Shiitake Mushroom-Brown Rice Pilaf

I made the initial sautee super flavorful (thus the onion-and-a-half) so the flavor would survive the brown rice.

Melt 1/4 C butter in a heavy pan. Add like 3/4 C onion and cook for 3 minutes (till the onions start getting juicy, but you don't need to carmelize unless you'd like to). Add 10 roughly diced shiitake mushrooms to the mix, stir up once, add a generous pinch of thyme and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until the mushrooms soften up and the sautee starts to smell unearthly. At this point I uncovered added a couple tablespoons white cooking wine, let it boil down, and then 2.5 C chicken stock and 1 C long-grain brown rice.

Cook on low heat for 45 minutes or until your rice is soft. You may need to stir a little and add some more liquid toward the end. Also, I just followed the cooking directions on the package of brown rice plus the mushroom goodness--if you use a different kind of rice your broth-rice ratio may be a little different. Also also, I think you need a little butter for flavor, but you could use olive oil instead.

ke