Mushroom risotto

Here is a slightly more complicated recipe compared to the Spaghetti all’Amatriciana. If you want to eat an authentic, tasty risotto, don’t trust the books that say throw in a few mushrooms, stir and there you go…the best risottos come from using top quality ingredients, spending time not to rush to the end result and most of all putting a lot of love in to your preparation.

Ingredients
2 tbsp dried porcini mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 large onion or one shallot, chopped
100g/4oz chestnut mushrooms, sliced

225g/8oz mixed wild or forest mushrooms
350g/12oz arborio rice
Half glass of dry white wine
1 litre/2 pints hot Chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
25g/1oz butter
pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Fresh bread crumbs

Preparing the Mushrooms:

To achieve the best flavour as well as lots of texture in your risotto, I like to buy as many different types of mixed forest or wild mushroom as I can find e.g. shitake, morel, oyster, chanterelles and not forgetting the king of all mushrooms – the Porcini.

If you like Porcini mushroom (sometimes called Ceps in English, Cepes in France or Porcini in Italy) it’s a shame to not add them to your risotto – they give a distinctive aroma, a rich flavour and a succulent texture to any dish. Unfortunately they are native to the alpine regions of Italy and France and are very difficult to find fresh in the UK, however fortunately you can buy them dried almost in any good delicatessen or supermarket and they are still very tasty. I also like using the brown cap chestnut mushrooms as they grow in similar conditions to the porcini giving them some comparable characteristics, but like the little brother to the porcini, they have a much less strong taste and lack that distinctive aroma.

Chop all the different types of mushroom to prepare them for cooking.

Soak the dried porcini mushrooms and other dried forest mushroom you are using in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain well.

Saucepan:

In a small pot, heat a chicken (recommended) or vegetable stock cube in 1 litre of water. Keep the stock on a low heat throughout the cooking time.

Frying Pan 1:

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy based saucepan and add half the chopped onion.

Fry over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Please note - if the onion burns, throw it away and start again as it will taint the rest of the dish!

Add the mushrooms (including fresh and soaked) and fry for a further 3 minutes until browned and coated in the onion-flavoured oil. Add a pinch of salt. Add about 2 ladles of the heated Chicken stock broth and leave the mushrooms to cook for a further 5 minutes.

Frying Pan 2:

Melt some butter in a different pan (large enough for the risotto).

Chop up the rest of your onion finely and fry in the butter for 5 mins until golden

Add the Arborio or carnaroli rice and stir with the butter for 2-3 minutes to coat the rice with the flavoured oil.

Add ½ glass of white wine and fry for another 3 mins, allowing the alcohol to evaporate.

This is when you start to make the risotto

Add the mushrooms from pan 1 to pan 2 to amalgamate with the rice. Mix the rice and mushrooms together and start to add your stock slowly, 1-2 ladles at a time. Every few minutes add 2 ladles of stock to your frying pan and allow your rice mixture to absorb. Keep doing this until all your stock is used up, which should take about 20 minutes in total.

Don’t cook for much more than 20 mins as this will over cook the rice.

The risotto will look like a real risotto now

Grate loads of parmesan cheese on to it and mix through. (make certain that you have bought Parmigiano Reggiano as there are many copy parmesan cheeses on the market that don’t have the same quality or flavour).

Also some ground pepper if you like – taste and add salt if needed.

Pour the risotto from the pan in to a large oven proof dish

As an special secret touch, sprinkle real bread crumbs over the top and put in a hot oven for 10 minutes.

This added tip makes the rice even thicker and richer as well as giving it a crunchy layer on top.

Serve steaming at the table into each guest’s bowl and sprinkle chopped parsley over the top to decorate.