Because we are such a food-oriented family, we entertain a
lot. I have always put a lot of effort into the food I cook and guarded my
recipes. In the past people used to ask me to teach them how to make food the
way I do and I would refuse – I don’t know why. As you can tell, this is no
longer the case. I love to share what I know and I enjoy the feedback I get
from people trying my recipes. It makes me happy when I get emails with all
sorts of variations on the original; some I adopt and some I park. All of life
should be a learning lesson!
Last week we had visitors for dinner and I made a mushroom
sauce to compliment the meat. One of our visitors asked for the recipe, and it
reminded me that I have promised the recipe lots of other times, too. So today
I am going to share it. It is not overly complicated, but it is really good to
eat and very versatile; you can have it over meat, vegetables, mixed through
pasta, as a pizza base, on toast with an
egg, or have it like my big fella does, with a spoon straight out of the sauce
jug.
Before we get into the recipe, I want to talk a bit about
mushrooms. Here in Whakātane we are really limited in the kinds of mushrooms we
can get from the store. We get button mushrooms and portobello or field
mushrooms. There are lots of growing kits for oyster, shiitake, poplar and
burgundy mushrooms, but I am yet to hear of anyone having great success and I
am keen to hear from anyone who has. I would like to learn.
Mushrooms are packed with nutrition. They are low fat, low,
cholesterol, low sugar, but high in vitamins and minerals. A 100gm serving of Portobello mushrooms will
give you more than 20-40% of the B vitamins you need for the day, 50% of
vitamin D and 22% of the selenium you need. New Zealand soil is very low in
selenium so we need to take it where we can get it. I can’t think of a more
delicious way than mushrooms.
Kia makona
Mawera Karetai – The Wild Cook
Mushroom Sauce
400gms of mushrooms (diced or sliced)
4 spring onions, finely sliced
3 med/large cloves of garlic (pressed or grated)
250gms of sour cream and around ¼ c water
1 heaped tblspn wholegrain mustard
1 heaped tsp Italian herbs of your choice
Pepper and salt to taste
Butter and oil for frying
*Optional: finely sliced celery or capsicum
·
Melt butter in a frying pan. Add mushrooms and
cook on a medium to high heat until caramelised. Reduce heat.
·
Add spring onions, garlic and optional celery
and capsicum if you are using them. Cook until softened.
·
Add mustard, sour cream, water and herbs. Cook
on a low simmer until you are happy with the consistency.
·
Taste and then add pepper and salt to season. Salt
is something you should always add at the end of cooking. As the liquid
evaporates, the salt concentration increases in your dish. You will not need
much with this sauce.
·
This recipe reheats well and tastes even better
on the 2nd day if you can keep it that long.
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