Curry Asparagus/Mushroom Risotto

I've been doing a 3 week vegan thing and so tonight I had some cooked rice and some veggies laying around. Threw this together - and then added the curry as it needed some extra flavor. This isn't *really* a risotto, as I made it with cooked rice, but it kind of has the feel. And it could be made as a risotto. Anyway, turned out pretty good and Tif asked for the "recipe", so here it is.

---

• 1/3 bunch of asparagus, cut into 3rds - about 2 inches long
  
• 8 mushrooms sliced into about 4 slices (fairly thick)
  
• 1 stalk of celery minced
  
• 2 green onions sliced thin
  
• 2 cups cooked rice
  
• 2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 1 tbs curry powder
  
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
  
• 2 tbs olive oil
  

---

Saute the veggies in the olive oil for a few minutes along with salt and pepper. You want them to start to cook but not get to well done; just enough to let the flavors blend. Add enough stock to cover and let them cook a few minutes more. Add in the rice and some of the stock. At this point cook it like a risotto... Add some stock, let it cook off, then add some more. Do this until it gets "right". :) - You want it like a risotto. Not too soupy, but don't let all the stock reduce and the rice start to fry. I think I did this about 3 times. The 3rd time I added the curry powder, let it simmer for about 5 more minutes and then served it.

I know - like most of my recipes, pretty vague. Basically I sauteed some veggies, simmered some rice in it and threw in some curry powder. Had a nice flavor. The onion and celery were minced; with the asparagus and mushrooms being thicker because they were the "stars" of the dish. Also - given the amount of veggies and rice; this wasn't so much a rice with some veggies for accent; but really a dish with quite a bit of veggies and some rice. But simmering it like I did (probably about 15 to 20 minutes total), let it all blend together and still be very much a rice dish.

As always - if interested, give it a try and then adjust over time till it gets to be what you like! :)

---

As an aside... The way I picture being a big chef and working for say foodtv or something... is that you get to come up with cool stuff like this; without really measuring or anything. You just make some really cool food and then your staff says "OK... we need to figure out the measurements, cooking times, etc. to get it to turn out like that." You just get to make cool stuff and someone else has to figure out how to put it into a cookbook. Would be sweet. LOL