The title is a bit of a fib, actually, although I guess it is possible that some of the mushrooms were running free in the wild before they ended up at the local supermarket. Wild Mushroom Risotto sounds so much better than Three Mushroom Risotto or Mixed Mushroom Risotto or just plain old Mushroom Risotto.

I’ve tasted some really good mushroom dishes in restaurants recently, albeit not dishes I have personally ordered, so I was inspired to try and recreate the deep mushroomy, almost meaty taste those dishes had. I used some button mushrooms, shitake mushrooms and some dried porcini mushrooms.

The dried porcini’s needed soaking for about 30 mins before they could be used and the packet also said that the liquid from the soaking could also be used (this is not always the case with dried mushrooms). Whilst these were soaking I thinly sliced some shallots and 2 cloves of garlic, for the base of the risotto. I also washed and sliced the other mushrooms.

I gently fried the shallots and garlic in a little oil until soft, then added the sliced mushrooms. The porcini’s were drained and squeezed to get most of the liquid out and I then put the soaking liquid in a pan to heat up for the stock. I left the porcini’s to one side for the time being.

To the mushroom liquor, I added a pork stock cube, but only because I’d run out of veg stock. I also added some boiling water to bring the volume up to about the 750ml mark. You don’t always need that much, but it’s always better to have it, just in case. I actually needed all the liquid this time.

Once the shallot, garlic and mushroom mixture had all cooked, I added the risotto rice and cooked for a minute, constantly stirring. A splash of white wine was added and absorbed before I put the first ladle of stock in. Once the first ladle was absorbed, I continued adding ladles one at a time, stirring until absorbed by the rice and then adding another. During this process the porcini mushrooms went into the mixture.

When the rice was starting to soften, I seasoned with some pepper, then added some dried chilli flakes as it needed pepping up a bit. The juice of half a lemon went in as well, to add some bite as well as kick.

I was very pleased with the result as using the different mushrooms, and in particular the porcini’s, I managed to achieve a fairly reasonable depth to the mushroom taste. It possibly could have done with some fresh parsley to mix through at the end, but all in all, pretty good for a first effort. I also fancy trying to make a mushroom tart with the same deep flavour, so watch this space!