Marieke Brugman

Wild mushroom risotto

serves 20 as a first course

Ingredients

750g carnaroli rice
2 red onions finely sliced
3 birdseye chillis, seeded and julienned
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
50g unsalted butter
50ml olive oil
1Ltr squab stock
2kg mixed wild mushrooms uniformely diced (saffron milk caps, boletus, swiss brown etc.)
additional butter/oil
200ml light red wine
10 Glenloth squab

Method

Trim squabs of head, neck, wing tips and legs and set to roast with 2 large chopped carrots, 2 large brown onions chopped, 6 cloves garlic, 2 celery ribs chopped.

Roast until golden.

Transfer to a large stock pot.

Add
4 veal shanks sawn through
2 cleaned pig trotters
dried mushroom.
Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Skim the surface.

Simmer 10 hours. Strain, cool, refrigerate, reduce to concentrate flavour.

Cook mushrooms off over high heat in a butter/olive oil combination.

Set to drain and collect the resulting juices.

Don’t cook more than 750g rice per pot.

Heat butter and oil then gently saute onion, garlic, and chilli until beginning to caramelise.

Add rice and stir to coat. Deglaze with wine.

Add mushroom juices then a ladleful of hot stock at a time, stir and cook until rice is tender.

Check seasoning.

To cook the squab

Coat with olive oil, cognac and white pepper.

Pan-fry to crisp skin.

Roast in hot oven for 6-8 minutes.

Rest.

Carve off breasts and slice on the diagonal.

Garnish risotto and squab breast.