Executive chef Matt Leahy, from Ultimo Catering, is back with another mouthwatering recipe.

This month, he drew inspiration from the wild mushrooms available at the moment and shared his tips for a perfect mushroom risotto.

Listen to the full interview below and scroll down to see the full recipe:

Wild mushroom risotto

Ingredients

– 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
– 2 sticks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
– 400g risotto rice
– 75mL white wine
– sea salt
– freshly ground black pepper
– 4 large handfuls wild mushrooms, pine mushrooms, porcini, slippery jacks, cleaned and sliced
– a few sprigs fresh chervil, tarragon or parsley, leaves picked and chopped
– juice of 1 lemon
– 1 teaspoon butter
– 1 small handful Parmesan cheese , freshly grated, plus extra for serving
– extra virgin olive oil
– 1.5 litres hot chicken stock
– olive oil
– toasted walnuts

Method

Heat your stock in a saucepan and keep it on a low simmer. 

In a large pan, heat a lug of olive oil and add the onion and celery. Slowly fry without colouring them for at least 10 minutes, then turn the heat up and add the rice. Give it a stir. Stir in the wine.

Keep stirring until the liquid has cooked into the rice. Now add your first ladle of hot stock. Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and massaging the starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next.

Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. This will take about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, get a dry griddle pan hot and grill the wild mushrooms until soft. If your pan isn’t big enough, do this in batches.

Put them into a bowl and add the chopped herbs, a pinch of salt and the lemon juice. Toss everything together.

Take the risotto off the heat and check the seasoning carefully. Stir in the butter and the Parmesan. You want it to be creamy and oozy in texture, so add a bit more stock if you think it needs it.

Put a lid on and leave the risotto to relax for about 3 minutes.

Take your risotto and add a little more seasoning or Parmesan if you like. Serve a good dollop of risotto topped with some grilled dressed mushrooms, a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Crumble a few toasted almonds over for texture.

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