Posts tagged mushroom

Mushroom & Barely Risotto

February 15, 2021 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

ome recipes make you excited. You end up dishing up then talking about them the entire way through the meal. With each mouthful another comment about your success or enjoyment until you realise you’re lost in an enthusiastic nodding and smiling conversation with your company across the table. This happens a lot to me, and I can only think my fiancee is happy to just enjoy his dinner and take one for the team by humouring me. Rather like I do when watching United play at the weekend I guess…

This recipe though was one of those happy soothing moments where we dined in delight, comfort and satiety. So pleasingly earthy, umami and meaty, this barley mushroom ‘risotto’ really treated our Monday evening normailty. Its a “YUM” dinner.

Free to use your favourite assortment of mushrooms here but do not skimp on the dried mushrooms. That soaking liquid is like nectar and I always have to stick my nose in when opening a fresh pot for that joyful aroma! Mushroom risotto is one of my favourites but I really think its elevated 3 fold by using barley. The earthiness comes through so pleasingly and the texture and bite make for such a delicious dinner.

Serves 2-3

180g pearl barley
300g (approx) chestnut mushrooms
120g (approx) shiitake mushrooms
15-20g wild dried mushrooms (I use these)
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked, finely chopped
1 small glass white wine
Hot Stock – I used a chicken stock but vegetable if you want to keep this vege
25g butter
Handful chopped parsley & chives
Parmesan
Handful toasted pine nuts (to serve)
Hens/Quails eggs (Optional – to serve)

Soak your dried mushrooms in about 200ml boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain but keep that mushroom stock but discard the last bit of liquid as it’ll be grainy. Set mushrooms and mushroom stock aside.
Heat half the butter and a splash of olive oil in a large sauce pan on a medium heat. Add the finely chopped shallot, celery and sweat for about 5-10 minutes until soft and translucent. Don’t colour. Season well as its cooking.
Add one crushed garlic clove and the rosemary and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the barley and stir everything so you coat the barely in fats.
Turn up the heat and add the white wine and simmer until this reduced.
Add your mushroom stock and stir.
Now add the hot stock in generous spoonfuls bit by bit as it cooks. Keep adding stock to the barley keeping it on a good strong simmer. The barley will take about 35-40 minutes to cook through but you still want it with a bit of bite. You’ll need around 800ml stock in total but use your eye to see when you need to add more but don’t add too much as its gets to the end of cooking as your want it to be reducing down.
As the barley is cooking, set a frying pan on a medium high heat and add the rest of the butter and a splash of olive oil. Chop your mushrooms roughly (not too thin) or rip them if delicate and add to the pan. Season well with salt. Cook for about 10 minutes. You want to reduced them down. A lot of liquid will leak out so keep the pan hot to reduced that off and get them golden. Once ready, add the second crushed garlic clove and cook for a few more minutes before removing from the heat and setting aside.
Once the barley is ready, check your liquid. You still want some give in it, do not let it dry out, it’ll thicken with the mushrooms and cheese. Check your seasoning here and add salt and pepper as needed (lots of pepper works wonders here).
Add the dried soaked mushrooms and fried mushrooms and stir well. Add the chopped parsley and chives and stir.
Finally grate in a really generous handful of parmesan – I like to keep this optional as to how much! Clamp your lid on, remove from the heat and let it sit for a few minutes.
If frying or poaching eggs to go on top, do that now.
When ready to serve, remove the lid and stir the now molten cheese into the dish. If it’s a little thick, add a splash of water to loosen, you don’t want it cloggy.
Spoon into bowls, top with grated parmesan, scatter of pine nuts, any reserved herbs and finely your eggs if using!

Texture – texture of any risotto should warrant a bowl or a large plate. It needs to ooze. If you can label your risotto onto a plate and it sits high and still like a mound of pasta, add more hot water and stir well.

Porcini and Chestnut Risotto, Truffle Cream

December 30, 2016 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

fter the indulgence of Christmas sometimes something a little less meat-dominant, goose fat roasted or gravy soaked is required. Although don’t get me wrong, it still is a festive, celebratory and just that – indulgent – season so lets not be eating green salads and spag bol just yet. Risotto is perfect for using up leftover scraps and cheeses but can still be pimped with indulgence and provides a warming hearty bowl of soul food when the fun of Christmas is behind you but the frost and cold still linger outside. Feel free to tag team in any other ingredients you prefer or have hanging around using rice, parmesan, shallots and stock as the foundations in all variations.

This recipe was particularly perfect after Christmas when chestnuts, cheese and leftover mushrooms were lingering in the fridge! And if you were lucky enough to be given a nice bottle of truffle oil..ahem..then a spike of it here goes a long way into disguising even the greediest of carnivores into noticing that this is in fact a vegetarian supper….

Happy New Year everyone. If not made before 2017 this is certainly one to make in the cold and bracing January days!

Serves 4

Ingredients

350g arborio/risotto rice (about 4 large handfuls)
3 shallots/2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
30g butter and tbsp olive oil
Large glass dry white wine
Hot vegetable stock (about 700ml)
30g dried porcini mushrooms
250g chestnut mushrooms, chopped roughly
100g parmesan, grated
50g butter, diced
Large bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
180g pre roasted and peeled chestnuts, finely chopped or grated.
Juice 1/2 lemon
200g mascarpone/creme fraiche
Truffle olive oil (You can also use fresh shaved truffle here!)

Begin by soaking the dried porcini mushrooms in a jug with enough boiling water to cover and leave for about 15 minutes until softened and hydrated again.
Next, heat 15g of the butter and a splash of olive oil in a large high sided frying pan or saucepan. Soften the chopped shallot gently on a low heat until translucent and soft. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes.
Next add the rice and turn up the heat to medium and toast the grains while stirring consistently. The grain should begin to turn translucent too and ‘toast’.
After a minute or so of toasting, add the white wine which will bubble briskly and stir until just absorbed.
Drain the soaked mushrooms, chop and set aside. When draining, reserve the mushrooms soaking liquid but discard the final part that will contain any grit from the mushrooms.
Use this hot liquid first before using the hot stock to add to the rice. Stir in the liquid ladle by ladle absorbing the liquid into the rice before adding the next but ensure it does not dry out. Add the liquid after 3/4 of the ladle before has been absorbed. This should take about 18 minutes stirring consistently.
Meanwhile, heat the other 15g of butter and a splash of oil in another frying pan. Fry the chopped chestnut mushrooms until golden and then set aside until needed.
When the rice is just al dente to taste, add in the chopped porcini and continue adding the stock until the rice is cooked to your liking and the texture is still loose. (Don’t allow it to stiffen). Taste and season as needed with plenty of black pepper.
Once the rice is cooked, add in the fried chestnut mushrooms, the chopped parsley and chestnuts and stir to combine.
Finally, scatter over the parmesan, the 50g diced butter and the juice of the lemon. Cover the pan with a lid and remove from the heat and allow it to rest.
Meanwhile, combine the mascarpone/creme fraiche with about 1 tbsp truffle oil or enough to taste depending on the strength that you like it.
Once done, remove the lid from the risotto and stir in the melted cheese to combine evenly. If the texture is a little stiff, add a splash of hot stock to loosen so you get an ‘oozing’ consistency.
Give the risotto once final stir to combine and then serve in warmed shallow bowls and top with the truffle cream and any reserved chopped parsley.

Tofu, Mushroom and Seaweed Kale

September 8, 2015 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

vegan dish was a palatable challenge for me I’ll admit. In a world where butter dominates the foundations of my recipes like culinary cement; I was skeptical. No butter? You heard correctly…no butter? However, with a goodie bag of Japanese inspired ingredients from Clearspring, whose vast array of cultural delicacies regularly glare at me temptingly from their own region of the supermarket, I thought I’d experiment and I can safely say that butter wasn’t missed here!? With the divergence in diets and intolerances infiltrating our British habits in what is perhaps a foodie fad or otherwise, I thought I’d better jump on the diary and meat free band wagon and see if soya and tofu could satisfy my taste buds. With fish and vegetables dominating my diet already I was keen to see what the removal of dairy would have to offer. I enjoyed this meal twice this week which is surely enough said. One evening using nutty pearl barely and the other using some of Clearspring’s gluten free brown noodles. Both delicious and fresh.

Gluten, diary, meat and nut free I think this one deserves the intolerance crown.

Serves 2

1 box mushrooms (250g). Mixed such as shitake, oyster or chestnut
1 small handful dried mixed wild mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 15minutes then chopped roughly
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sunflower oil
80g pearl barely/80-100g brown rice noodles
200g kale
100g peas
4 spring onions, sliced
1 tbsp Clearspring seaweed flakes OR Welshman’s caviar
1 tbsp Soy sauce
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
100g cubed tofu (optional)
1 tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)

Start by either soaking your noodles in hot water for 30 minutes covered or simmering your pearl barely for 25-30 minutes in hot water under tender. Drain well and drizzle with the sesame oil and keep warm.
Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Gently soften the sliced spring onions for about 5-8 minutes until just beginning to brown and season. Once softened, place in a bowl and set aside keeping warm if you can. These will be combined with the cooked kale later.
Heat the same frying pan again until hot. Add the sunflower oil. Chop the mushrooms roughly into hearty chunks and gently fry for about 10-15 minutes with plenty of salt and pepper to cook and crisp up the mushrooms. They will release a little moisture so keep frying to evaporate this off and brown and crisp them up slightly.
Meanwhile, cook your kale in a pan of boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Add the peas and bring back to the boil. Once boiling remove from the heat and drain well allowing all the moisture to drain.
Tip back in the pan, add 1 tbsp soy sauce and the seaweed flakes. Add the reserved spring onions and mix. Place the lid back on a keep warm while you finish the mushrooms.
When the mushrooms are ready, crisp and delicious add the garlic and allow to cook for a few more minutes. Then turn up the heat and add the chopped rehydrated dried mushrooms, the noodles or pearl barely and fry for 1-2 minutes to reheat and combine the flavours.
Optional here, add some cubed tofu and heat through and scatter with the coriander.
Serve the mushrooms on top of the kale and garnish with black sesame seeds if you like

Wild Mushroom and Marsala Risotto with thyme and mascarpone

September 17, 2012 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

An oozing, Autumnal, deep, rich, silky and moorish risotto. This can be, and I assure you- will be, eaten with nothing but a trusty fork, eyes closed with a satisfied smile on your face. As the last rays of sunshine tiptoe off back to Australia leaving behind a dark gallery of evenings and a steady chilly drizzle….not to worry, this will solve any post summer blues, I promise. Because, honestly, who doesn’t love cheesey buttery and smooth warming dinners (unless of course you don’t like mushrooms)…

Risotto is the most relaxing way to spend a evening in the kitchen, unwinding with a glass of iced white, music and some mindless stirring with a wooden spoon….bliss. [See my tips for risotto making] (Serves 4)

Risotto Base

300g risotto rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
Bunch thyme, leaves picked
150ml Marsala wine (or white wine)
Vegetable stock- About 1 ½ pints
1 bulb garlic
50g grated Parmesan
60g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp lemon juice
Flat-leaf parsley to serve, chopped
Mascarpone, to serve
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Mushrooms

500g mixed mushrooms- I used chesnut and button, sliced
Handful of dried wild mushrooms, soaked in 200ml boiling water for 20 minutes
1 clove garlic, crushed
Handful of parsley, chopped
Olive oil
Knob of butter

Preheat the oven to 220°C and roast the garlic bulb whole, drizzled with a bit of oil for 30 minutes. Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water.
Now begin with the risotto base by heating a tbsp of olive oil and a knob of butter in a large frying pan on a medium-low heat and soften the onion, celery and thyme leaves until translucent but not coloured. Season
While this is softening, heat 1 tbsp of oil and a knob of butter in another frying pan and saute the raw mushrooms to release and evapourate the juices (about 8-10 minutes) and to brown them. Don’t be tempted to crowd the pan, so do this in batches if necessary. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and the parsley and cook for a few minutes.
Reserve the mushroom soaking liquid and chop the soaked dried mushrooms and add them to the frying ones. Then set aside this mixture.
Using forks, remove the (should be) softened, sweetened garlic and crush to a thick garlicky paste in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt.
Back to the risotto, add the rice to the softened veg and toast on a medium heat until translucent and hot to touch. Add the Marsala wine (or white wine) and simmer gently. Now add a ladle of hot stock to the mixture, and on a low heat, simmer gently until it is all absorbed. Continue adding ladles of stock, making sure it does not dry out but is also not swamped. The rice should expand as it absorbs the liquid and this process should take about 18-20 minutes. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked, with a slight bite and the texture is oozy. Now add the garlic paste and mix in.
Now, the rice should be cooked. Stir in the reserved mushrooms.
Take the pan off the heat, add a squeeze of lemon juice, the parmesan and scatter with the cubed butter (you can add as much butter as you like, the more you add the shinier and creamier it will taste- restaurants are known to use up to 200g to get that decadent texture and taste). Cover with a lid and leave for 2 minutes off the heat.
After this time, mix gently to mix in the melted additions and add a touch of reserved mushroom stock if to thick. It should ‘ooze’ and be served in a shallow soup bowl- not dry and stiff on the plate.
Serve topped with chopped parsley, a spoonful of cool, creamy mascarpone and drizzle with truffle/olive oil if you want!

WINE: The depth and richness of this dish is robust enough to stand up to something regional from Italy. Here I’m thinking a hearty red from Valpolicella, Italy. While you could in fact use a splash in your risotto or make a devine Veronese Risotto as a replacement of the Marsala, better still enough a glass of Amarone della Valpolicella such as the 2010 Musella available at Armit Wines.