Porcini + Bacon Risotto
Pure Sea Salt
'How an egg changed my life' is Mikey Bell's new cookbook, a celebration of the impact good, home-cooked food can have on our lives. Here he's shared with us his appropriately salted Porcini + Bacon Risotto.
From Mikey. "A risotto is a risotto is a risotto, really, isn’t it? I have mad ambitions that, whenever I crave the creamy, nursery comfort of a risotto, I will steer away from my usual porcini and bacon. However, I just can’t seem to want anything other. You could simplify this and use chestnut mushrooms, cut small and fried in place of the dried mushrooms but you sacrifice a richer mushroom stock. You could also veganise / vegetarianise this by omitting the bacon and Parmesan, swapping vegetable stock for chicken and using only oil in place of butter, in which case I recommend a little drop of smoke water to the stock for extra flavour and smokiness (and if you’re not familiar with this product, Halen Môn make a great one)."
Excerpted from How an Egg Changed My Life by Michael Bell. Published by Calon.
Ingredients
- 20–30g dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 litre chicken stock
- 15g unsalted butter + 25g
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 100g smoked bacon – cut into small strips
- 1 onion – finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 300g Arborio rice
- 100ml white wine
- A grating of fresh nutmeg
- 50g Parmesan cheese – freshly grated
- TO SERVE
- Fresh parsley – chopped
Method
- Put the salt far away from the stove and use it only when you need it. That’s step one, and I can’t stress it enough.
- Now, put the porcini mushrooms into a small bowl and cover them with boiling water from the kettle. Cover the bowl with a plate and let them soak for 10–15 minutes; once they have plumped up and softened, using your hands squeeze out any excess liquid and then chop them finely.
- Strain the soaking liquid into a medium saucepan through a sieve and then add the chicken stock. Place on a medium heat, on the back hob, just because it’s easier.
- While the stock gently heats, in a large frying pan with high sides (think a big skillet or a deep wok) melt the 15g of butter with the olive oil and then add the bacon, cooking for about 10–15 minutes until just about crispy.
- Tip in the onion and add a pinch of salt (I said a pinch – meaning sea salt grabbed with three of your fingers and crushed using the pads of your fingertips) and cook until the onion softens.
- Lower the heat and add the garlic and the chopped porcini mushrooms, cooking for a further 5 minutes so that the garlic cooks but does not burn.
- Add the rice to the pan and stir, making sure the rice takes on the buttery, oniony, bacony fatty gloss, and cooking for 2 minutes just until the grains appear slightly translucent.
- Pour in the wine, and raise the heat to medium again, letting the wine simmer, stirring occasionally until you notice that the wine has completely evaporated.
- Start adding the now warmed stock into the rice, one ladleful at a time, stirring continuously as you go, only adding another ladleful when the previous one has been absorbed.
- Allow yourself to relax. This is a repeat-repeat-repeat type of situation. Keep adding a ladleful for the next 15–20 minutes or so until the rice is soft, stirring frequently to get as much starch from the rice as possible, which will help with creaminess.
- Taste it. Taste it now. This is where you add a little grating of nutmeg, and then taste it again. Assess whether it needs seasoning a little more, but not with a mad hand. If it needs a little salt, give it some, but if you want to wait until the end, add only a little bit. It will want pepper, so give it some of that. Taste it again. Does it need more salt? Maybe, but remember there’s Parmesan coming soon. Taste it again, just because. Add a little more nutmeg and pepper if you think it wants it.
- Stir some more, and when you can drag a spoon through the rice and not have any liquid rush to pool in the middle of the pan, you are Moses, and it is ready.
- Now stir through the remaining butter and Parmesan, mixing until both have melted into the rice. Taste it again. Yes, again. Parmesan is salty, so taste it again. Does it need more salt, more nutmeg, more pepper? You decide. Once it’s as appropriately salted as you want it to be, remove it from the heat, and scatter with fresh parsley, and serve it only to people who will appreciate your effort.
