This is a very similar recipe to the one for asparagus risotto, but I thought I'd stick it in anyway for a number of reasons, the first being that it's only the second risotto recipe and two isn't too many for a cookbook. I won't post another unless it is significantly different from these two. Another reason is that I used a mixture of dried porcini mushrooms and ordinary white mushrooms which provided a good texture while allowing the taste of the porcini to come through fully. Porcini mushrooms are undoubtedly one of the finest tasting mushrooms but their texture leaves a little to be desired. They can be a bit squishy for many people's tastes, mine included. One solution I've heard of for this type of risotto, is to save some fresh porcini mushrooms until towards the end of cooking then give them a quick fry and stir them into the risotto. But that means you need two pans and one of the fine things about risotto is that it is easily made in one pan. This method also assumes you have fresh mushrooms to hand, when most often you come across porcini mushrooms dried or preserved in jars.
If I don't have fresh, I prefer the dried mushrooms to the ones in jars, but it is only relatively recently that I discovered that porcini mushrooms are the same as ceps or Russian 'white mushrooms': boletus edulis. The dried one's aren't always labelled 'Porcini' so keep that in mind if you go looking for them in the shops.
I used shallots in this recipe instead of onions. The reason was mainly that I went to the shop and they only had 2 kilo bags of onions and I just needed one or two. I noticed small net bags of shallots and I thought they would do instead. I think they went very well in this recipe, but an onion would do instead if you don't have shallots.
This amount will do four people.
Before you do anything else, soak the dried mushrooms in hot water so that they're ready to use once you've prepared the rest of the ingredients. You can dissolve the stock cube in a mug of hot water at this stage, too. Peel and finely chop the onions and shallots and fry them in oil (I would use more oil than usual, as this is a risotto recipe, but it's up to you how much you use).
When the onions are transparent, add the rice and fry for a few minutes then add the wine. Cook until the alcohol has evaporated then stir in the sliced fresh mushrooms and the soaked porcinis. When the liquid has been absorbed, stir in the stock and when that has been absorbed, add more hot water gradually, stirring all the time. You'll probably add another two or three mugs of water, but the main thing is to keep adding water and stirring until the rice is cooked, but is still a bit chewy (it usually about 25 minutes from adding the rice to the pan). At this stage stir in a little more water, salt to taste and the grated parmesan. Leave the risotto to sit for a couple of minutes, then serve.