Thanks to a cancelled church service, I found myself drifting from my normal area wet market and to a bigger, much more well stocked one about a 15 minute drive away.
There I found a pretty nice array of imported vegetables, including fresh mushrooms!! Fresh button and shitake mushrooms. I read the price was RM3/5 for 1 kilo of mushrooms, and since fresh mushrooms hardly weigh anything, I thought, well, this must be my lucky day - what a find!
Bleargh. It was RM5 for 100 grams of fresh buttons and Rm3 for 100 grams of fresh shitake. *Slap forehead*. By this time I was too scared of the little old lady selling them to give them back.
Well, I picked them, packed them, paid for them and had to hunt for a recipe that would showcase these mushrooms as mush as possible. 13 bucks worth of button and shitake mushrooms - I'd better put them to good use.
Cream of musroom soup? I don't have cream or butter or bay leaves, and am not willing to spend any more on this dish. Bleh. Mushroom omellette? Not special enough!
I want my mushrooms to be star (s).
After some stressing, I settled on this recipe by Wolfgand Puck, chef to Hollywood elite . Go Wild With Mushrooms! This would do justice to my grossly overpriced purchase. (After all, the whole reason why I cook is so we don't have to pay more for our food, which is why I'm ranting)
Spagetthi with Shitake Mushrooms, Poached Chicken and Carrot Ribbons
Adapted from here
Serves 2
Mushroom Essence
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
150 g fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 large dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons each finely diced carrot and onion
2 teaspoons minced shallot
150 ml chicken stock (I made my own from chicken carcasses, then kept the meat from the carcasses)
Dash ground black pepper
Mushroom Sauce
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil , plus one extra
200g shiitake mushrooms
1 heaping tablespoon minced shallot
2 teaspoons minced garlic
200 ml chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pasta
200g dried spagetthi
1 tbsp oyster sauce
Chicken stock (I used a few drops of concentrated chicken stock)
1 cm knob of ginger, sliced thinly
1 small carrot
For all the mushrooms, remove stems from caps and use your fingers to pull them apart into small fibrous shreds. Slice the caps thinly. Use only the caps for the essence and sauce. Set the torn stalks aside.
Soak the dried shitake mushrooms in hot water (1/4 cup) for 20 mins or more. Quarter the mushrooms, leave the stalks on. Don't discard the soaking water.
At least 1 hour before serving, or up to 1 month ahead, make the Mushroom Essence. In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms (dried and the portion of the fresh, carrot, onion and shallot and saute stirring constantly, 2 minutes more. Reduce the heat to medium, add the broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes more.
Fish the dried mushroom pieces out of the pan, place in a food processor along with 1 tbsp of the mixture, add the soaking water. Puree the mixture ands return to the pan.
Set the mixture aside to cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree.
About 30 minutes before serving time, place the ginger slices, chicken stock and oyster sauce in a stockpot. Top up with water as necessary and bring to boil.
Meanwhile, make the Mushroom Sauce: In a large saute pan, heat the oil over high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute stirring continuously, for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat, stir in the shallot, garlic and a bit more olive oil, and continue cooking.
Stir in the stock and 4 tablespoons of the Mushroom Essence. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and cook gently for 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and keep warm.
Heat 1 more tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium high heat , add 1 tbsp essence and 2 tbsp chicken stock. Add the shredded mushroom stalks and continue cooking until the liquid had reduced.
Meanwhile, put the spagetthi into the boiling water. Cook until tender but still slightly chewy, following the manufacturer suggested cooking time. About 4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the carrot ribbons to the water
Pour the pasta and carrot ribbons into a colander to drain. Add them to the sauce and gently toss to coat well. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan. Taste again and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Optional - but I found this to be a real nice addition - since I was making stock from chicken carcasses I bought dirt cheap at the aforementioned market , I salvaged the chicken flesh from the bones, shredded the meat and added a few drops of Maggie Seasoning to the mixture for flavour. I found that this gave a nice extra chewy something to the pasta and made it a bit more filling.
Evenly divide the pasta, mushrooms, carrot ribbons and sauce among 4 large serving plates, add the shredded chicken meat, if using, and serve.
It was delicious - we loved the intense mushroom flavour of the sauce and it felt great to be able to (almost) recreate some sort of restaurant style meal, instead of the simpler stuff I like to do at home.
Justice is served.
Dewdrops clinging to the cowgrass.
Heliconia in my neighbour's garden (most of the grown flowers here are our neighbours...we grow mostly weeds and the occasional pumpkin seedlings - which we then leave to fend for themselves)
