I absolutely love a creamy risotto and how it can be varied almost endlessly with everything from vegetables to meat, seafood, fish, spices, cheese, or mushrooms as here. In this Nordic risotto, butter-fried chanterelles (or kantareller in Swedish) bring a real autumn feel to the dish with their distinct flavour, colour and shape. In London, I buy them from Waitrose, Borough Market or La Bouche, a French deli on Broadway Market in East London.

The other essential ingredient in any risotto is the stock, in which the rounded grains of the risotto rice (Arborio, Vialone Nano or Carnaroli) will slowly simmer and develop flavour until it reaches a rich and creamy texture. If you can, make your own stock or enhance the flavours of an ordinary supermarket stock. Here, I used mushroom stock cubes and added porcini mushroom paste. You can also add dried porcini or dried chantarelles.

Serves: 4    Total time: 30 min

INGREDIENTS

400 ml / 340 g risotto rice (Arborio, Vialone Nano or Carnaroli)
100 ml white wine
1.2 litres of mushroom stock (2-3 mushroom stock cubes in water enhanced with porcini mushroom paste or 3 pre-soaked dried porcini)
200 g fresh chanterelles (also called Girolles) or a minimum 150 g
2 banana shallots
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
75 g butter
50 g parmesan, half grated, half shaved
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
Salt and pepper
Peppery leaves such as watercress or rocket to serve.

Tips: If you want to make a homemade mushroom stock, you need 250 g fresh button mushrooms, 3 dried porcini, 1 carrot, 1 celery and 1 onion. If you like, you can add in crushed garlic cloves. Make sure to save the mushrooms for another meal the next day or two.

METHOD

1. Clean the chantarelles thoroughly. Traditionally, this is done with a brush but rinsing them in water is also acceptable as the water will evaporate in the pan later. Finely chop the shallots and garlic. Slice the chantarelles lengthwise, leaving any small ones whole.

2. Make the stock with mushroom stock cubes and porcini paste or pre-soaked dried porcini or make your own stock from scratch with vegetables, fresh and dried mushrooms.
On medium heat, fry the shallots and garlic in 50 g butter until soft. Add the rice and constantly stir until the grains are well coated in butter.

3. Turn up the heat to a medium-high and add the white wine. Let the alcohol evaporate before pouring the first ladle of stock over the rice. At this point, add the sprigs of thyme. Turn the heat down a bit again.

4. Once the liquid is absorbed, add the next ladle of stock, and continue this method until the risotto rice has reached a creamy texture. Keep watching the pan. A traditional risotto wants to be a bit loose so add a bit more stock at the end if it is too thick.

5. While the risotto is cooking, dry fry the chanterelles for the water inside to evaporate. Once dry enough, add the butter, which will replace the water that has left. Season with salt and pepper and keep the chanterelles warm.

6. Remove the thyme stems from the risotto and stir in the crushed garlic, a large dollop of butter and the grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Serve the risotto immediately with the fried chanterelles, lemon zest (optional), lettuce, shaved parmesan and more pepper on top.