has carried him gracefully into a successful career. He was part of the opening team at Nobu, Miami and later Nobu, London, and used these foundational Asian influences to parlay the opportunity into a job at SUSHISAMBA Miami. After two years, he was appointed to Assistant Corporate Chef, overseeing all of the brands U.S. locations, which included the 2008 opening of the award-winning SUSHISAMBA, Las Vegas at the Palazzo.

Today, Mendin is a hometown hero both in Miami and San Juan.  Making both his cities proud, he and his team have taken numerous culinary concepts to critical acclaim (Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, Barceloneta, Macchialina, PB Steak, L’echon Brasserie).  He has been a recognized semi-finalist of the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef South” for five consecutive years (2011-2015) and has received national acknowledgements from Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Departures and The Cooking Channel among many others.  

We are pretty lucky to have him on our side helping to fight food waste in the most tasty fashion! 

Recovered Mushroom Risotto, by Chef Jose Mendin

Ingredients
1 cup bomba rice
5 cups dry shitake stock (see recipe)
2 cups recovered HH mushrooms
1 ea cage free HH egg
1 ea HH shallot (chopped)
2 tbsp madeira wine
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 ea sliced HH garlic
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp truffle oil
salt to taste

Method

Heat up a dutch oven to medium high heat add half of the butter, cook the shallots until translucent, add the rice and toast for about 1 minute stirring frequently, add stock to cover rice, stirring occasionally let stock cook down and repeat process until rice is “al dente”, finish with the rest of the butter and salt to taste.

For the mushrooms, in a sauté pan heat up to high heat, add oil and cook garlIc until toasted golden, add mushrooms and sauté until done about 3 minutes, deglaze with the madeira wine and reduce by half as mushrooms will finish cooking. Add the demi glace and truffle oil. Serve mushroom on top of the rice.

For the Poached egg, using a control temperature water bath at 145f cook for 37 minutes and place in a water bath to stop the cooking process. Crack open and serve on top of the rice, it should be soft and runny and will finish cooking with the hot rice.

Garnish with HH recovered microgreens.

**Photo by Juan Fernando Ayora