Braised mushrooms and lentils

Full of protein, rich with the goodness of garlic and red wine, and low in fat - this dish has it all, and is absolutely delicious to eat!

Braised mushrooms and lentils

Serves 6-8

olive oil for sauteing
400g mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 onions, finely sliced
2 cups of green/brown lentils
500 ml wine
500ml water
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Saute the garlic and onion until translucent. Add in the mushrooms and cook for 2-3 mins. Add lentils and stir through. Add in wine and enough water to cover. Simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Check occassionally to ensure that all the liquid does not evaporate - add extra water if needed.

Great as is, with a piece of crusty bread. Can also be served with potatoes or rice.

Slippery Jack Mushrooms

We didn't find many good samples of Slippery Jack Mushrooms - apparently it has been too wet (not too surprising as we have had major flooding in the area in the last fortnight!!), and a lot of the few we did find were waterlogged. I did manage to find a few to try, however, and must say that they were delightful. They were very mushroomy ... funny that ... but very silk and smooth in texture. I cooked them simply with onions and olive oil with a little bit of butter at the end, and they really were delicious. I can just imagine them with a bit of cream, folded into some pasta - yum!

Saffron Milk Cup Mushrooms

I went mushrooming today in the Vulcan State Forest near Oberon, NSW. We came back with heaps of Saffron milk caps, which are pumpkin-orange and very pretty, and a few Slippery Jacks which have a sticky brown top and a spongy yellow underneath. I've never tasted Slippery Jacks, and was way too tired to actually try and cook them tonight - they are a little fiddly as you have to peel them and discard the stalks etc. So I cooked the saffron milk caps instead.

Fried Mushrooms

These were amazingly tasty! And such an autumnal colour!
I can see another foraging adventure in my future :)

3 onions
3 cloves garlic
1 nob butter melted in some olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a whole heap of mushrooms

As you can tell this is a very imprecise recipe. Basically I heat up some olive oil, put some butter in that, then saute the onions and garlic until the onions are soft. Then I throw in chopped mushrooms and cook them until they are soft, seasoning near the end of cooking. Sometimes I may add  a little more butter depending on taste, sometimes not. It all just depends on the taste!


These mushies were just lovely. Lovely firm but yielding texture, with a lovely savouriness to them I find it hard to describe the varying tastes of mushrooms, but I have to say these really were delicious.

pierogi grzybowe - mushroom Pierogi

This is the first time I have made pierogi since my mother died a few years back. Making pierogi is one of the happiest memories I have of my dear babcia (my grandmother) and my mother. We usually favoured a sweet cheese pierogi, but there are many different varieties and fillings.  This one is a good one for Lent (which is starting soon) as it contains no meat - but is so tasty you don't miss that at all!

Pierogi Dough

1 egg yolk

Pierogi grzybowe - lightly refried the next day

2 cups of white flour, sifted

1/2 cup water

Mix the flour with the egg yolk and water, and mix together. Knead until it is a smooth dough that doesn't stick to your fingers. Pop it into a container, cover with plastic, and leave in fridge until ready to use.

Mushroom Filling

450g fresh mushrooms, finely chopped

olive oil for frying (add in 1tsp of butter for a hint of extra flavour)

1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

lightly saute the onion until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook gently for 10-15 minutes until all the moisture has been sweated off. Stir breadcrumbs and parsley through the mushrooms.

Assembly & Cooking

Look at all that mushroomy goodness!

Roll out walnut sized pieces of dough into circles, place a spoonful of mushroom filling in the centre. Fold the dough over, and crimp to close. The dough should be elastic enough to stretch easily over the filling.

You can make the pieces as small as desired (little dumplings for soup) or larger ones.  

Drop the pierogi into boiling salted water. They are cooked when they float to the top. Pierogi can be eaten straight from the pot, re-fried or baked the next day, or added to soups (if you make little dumplings!).

 

Zupa Grzybowa (Mushroom Soup)

If you google the web for Zupa Grzybowa you'll find that there are probably as many recipes for this yummy soup as there are Polish cooks. Some start off by cooking a roux which will later thicken the soup. Others thicken at the end with a clever combo of sour-cream and flour. Some add barley. All would probably agree that the best mushrooms for that are those that are grown in Poland... but I really have no access to them fresh or dried, so I can't comment! The addition of dried porcini, however, does add a lovely depth of flavour to it. Perhaps one day I will be able to use Polish mushrooms - if so, I'll tell you what they are like. :)

I'm giving you my version which does not use a roux, and is usually not thickened at the end. It freezes well at that point. You can thicken it with sour cream and flour if you wish when re-heating - instructions will be given below. Or you can simply serve with some sour cream on the table for people to add to their liking.

You can very easily make this soup either vegetarian or vegan by using vegetable stock and omitting the sour cream

Zupa Grzybowa

500g mixed fresh mushrooms
100g dried porcini (or if you happen to be able to get dried Polish mushrooms give them a whirl!) - soak these for about an hour before use.
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 litres good quality vegetable or beef stock - use the fresh kind, not one made up from stock powder!
1 cup pearl barley (optional)

cook onions in olive oil until translucent. Add in fresh mushrooms, dried mushrooms, and the water the mushroms were soaking in (run through a sieve to catch any grit). Stir through. Pour in the stock, add in 1 cup of rinsed pearl barley. Put a lid on it and cook at a medium-slow heat for about an hour. If using the pearl barley make sure you cook it long enough so it is soft - the hour usually suffices.


for thickening...
2tbs cornflour
2 cups of sour cream
mix the cornflour and sour cream together. Whisk in a wee bit of the hot soup to loosen it and bring it to the same temp as the soup (so it doesn't curdle when added). Pour into the soup, whisking until it comes to a boil.

Delicious served with toasted sourdough.

As the Polish say smacznego! or Bon apetit!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

stuffed mushroom served on lettuce

This is more of a method than a recipe - you can change the stuffing ingredients to suit your tastes. I like this version as the breadcrumbs soak up the mushroom juices and the stuffing tastes so yum... but you can use cooked rice with various spices ... or use pesto instead of ghanoush ... this time I threw a few pieces of mozzarella on top.

Ingredients

2 large portobello mushrooms - pop the stalks out and chop finely
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons baba ghanoush
1 clove garlic pulverised
squeeze of lemon (to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Mix all the ingredients (except the portobello mushroom caps) in a bowl until combined. Place portobello mushrooms in a baking tray with a bit of olive oil. Spread over portobello mushrooms. Top with cheese if you want cheese. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Bake for 30-40 mins at 180 degrees C or until the mushrooms are tender.