Risotto with Wild Mushrooms

Boletaceae are a family of mushrooms, primarily characterised by developing their spores in small pores on the underside of the mushroom, instead of gills, and they are a relatively safe group of mushroom as none are deadly. They are the mushrooms I recommend to start searching for in the forest, and this year it is a real bonanza for mushrooms and especially the Penny Bun or Cèpes in French, Porcino in Italien, Steinpilz in German and Scandinavia Karl Johan.  In Denmark, where I’m from, it was great to go out and pick them as most Danes are scared to go mushroom hunting , for me sadly it is not the same in Brittany, wherever there is a bit of forest there are mushroom hunters out, so the competition is intense. In France, if the forest is private, you at risk from the farmer with his gun and not just in the hunting season!   So get a licence and hunt in the public forests! C’est la vie.

I prefer to use the mushrooms right away in pasta dishes, omelette, risottos; a wild mushroom lasagna or soups with fresh hazelnuts chopped on top, but if I do have too many, I chop them up and fry in either oil or butter then freeze them for use another time. They can be pickled as well but I’m not so keen on that it takes the lovely flavour away, so enjoy the seasonal mushrooms as they are free and in abundance. Well worth getting up early for as cépes alone can cost from  €23 a kilo in the food markets!

When our students finish their mushroom hunt, we normally return to the school and prepare a mushroom dish.

Risotto with wild mushrooms is always popular!

Serves 4 persons

Risotto

500-750 gram mixed wild mushrooms

1 liter of vegetable / (or chicken stock)

1 finely chopped charlotte onion

40 gram of butter

1 glass of dry white wine

320 gram risotto rice

60 gram freshly graded Parmesan cheese

Vegetable stock

1 leeks chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 stick of celery chopped

bay leaf, parsley

1 clove of garlic

salt

organic chicken cubes may also be used.

Method:

Let the vegetable stock simmer in 2 1/2 liter of water for 45 minutes, and afterwards strain it , ready to

use.

Rinse the wild mushrooms very carefully and them chop them up and fry them in a spoonful of butter

and olive oil. 

Fry the onion in half of the butter but don’t give them color. Add the rice and let the rice soak up the

butter, add the white wine and then slowly add the vegetable stock and boil and stir it c 18. minutes;

Finally add the fried mushrooms and the Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.