Trio of Mushroom Risotto: A Creamy Wild Mushroom Risotto Recipe

Step 1, In a small bowl, pour a little boiling water over the handful of dried mushrooms (we recommend dried shiitake or porcini).

Step 2, Whilst the mushrooms are soaking, weigh out and prepare your ingredients, making sure all the vegetables are chopped.

Step 3, To prepare the mushrooms, gently brush to get any dirt off of them, but don’t wash them (this is as mushrooms are porous and absorb liquid easily, making them hard to crisp up or make flavourful if washed). Depending on the type and size of mushrooms, they can either be sliced or kept whole.

Step 4, If you are using a stock cube, simply prepare the stock and set aside in a saucepan on a very low heat – you could also use a freshly made stock, in which case prepare this at this stage and keep simmering this on a low heat.

Step 5, In a large based saucepan, melt a knob of butter with a splash of olive oil (this stops the butter from burning) and add the onions and celery. Sweat the vegetables, stirring often to make sure they don’t colour – this should take about 10-15 minutes.

Step 6, The dried mushrooms should have softened by now, so take them out of the water and finely chop them, reserving the mushroom water.

Step 7, Add all of the rice to the pan and stir through the onion mix.

Step 8, Add the wine to the pan and let the alcohol cook off for around 2 minutes.

Step 9, Add the diced chopped mushroom and its' water to the pan and stir through.

Step 10, It is now time to gradually start introducing the stock to the pan ladle by ladle – make sure that the water is absorbed into the risotto rice each time before adding more stock to the pan. Make sure to keep stirring so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Step 11, Around twenty minutes after you have started adding stock, it’s time to prepare the fried mushrooms garnish. On a medium-high heat, warm a little butter and oil in a pan and add the mushrooms, seasoning with a little salt. Fry for 4-5 minutes, constantly stirring. Dependant on if you prefer garlic or truffle, this would be the time to add grated garlic to the mushrooms in the last two minutes of cooking (if you are planning to add truffle oil or shaved truffle when serving, then omit the garlic as the two flavours are both very strong and don’t work together!).

Step 12, Back to the risotto - it should take around 30 minutes for all of the stock to be absorbed. Taste and adjust as necessary, making sure the rice isn’t too al-dente (add more hot water if necessary) – when the flavour of the risotto is just right, take the pan off the heat, add a knob of cold butter and the parmesan and cover with a lid. This extra step will make the risotto super creamy and rich! If you are after a truffle-flavour, also add a generous sprinkling of truffle dust at this stage and stir through!

Step 13, To serve, spoon a portion of risotto onto a plate, add the fried mushroom garnish on-top, a few micro-herbs or salad leaves, and a generous grating of parmesan (of course!). You could also drizzle truffle oil and shave fresh truffle on top at this stage if you are looking for an earthy and delicious truffle meal. Enjoy!