Creamy Rice with Mushrooms and Asparagus

It's totally relaxing to come home from work after not having eaten all day, get in the kitchen and spend the time prepping a great meal.

Yes, if you're on some kind of energy-elevating drugs.  I, however, am not.  When I come home on days when I've worked through my lunch hour, I want food pronto.  That means that I don't want to spend a lot of time washing, chopping, preheating or parboiling things.  (Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I just make a grilled cheese and call it a day.)

Yesterday, I scrounged around my kitchen hungrily and grimly realized that I would be forced to do at least a little prep work, since I had some mushrooms and asparagus that were on the verge of turning.  They were calling me to use them.  I relented, and my "make it up as I go" recipe turned out to be a true success.  Don't you love it when that happens?

Creamy Rice with Mushrooms and Asparagus

Serves 2-4 as a main course, or 4-6 as a side dish

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 - 2 c. cooked rice (any kind of rice, brown, white, risotto, whatever.  I used basmati)
1 1/2 c. asparagus, chopped into 1 - 2 in. sized pieces
2 c. mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1/4 c. diced onion
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. sherry (or a good, dry white wine would work here, too)
Salt and pepper

FOR THE CREAMY GOODNESS SAUCE:

2/3 c. cream
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. grated Parmesan
1/4 c. grated Monterey jack

DIRECTIONS:

Cook rice and set aside.  Fill a large saute pan with a couple inches of water and bring to a boil.  When it's at a rolling boil, put the asparagus pieces in and let them cook for 2 minutes.  No one likes mushy asparagus!  Drain the water and put the asparagus in with the rice.  In the same saute pan (that you've dried off) put 1 tbsp. of butter in to melt over medium high heat.  Toss in the diced onion and let it saute until it's goldenish and translucent.  Add the mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, the other tbsp. of butter and the salt and pepper.  Stir it up reeeal good.  The mushrooms will get lovely and brown and the liquid will cook down a bit over about 10 to 15 minutes. 

Put the rice and asparagus in with the mushrooms and onions and give it a gentle toss.  In the pot that you used to cook the rice (I'm all about reusing pots to save dishes) put the cream and butter and let it heat up to a gentle simmer.  When tiny bubbles start to form around the edges of the pot, put in the Parmesan and jack cheese and stir it around.  Cook for about 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted into the cream.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Pour the creamy, cheesy sauce over the rice and vegetables and stir again to combine.  Top with some more Parmesan and serve!