The Magicians and Red Wine Risotto

What would it be like if Narnia actually existed? And what would you do if you were able to get there?  That is what Lev Grossman imagines in his novel The Magicians.  Grossman takes his inspiration from both Harry Potter and the Narnia series and then makes those worlds more real, gritty and adult - this isn't a kids book.  The focus of the story is Quentin, a very smart but miserable teenager from Brooklyn who is about to embark on the college admissions process.  After the man that was supposed to interview him from Princeton drops dead, he is suddenly thrust into another world - a magical school called Brakekbills.  The obvious inspiration is Hogwarts, but Brakebills has much more in common I would say with the prestigious small liberal arts college that dot the Northeast than with Harry Potter's alma matter.  The kids at Brakebills must go through a grueling entrance exam to be admitted, and once they are in the curriculum is equally as rigorous.  What Grossman really shows in The Magicians is that magic is difficult - it is not just a flick of a wand and a few choice phrases  - it requires extensive and painstaking education and training in order to be used properly.   Grossman's depiction of the difficulty of learning magic is to some extent the inspiration for this dish - a red wine and mushroom risotto.  If you have made it before, you know that risotto is a dish that also demands a lot of the cook - it must be made slowly and carefully so that the rice that you start with magically turns creamy and rich, still with a little bite, rather than a paste like blob.  I was also inspired by the fancy tastes of the Brakebills kids - they often made big complicated dinners, accompanied by lots of very good red wine, and this is the kind of dish they would make.  Finally, rather than the traditional risotto which is fortified with white wine, I thought a red wine risotto would reflect the mysterious and dark features of the book.  More about the book and the risotto after the jump.

 I am a total Harry Potter, all things magical nerd so I totally loved this book.  But I also think it would appeal to those of you who are not into the Harry Potter thing.   The novel follows Quentin and a group of classmates through their time at Brakebills and after they enter the real world.  Quentin's group of friends are each a bit quirky and all "majored" so to speak in the "Physical" form of magic, which is the most unique.  The interaction of the group kind of reminded me of "The Breakfast Club" - each of the kids had their own role to play and their own sad story that drove them.  The study of magic at Brakebills is not whimsical and fun like in the Harry Potter series but a bit of a grind.  To perform magic you must master difficult and painful hand and finger gestures, you must learn many, many languages, and your spells must be cast in different ways according to the circumstances - such as your location, the weather, the time of day.  Much like regular college students, these magical kids end up aimless and unhappy in New York City after graduation.  They drink too much and sleep with inappropriate partners (continuing with the 80's teen movie theme, this part of the book was reminiscent of "St. Elmo's Fire").  As a child, Quentin was obsessed with the "Fillory" series of books which are just like the Narnia series - books about a group of British siblings who find their way to a magician world where they interact with talking animals and get into all sorts of dangerous adventures.  Eventually, Quentin and his group of friends find themselves in Fillory and it is not what they imagined it would be.  They arrive in Fillory the day after a truly horrible night, when Quentin and his girlfriend Alice each betrayed the other.  The group is at odds but their need to survive in the hostile Fillory brings them back together again.  There is a big battle scene where we get to see these kids use what they learned at Brakebills.  At the end of the battle is clear that Fillory is not a wonderful magical place but an awful war zone, and this is especially hard on Quentin, who throughout the book is unhappy and always trying to find the place where he belongs.  The book ends in a way that prepares the reader for the sequel, The Magician King, which is out now and I will read as soon as it comes out in paperback.  When I first started the book and realized that Grossman took Narnia and Harry Potter as his jumping off point I was skeptical - is this guy just taking these amazing, reative works and "hipster-fying" them? (No, that is not a real word...) Would it just be, as Madonna recently said of Lady Gaga - reductive?  In the end my conclusion is that while The Magicians would be nowhere without those classic works, it has its own story to tell that is compelling.   It takes the coming of age journey themes that are the bones of all classic literature and takes that into the twenty first century, making it less romantic and more coarse.  This is not a fairy tale, but a real life coming of age story, with all the disillusionment that comes with it,  with a little magic thrown in.  I look forward to the next book in the series!

Red Wine Mushroom Risotto, adapted from epicurious.com
All risotto, when done right, is a little bit magic, right?  Very ordinary ingredients - rice, wine, broth - are turned into something luxurious and creamy and something wholly different from the way it started.  This red wine risotto is very earthy - with both porcini mushrooms and porcini broth.  I really liked the use of red wine in this rather than the usual white.  The flavor of the wine really infused the rice, so please use a wine you would really like to drink.  I don't make risotto a lot because frankly I don't like recipes that require me to stand anxiously at the stove, stirring, and stirring, but this dish is worth the work, trust me.

Ingredients (for 6 servining)
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 cups boiling water
1 and 1/2 pounds of fresh crimini or white mushrooms (I went with crimini, I think any kind of wild and expensive mushroom would really bring this to an out of this world level and next time I will try that).
6 tablespoons of butter
5-6 cups of chicken broth
6 ounces of pancetta, chopped
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped sage
3 cups arborio rice
2 cups dry red wine (I would say rather than dry, just use something that tastes good, that's what I did)
1 cup grated Parmesan

 Directions:

1. In a small bowl, soak the porcini in boiling water for 30 minutes until they are plumped up.  Drain the porcini but save the soaking liquid.
2. Chop the porcini and set aside.
3. Take half of the fresh mushrooms and chop finely.  Set aside.
4. Take the other half of the fresh mushrooms and quarter or slice them.  
5. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skilled at cook the large pieces mushrooms, with salt and pepper, for about 5 minutes until nicely browned.  Set aside (keep the mushrooms in the skillet.
6. In a medium saucepan, heat the broth so that it is just barely simmering.
7. In a large saucepan, cook the pancetta over moderate heat, stirring to prevent sticking, for 5 minutes.
8. Add the onions, finely chopped mushrooms, 2 tablespoons of butter, herbs and salt and pepper and stir until onions are wilted.  [Careful with the salt here since the pancetta already is pretty salty).
9. Add the rice and stir for 1 minute until the rice if coated with the fats.
10. Add one cup of the wine and stir slowly until the wine is absorbed.
11. Add the second cup of wine and stir until the wine is absorbed.
12. Now, add 1/2 cup of broth at a time, stirring in between additions and not adding more liquid until the liquid is absorbed in the rice.  Keep stirring.  About half way through the process, use the porcini liquid and add the chopped porcini mushrooms into the mix.
13. In about 20 minutes or so the risotto should be ready - the rice should still have some bite, it isn't porridge.
14. When the risotto is close to ready, heat the reserved mushrooms in the skillet till just warm.  Stir the mushrooms and the cheese into the risotto and serve.  You can garnish with some of the fuller cooked mushrooms.