Mushroom Recipes | Finding Feasts

Wild Mushroom Ketchup

Wild Mushroom Ketchup…You’re probably as surprised as we were when we first came across Mushroom Ketchup. Mushrooms as ketchup? Not possible!

Well, during our mushroom trip to Oberon, Bella stumbled upon such a condiment. With intrigue she purchased it and with intrigue I made it.

After looking into the history of ketchup I discovered that the tomato version originated about 100 years after the original version, prior to that it was made from any number of foods, for example nuts, fruit, or mushrooms… It originally began it’s life being made from fish and was called ke-tsiap.

In this recipe I have used the saffron milk caps and slippery jacks that I picked at Oberon but you could use any mushroom or combination of mushrooms with equally fabulous results. Also, the fresh mushrooms will need to be left to sit in salt for 24 hours, so this isn’t a spontaneous recipe. It’s also a recipe that gets better with age, so be sure to have some sterilised jars ready.

This photo of my lunch is of my Four’n Twenty pie and I have to say that I will now, and forever be having my pies with Mushroom Ketchup, truly outstanding!!

Enjoy,

Blondie

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Beef & Mushroom Meatloaf w/ Roasted Garlic

Beef & Mushroom Meatloaf w/ Roasted Garlic is a super simple recipe that is just as delicious served piping hot, straight from the oven as it is eaten in the following days on your sandwiches with lashings of tomato chutney and mustard.

I’ve made this with a roasted garlic on the side, but please go ahead and make as much roasted garlic as you choose to as the soft, sweet, caramelised garlic lends it’s self to being used in so many different dishes. Just squeeze the cloves out of their paper casings and cover them with olive oil. This will store well in the fridge for about a week.

To use the roasted garlic for this recipe, simply squeeze out the soft flesh and spread over the meatloaf for added flavour. Even though the roasting of the garlic changes it’s chemical makeup to be more easily digested, you will still have garlic breath – I don’t care what anyone says, it is definitely there! So this is to benefit the people who would like to avoid leaching out garlic smell through out their places of work or school.

Old fashioned homeliness – Blondie 🙂

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Wild mushroom soup

Warm up this winter with a beautiful wild mushroom soup!

With winter finally arriving in Sydney (although obviously not today as it is going to be 25 degrees!) I decided to celebrate the cold July by throwing a Christmas in July dinner party. Menu planning had begun many weeks ago! Books were gone gone through, magazines pulled, lists made up, list torn up only to be made up again. This was no ordinary dinner, I wanted to show case skill, technique and obviously good hearty dishes. A three course feast was settled on, consisting of entree and main prepared by me and dessert by Blondie.

The menu consisted of…

Entree
Wild Mushroom Soup

Main
Sous vide Chicken, Wilted Greens, Verjuice Butter Sauce

Dessert
Yoghurt Panna Cotta, Poached Pear & Quince, Pecan Crumb & Frozen Chocolate Wind

Being Polish I’m no stranger to soups, they were and still are a daily staple and on the menu at mums place so when it came to the entree for our Christmas in July dinner, Wild mushroom soup was a no brainer decision.

Mum make what I would say one of the most amazing wild mushrooms soups from a recipe that was handed down to her my my fathers mother, my Babcia and whilst its pretty amazing for this dinner I wanted to try something a little more hearty, full of body.

Pen and paper in hand I jumped onto the trusty internet and the research had begun. I must have looked at hundreds of mushroom soup recipes and they all looked very similar to each other until I came across Jamie Oliver’s The Real Mushroom Soup recipe. It looked earthy and full of flavour.

Decision made!

I of course didn’t follow the recipe too the tee, and used my private stash of FinSki’s Saffron Milk Cap and Slipper Jack mushrooms.

I had some tough critics to please that night…the husbands, but the finger licked bowls spoke for themselves.

Will I be making this again…a definite YES!

Bella 🙂

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Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w/ Spinach Crust

Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w Spinach Pastry — Click image for recipe

Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w/ Spinach Crust is the recipe attached to the Spinach Pie Crust I posted a little while ago.

This recipe comes direct from one of my most favourite cookbooks, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. Every page you turn to has a recipe you want to try – 289 pages of delicious vegetarian dishes that i’m slowly getting through. I’ve said it before, this book deserves to be in everyones cookbook collection.

This is a flavoursome pie with a simply stunning pie crust that I know you will make more than once. Every time you walk past a bunch of silverbeet or spinach, this pie base will pop into your head with an endless list of fillings to try it with.

Enjoy… Blondie

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Bigos | Hunter’s Stew

Bigos or Hunter’s Stew… I am not afraid of letting the world know that I would love to go on one of those cooking shows and wow the judging panel with the national dish of Poland! What frightens the heck out of me is presenting this dish on a plate!I can see the comments now…”Bella you have created a warm and hearty stew, full of flavour and intensity, however what has really let you down is your presentation”.
The Italian’s have Pasta, the English have Fish & Chips (as I have just recently learned from Blondie!) the Hungarian’s have Goulash and the Poles have, Hunter’s Stew a.k.a Bigos.

Let’s face it, this isn’t the most appealing dish to photograph. I have countless hours this week surfing the net for presentation ideas to ensure that it does not look like slop on a plate, however where presentation fails somewhat, taste sensation sets in! And let me tell you that this dish will warm the heart on a cold winter’s day!

Bigos has been eaten by the Poles for many centuries, it is approximately 700 years old. When speaking to dad about its meaning he said the word bigos signified a combination or mixture of ingredients similar to a mess… success! I have created a mess.
As a child I have fond memories of family gatherings where bigos was one of the feature dishes. I would eagerly await for my bowl and dip mum’s rye bread into the rich and flavoursome sauce.

Whilst there are basic components like sauerkraut, onion, mushrooms and meat, there is no right way of making bigos and you will see that it varies from family to family. My mum’s bigos has evolved over the last 30 years from adding tomato paste to not adding it, from making it a runny stew to making it a dry stew and the changes go on.

When I got mum’s new recipe I thought to myself…I will just make enough for the blog / photos… mission impossible! The dish is best made to a large consistency, after all it taste so much better with time. Yes you can eat it within 3 hours of cooking it however the taste develops as it stands. I would normally give it 1-2 days, although it never lasts that long!

chochla-miesiaca-wiosna-400 — This recipe got Ladle of the month!!

My tips for making this dish:
1) use good quality sauerkraut and to me nothing beats Krakus Sauerkraut! I tried making my own a few months back – failed miserably but that is a story for another day!
2) don’t over liquid the cooking process. Remember that this is a dry stew so its not meant to be covered in water.
3) best eaten on the 2nd day!
4) eat it over rye or sourdough bread with a bottle of Zywiec!
Smacznego!

Smacznego! Bella

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Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms

Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms is the very first dish I made with this years first haul from the forest… although not really a haul as I came out with only 13 prized funghi specimens but pair them with a stunning salmon fillet and it’s a feast of a dinner.

It’s still a little too warm for the mushrooms at this point but the rains we have been having in NSW makes for a very promising season. There were lots of very little baby mushrooms poking their heads out, they will be just ripe for picking the following week.

As you can see from my basket there wasn’t too much around, a very small haul indeed but still a feast worthy of a delicious dinner.

FinSkis 2014 mushrooming trip — A small haul but still worthy of a dinner

This is a high nutrient rich meal with just a little indulgent use of butter and a sweet hit from the vino cotto.

Enjoy the forage and savour the feast – Blondie 🙂

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Kale and 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Rich Tomato and Mushroom Sauce

Kale 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Tomato Mushroom Sauce. My mum makes the best lasagna, it’s seriously good, and as with any great recipe that is made by all mum’s the world over, you can never make it as good as theirs. That’s why going back home is always so good.

This Kale 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Tomato Mushroom Sauce is based on mum’s design and her cheese mixture, this is just the vegetarian version. It’s super delicious and soul warming.

I know, the words Blondie and vegetarianism are never seen together, but that was prior to doing Meat Free Week a couple of weeks ago. It was hubby’s decision to do it and as a family we embraced the idea. We had been talking about meat alot of late, not only about reducing our intake but being more conscious of where it was coming from. I had wanted to make meat the ‘special occasion’ meal, the dinner you saved up for and cooked with purpose and love, knowing the animal or fish had lived a good, rich and healthy life.

What surprised me most about that week was it actually took alot more effort and conscious thought to design meals for 7 full days of meat free living than it does to construct and meal with meat. The days were used to think of dinners and lunches that were full of flavour and filled the space left by meat. Sure, I could have done a week of salads and roasted veggies, but I really wanted to try try some other recipes. I don’t want to rely on rice and potatoes to fill the void.

What also surprised me or surprised us all was the fact we had planned to ‘celebrate’ day eight – the start of meat eating again – with my son’s favourite meal of burgers and chips from Grill’d. It was a very enjoyable dinner and a delicious way of re-starting our meat loving ways, but it wasn’t till the next Friday that meat was requested again… funny.

With several new recipes under my belt and with the need to buy quality, local meat our new life of conscious meat eating has begun – 3 to 4 days meat free and enjoying amazing places like Feather and Bone Providore here in Sydney to buy our meat from.

Happy eating, however you choose to do it – Blondie 🙂

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