Mushroom risotto

What I had for dinner over the weekend:

Mushroom Risotto
Serves 4
Prep and cook time: 60-90 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups arborio rice (a purchase from Berkeley Bowl)
   
2. 4 shallots, diced
3. olive oil or butter
4. 1 cup pecorino romano or parmesan cheese, finely grated
   
5. variety of mushrooms - I had a bag of shittakes (about 1/2 pound) and a few king oyster mushrooms (about another 1/2 pound)
   
6. about 2 cups chicken broth (I have some homemade chicken broth that I keep my in freezer)
   

Steps:

1. Place oil and shallots in pan over medium heat. Sweat out the shallots until they start to get fragrant.
   
2. Add arborio rice to the pan, mixing until rice is just heated up, about 5 minutes or so
3. Add mushrooms and about 1 cup chicken broth.
   
4. Keep over low-medium heat with cover halfway on, mixing thoroughly every 5 minutes or so, to make sure rice doesn't burrn
5. As the broth is cooked and evaporates and is drawn into the rice, add a ladle of broth at a time, mixing and stirring
6. When the rice is a thick, but slightly-softer-than-al-dente, consistency, it's close to being done
7. Add grated cheese now. You can add more or less as you desire - however, the cheese really does the job. I tried it without the cheese, for tasting, and it did not taste the same. Mix cheese thoroughly to melt completely.
   
8. Turn the heat off and season with some freshly ground black pepper (you can add salt, but I found that my chicken broth and the cheese made it salty enough).
   
9. I added cilantro on top, just because I love cilantro.
   

Enjoy! It was my first time making it and definitely not my last.

My resolution for the next month: to use at least one thing from my freezer in the preparation of every single meal. It's because my friend opened my freezer the other day and was astonished at how full it was. It's mostly marinated meats, seafood, and random stuff that I make in advance. We'll see how long it lasts.