Baked mushroom risotto (dried ceps from late summer in Sweden)

I had a weirdo 24 hour illness - felt like a mild gastric flu? Anyway, I'd recovered enough by the following evening to be properly hungry again - I wanted real food, but something comforting in case my stomach was still a little sensitive. I consulted Delia, and this was exactly what I wanted.

We even had a handful of dried ceps lying around, left from Moss Woods Love, and the single beautiful perfect karl johans svamp (ceps) I found there, M dried, and we came home with part of. In fact, I thought we had all the ingredients... but it turned out we'd run out of onions of all the things, so I had to make a special trip to stock up. It was worth it! This precisely hit the spot.

In fact, so much so that I've made it twice in the last couple of weeks - once with dried ceps and a mix of fresh portobello and white mushrooms; and once with dried maitake and a mix of freshly picked (from a tree I found near our place) oyster mushrooms and fresh white mushrooms. I prefer the dark mushrooms to the oysters (I have some kind of prejudice against oysters I am trying to get over), but both were delicious.

10 g dried porcini mushrooms
225 g fresh dark-gilled mushrooms
60 g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
risotto rice measured to the 175ml level in a measuring jug
150 ml dry Madeira (or white wine)
2 tbsp grated parmesan, plus approx. 50 g extra, shaved into flakes with a potato peeler
salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 150°C. Soak the dried mushrooms in 570 ml of boiling water for half an hour.

Meanwhile, chop the fresh mushrooms into 1 cm chunks. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, add the onion and cook over a gentle heat for about 5 min, then add the fresh mushrooms, stir well and leave on one side while you deal with the porcini.

When the dried mushrooms have soaked for half an hour, place a sieve over a bowl, line the sieve with a sheet of kitchen paper and strain the mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Squeeze any excess liquid out of them, then chop them finely and transfer to the pan with the other mushrooms and the onion.

Keep the heat low and let the onions and mushrooms sweat gently and release their juices – about 20 min. Meanwhile, put a large ovenproof dish in the oven to warm. Add the rice to the pan and stir it around to get a good coating of butter, then add the Madeira/wine, followed by the strained mushroom soaking liquid. Add 1 tsp salt and some pepper, stir and bring up to simmering point, then transfer the whole lot from the pan to the warmed dish. Stir once then place on the centre shelf of the oven without covering for exactly 20 min. After 20 min, stir in the grated parmesan. Put the dish back in the oven for 15 min, then remove from the oven and eat immediately, sprinkled with the shavings of parmesan.

Lentil and potato pasta (the best lentils in the world)

When we were at S's in Italy last winter, we bought a packet of 'the best lentils in the world' from Santo Stefano di Sessanio. I just remembered them around New Year, because apparently lentils (along with a big fat sausage) form part of the traditional Italian New Year's feast. We didn't eat ours at New Year, but we had some with Amy on Jan 2nd, and the rest I made into this. I found a bit of paper with a few recipes in Italian in the packet from the lentils - I attempted to translate it, and this is the result. It was deceptively simple-looking, and very tasty, like a lot of real Italian food.

200 g small green/brown lentils
2 cloves garlic, 1 whole / 1 peeled and chopped
1 bay leaf
salt
2 tbsp olive oil 
4 medium tomatoes, diced
4 medium potatoes, approx. 2 cm dice
pasta

Put the lentils in a saucepan with 1 clove garlic, bay leaf and a little salt, and boil for about 25 min. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add chopped garlic and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add a little salt and the liquid from cooking the lentils (and more water if needed), and the diced potatoes. Halfway through cooking, add the lentils.

While the lentils are cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook enough pasta (your choice of shape) for 2 people. Stop cooking halfway through, drain, and pour pasta into the pot of lentils. Simmer until the pasta and the potatoes are well cooked.

Apple Butter

From 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' - another use of the windfall apple pile, another dairy-based misnomer. But it is nice. Spread on bread, it makes me think of hot cross buns.

2.75 kg (6 lb) apples
1.15 l (2 pints) water
1.15 l (2 pints) dry cider
sugar
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Wash and core the apples, discarding any bad bits. Peel them incompletely - I decided it best to leave about 1/8 of the peel per apple. Simmer the fruit in the water and cider until pulpy. Liquidize to make smooth pulp. Measure 350 g (12 oz) sugar for each 450 g (1 lb) pulp.

Return the pulp to the clean pan and simmer until the excess water has evaporated and the pulp is thick. Add the sugar and spices and boil, stirring frequently, until all the excess liquid has evaporated. It should be creamy. Pour into hot jars, seal at once, and store in the fridge when cool.