Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

• 320 g carnaroli or arborio rice
• 25 g dried porcini
• 300 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• 1 onion, very finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 1.2 litres hot vegetable stock
• 60 g cold butter
• 80 g parmesan, grated
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Soak the porcini

   Cover the dried porcini with 300 ml boiling water and leave to soak. Keep that liquid — strained, it is the most concentrated flavour in the dish.

   20 min

2. Brown the mushrooms

   Fry the fresh mushrooms hard in the oil until golden, then add the onion, garlic and thyme and soften.

   12 min

3. Toast the rice

   Stir the rice through for two minutes until the grains are translucent at the edges with a white dot at the centre. This step keeps them separate rather than collapsing.

4. Deglaze

   Add the wine and stir until it has almost entirely evaporated.

5. Add stock gradually

   Add the chopped porcini, their strained liquid, and then the hot stock a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting for each to be absorbed. Stock must be hot — cold stock stops the cooking dead each time.

   20 min

6. Mantecare

   When the rice is tender with a slight bite, take it off the heat, beat in the cold butter and parmesan hard, then cover and rest for two minutes. It should spread slowly on the plate, not sit in a mound.

   2 min