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.