Gary does Gordon

I love risotto. It is such a homely meal, very rustic and very comforting… however that is the problem. I can’t get this notion of ‘comfort food’ out of my mind. It just doesn’t seem right to have a risotto as part of a 3 star chefs menu as a result and I was very curious to see whether it would live up to all the other dishes I have done so far. Certainly presentation wise it will be no where near the quality of the other dishes in this book… just how many different ways can you present a creamy risotto other than stick it into a bowl? However the ingredients are what set this apart from other risottos (Ceps, truffle and parmesan… those are some seriously powerful flavours) and I am looking forward to seeing whether it lives up to the rest of the dishes I’ve tried so far.

The ingredients

I’ve read the recipe now about 3 times just to ensure I get all the timings right and to be honest this is a dish you can knock up in under an hour, easily. I started off blanching some risotto rice in salted water for 5 min or so, and once done I then laid them out on a lightly oiled tray for a few minutes to cool and covered this with some cling film.

Blanched rice

Whilst the rice was ‘resting’, I brought the vegetable stock to the boil and then turned off the heat and let the dried ceps I added to the stock infused for about 15 min.

Infusing the ceps

Whilst this was infusing I chopped up the mushrooms (Half ceps which were the rehyrated versions as I couldn’t find fresh ones, and half chestnut mushrooms), chopped up the shallots and spring onions, and then grated the parmesan and measured out the marscapone for later. Oh and I got some truffle slices ready for final plating too. I was effectively 98% prepared within 10 min of starting this dish!

Once the stock had infused enough, I made a start at gently sautéing the shallots in olive oil. I then added the rice and a some white wine and reduced. I then added a third of the stock and reduced, and did the same again. The third time I added half of the remaining stock, reduced and once the risotto was cooked I took off the heat and set aside.

Cooking the risotto

Whilst this was cooling I gently sautéed the mushrooms, and in a separate pan I fried the larger mushroom halves  which are for decoration.

The mushrooms

I had a go at making the parsley crisps at this point which is very different to how I imagined. What you do is tightly wrap some cling film across a bowl, brush some olive oil to the parsley leaf, stick this flat to the cling film and then microwave for about 1.5 to 2 minutes. Once microwaved you then peal off the crisp and store in an airtight container until needed. Simple and very effective!

Parsley crisps

It was time to plate up, so I heated through the risotto whilst adding the remaining stock, marscapone, parmesan and mushrooms and spooned a generous helping into some bowls. I garnished with some truffle slices (I confess to only having those which are stored in oil as I couldn’t find fresh truffle round my neck of the woods in such short notice), the parsley crisps and the fried mushroom half. Finally a drizzle of truffle oil was applied and we were ready to eat.

The final dish

Lovely, lovely, lovely! That sums up just how tasty this dish was. It wasn’t a looker, but it tasted good. I have recently been informed that Michelin inspectors look primarily for flavour and flavour combinations when they do their inspections, and presentation is not necessarily high on their agenda… if they were marking me on this dish I would hope they would be pleased, because I was. The risotto was creamy but still al dente, the truffle and ceps gave the dish much needed explosions of flavour and the parmesan enhanced all of these flavours as well as provided the necessary seasoning. It really was an all round success and one to be reperformed in future.

Risotto of ceps with spring onions, grated truffle and parmesan… Done!

Next up: Raspberry compote with tarragon cream

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