Garden designer Peter Dowdall on the best places to find unique pieces for your garden
Garden designer Peter Dowdall on the best places to find unique pieces for your garden

Megan Burns

Key trends and challenges shaping the job market in 2025
Key trends and challenges shaping the job market in 2025

Leonie Corcoran

Inside this five-bedroom Edwardian Terenure home
Inside this five-bedroom Edwardian Terenure home

IMAGE

In The Meadows 2025 review: A festival for the fans
In The Meadows 2025 review: A festival for the fans

Sarah Gill

Sole Steps: Join us for a run and a coffee in Phoenix Park
Sole Steps: Join us for a run and a coffee in Phoenix Park

Edaein OConnell

We’re taking notes on the rich, tactile details of this Belfast café for our own homes
We’re taking notes on the rich, tactile details of this Belfast café for our own...

Megan Burns

Cathy White talks honestly about taking to the road as a new mum, without her baby
Cathy White talks honestly about taking to the road as a new mum, without her...

Fiona Alston

‘Grief was like being knocked down by a speeding bus. It came out of nowhere and completely floored me’
‘Grief was like being knocked down by a speeding bus. It came out of nowhere...

Mary Ann Kenny

Daniel Rankin of Man Can Cook NZ shares his life in food
Daniel Rankin of Man Can Cook NZ shares his life in food

Sarah Gill

‘I don’t want to be empowered, I want to be resourced’
‘I don’t want to be empowered, I want to be resourced’

Dominique McMullan

Image / Living / Food & Drink

Supper Club: Spice up your midweek meal with a Danish take on mushroom risotto


By Meg Walker
17th Jan 2024
Supper Club: Spice up your midweek meal with a Danish take on mushroom risotto

The weather hasn't exactly been stellar lately so a warming bowl of Danish grød may be exactly the thing to lift your spirits.

Porridge or grød is the closest the Danes come to a risotto. They don’t use rice but instead make the most of the grains they have on hand – barley, oats and wheat.

Barley & mushroom grød

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
  • 350g mixed seasonal mushrooms, such as shiitake, chestnut, chanterelle, king, oyster and beech, sliced if large and stems finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp grapeseed or sunflower oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 225g pearled barley
  • 100ml dry white wine
  • 75g Vesterhavsost or Parmesan cheese, finely grated
  • 25g unsalted butter
  • 150g mixed baby Swiss chard or beetroot greens

Method

  1. Pour the stock into a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
  2. Heat the oil in large, deep frying pan and cook the onion for 5-8 minutes until tender. Add any chopped mushroom stems and cook to just soften. Add the barley to the pan and stir to coat, then add the wine and leave to bubble for 2-3 minutes. Stir in 2 ladles of the stock and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Keep adding stock, a few ladlefuls at a time, until almost all of it is used and the barley is tender; the barley will take about 25 minutes to cook and should still be a touch nutty to the bite. Season, then remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Cover and leave for 5 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large frying pan and cook the sliced mushrooms over very high heat until golden and just softened. Stir in the greens and cook until just wilted. Uncover the porridge and stir, adjusting the seasoning with salt if necessary. Add a little more stock if it’s too thick, it should be loose and creamy. Spoon the mushrooms and greens over the top and serve with extra cheese.

Extracted from Copenhagen Cult Recipes by Christine Rudolph and Susie Theodorou (Murdoch Books).

Photography by Christine Rudolph.