Category: mushroom

Categories
lentils mushroom pastry

vegetarian wellington

I’ve been trying to have less meat this year. Less meat of better quality, and generally two or three meatless dinners a week. I’ve discovered some great recipes that have been really enjoyable and helped me expand my vegetarian repertoire.

One thing I’d certainly never tried is a vegetarian wellington. Making a fillet steak version I would usually make a duxelle of mushroom and onion, deglaze with red wine and coat with Dijon mustard, so why not keep all those elements? I packed it with mushrooms, onion, lentils and spinach so it had a big, bold flavour. I was really happy with how it turned out.

The key to Wellingtons is to ensure ingredients are not too moist, not too hot when assembled to ensure the pastry gets a chance to crisp up and not get sodden with liquid.

And it’s timed perfectly. Cauldron Foods have polled for the festive vegetarian favourites. And vegetarian wellington came up on top!

Cauldron Foods have been championing vegetarian and vegan foods for years. I’ve been a fan of their falafel for years! To celebrate Christmas they’ve polled people to find out what alternatives are preferred at festive celebrations.

Read more about Cauldron’s poll here. The link also has recipe inspiration, ways to make your Christmas party go with a bang, plus a great competition. You could be in with a chance of winning £500 gift voucher or a Belazu hamper so go to the link to find out more!

If you want to ring the changes this Christmas, why not try my vegetarian wellington recipe. You could make it vegan if you use a suitable puff pastry, and glaze with a little oil instead.

This post was sponsored by Cauldron Foods.

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vegetarian wellington

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 6 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 roll puff pastry (320g) or make your own
  • 200 g red lentils
  • 250 g chestnut mushrooms
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 1 red onion
  • 100 ml red wine
  • 40 g dried mushrooms
  • 125 g spinach
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 egg beaten

Instructions

  • Put your oven on 220C to heat up, and get a kettle full of water on to boil. Get your pastry out of the fridge. Put a frying pan over a medium heat.
  • Put the dried mushrooms in a mug or bowl and cover with boiling water. leave to steep while you do everything else. Finely chop the chestnut mushrooms, and peel and finely chop the red onion (or use a food processor).
  • Put the lentils in a pan of boiling water and simmer for fifteen minutes or until tender. Drain really well in a sieve, rinsing with cold water to get the temperature right down. Once cool, squish with your hands to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
  • Add a little olive oil to the frying pan and add the mushrooms and onions. Pick the leaves off the thyme and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Fry gently for four to five minutes until softened, then turn up the heat and add the wine to deglaze the pan. Fry off until all the moisture has gone, then tip on to a cold plate to cool as quickly as possible.
  • Wipe out the pan and add the spinach leaves. In a minute or two they will have wilted down. Transfer to a chopping board, roughly chop and mix the spinach through the lentils.
  • Roll out your pastry sheet on baking paper on a metal baking sheet. You should have it portrait style in front of you. You will only need to work with the top half, as the bottom half will roll over the filling to make the complete sausage shape. As you add filling in the next step, leave a 1cm gap above the mixture to seal.
  • Brush the top half with Dijon mustard. Spoon over your mushroom and onion duxelle and flatten with the back of a spoon. Drain your dried mushrooms and scatter over the duxelle. Now add your lentil mix, making a rough sausage shape.
  • Brush the spare 1cm you left with a little water to provide a seal. Gently pull the pastry over the filling and press together to seal. Using a sharp knife make several slits over the top, just piercing the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with sea salt and bake. Cook for 25 minutes or until the pastry is completely risen and golden brown. Cut in thick slices and serve with mashed potatoes and gravy (a gravy sweetened with redcurrant jelly works really well with this).
Categories
mushroom rice

mushroom risotto

If you hate mushrooms, look away now! Carluccio’s are celebrating a festival of funghi with an Autumnal focus on mushrooms. There’s lots of products in store that can help enjoy this aromatic and versatile ingredient.

This is a celebration of the mushroom in probably my favourite form: a risotto. The layering of flavours here results in an earthy, savoury dish of rice that enriches the heart and tastes of pure luxury.

The key to a creamy, tasty risotto is to give that rice a good bashing. Stir aggressively, so that the starch comes away from the surface. This forms the creamy consistency of a perfect risotto. That, and the beating in of butter at the final stage, before letting it rest a moment.

There are also three magic Carluccio’s ingredients in this recipe that make it special: carnaroli rice which is plump yet creamy, porcini oil that provides fragrance and porcini stock. The porcini stock comes highly recommended – it is full of mushroom flavour and has the smack of umami that satisfies.

Visit Carluccio’s for more info. Thanks to Carluccio’s for the ingredients to try.

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mushroom risotto

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 2 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 onion finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 4 spilling handfuls of carnaroli risotto rice
  • A glass of white wine
  • 200 g chestnut mushrooms sliced. Reserve the stalks
  • 1 sprig of rosemary
  • 1 litre porcini stock maybe more or less
  • Couple of knobs of butter
  • 25 g parmesan finely grated
  • Few drops of truffle oil

Instructions

  • Get the stock on to simmer. Add the rosemary and mushroom stalks.
  • Gently fry the onions and garlic in a little oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook for another couple of minutes to soften.
  • Turn the heat up and add the rice, stirring the whole time to toast the outer surface of the rice without burning. After a minute add the wine and deglaze the pan with it.
  • Add the stock a ladleful at a time, taking care not to add the stalks. Each time stir the rice well and don't add any more liquid until the previous ladleful has been absorbed.
  • After about 15 minutes of adding stock taste the rice for doneness. You want something squishy but not complete mush. At that point turn the heat off and beat the parmesan and butter into the rice vigorously. Taste, adjust the seasoning, pop a lid on top and let stand for a minute or two.
  • Serve by adding a couple of drops of truffle oil.
Categories
bacon bread egg food mushroom

fry up in a cup

I do love a full English, but obviously isn’t something you can indulge in too often, so here’s another way to get your bacon-mushroom-toast-egg fix. You just need some little ramekins, darioles or if you’re not middle-class, teacups. I call it a fry-up-in-a-cup!

The mushrooms and bacon require a tiny bit of pre-cooking to get them started, but after that you stuff everything into a cup and bake it. Bread at the bottom forms a little base, and bacon creates a wall around the outside. Should take less than 20 minutes start to finish, and half of that is just leaving it in the pot to bake.

This would also be a good one to wrap up and take with you. If you bake the egg a little over the whole thing should go solid, leaving you with the most savoury of ‘muffins’.

You could make a few interesting substitutions here I bet – a small layer of baked beans would be interesting (despite being my least favourite food), and a pinch of  oregano or paprika would take it into another direction. Give it a whirl!

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fry up in a cup

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 slice of bread
  • 4 rashers smoked bacon
  • 4 chestnut mushrooms diced
  • 2 eggs

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180C, and put a frying pan over a medium heat.
  • Add the bacon to the pan and cook gently until just starting to colour. Remove and pop the mushrooms in instead.
  • While the mushrooms cook down, using a pastry cutter or an upturned glass cut out discs of bread to put in the bottom of your moulds. Bend the rashers around the inside of the mould to form the wall of your breakfasty pot. Season the mushrooms and add to the bread. Crack an egg on top and bake for 7 - 10 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking. Either eat out of the cup or scoop out if you dare.

Want some more alternative breakfasts? Try one of these…

CakeyBoi’s Elvis Breakfast Muffins are hilarious. I love ’em.

Or for something perhaps a little more healthsome may I suggest vegan breakfast pancakes?

These Scottish Tattie Scones will work alongside any cooked breakfast. And, y’know, potatoes.

Let’s BAM it up a notch, with Kavey’s bacon pancakes.

And finally here’s a stunner: Helen’s Full English Tarte Tatin. Brilliant stuff.

Categories
chicken cider food mushroom mustard

chicken in cider casserole

I seem to have a thing for baldy guys with glasses.

No, not that one this time. I’m talking about Adrian Edmondson.

I was a fan of the Young Ones growing up. Though I suspect I was too young I would sneak a look at my brother’s VHS tapes. Hole In My Shoe was the first song I bought. I kinda liked Filthy Rich and Catflap but I didn’t understand why Vyvyan and Rik were so different. Then Bottom arrived and I was smitten. Rude, comically violent and puerile slapstick was just what I wanted. GAS is one of my favourite 30 minutes of television ever, it’s just outrageously funny.

When someone says “do you want to have dinner with Ade Edmondson?” I barely stopped to breathe before replying yes.

Held at the wonderfully eclectic Food at 52, Ade was presenting a dish of his own devising: a cidery take on coq au vin. Fitting as the night was hosted by Merrydown cider. Not a cider I was familiar with but that was just another reason to say yes.

It was a very silly evening with bucketfuls of cider, Morris dancing and Ade plugging away at his casserole, enjoying himself and talking about his recent Celebrity Masterchef win (“I only had to beat 14 people!”). Reining in the urge to bark “squashed potatoes, your maaaa’am?” I took the opportunity for a quick chat. He seems to be over his comedy background and wants to move on to food and music; in fact a few days after the event he was off to Australia with his band. Ade also told Kavey and I he dreams of opening a pub with a menu that changes daily.

I promise you, the hat belonged to the Morris dancer

Aside from one toe-curlingly awkward moment where someone asked him if he’d ever tried stand-up (going to happen if you invite lots of young ‘uns I’m afraid) it was an evening of good food, good drink and lots of laughs.

I made the dish for friends only two days later, and it’s cracking. Dead easy too, just bung things in gradually and let it tick away. It’s the mustard seeds that make it. Don’t leave them out.

The recipe below for chicken in cider casserole (or “coq au cider” as he calls it) is Ade’s in all his own words. Many thanks to Merrydown for hosting an hilarious evening.

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chicken in cider casserole

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken legs complete with the thigh
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 120 g lardons
  • 1 tablespoon Olive oil
  • 100 g butter
  • 3 cloves garlic chopped
  • 2 medium sized onions chopped
  • 2 sticks celery sliced
  • 2 medium sized carrots sliced
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 leaves bay
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 large bottle Merrydown medium cider
  • 200 g small chestnut mushrooms

Instructions

  • Pour a glug of oil into a heavy bottomed pan or casserole dish. Once it is hot add half the butter. Once that has melted add the lardons and fry until they are very nicely browned, then remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon.
  • Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown them in the oil, butter and left over fat from the lardons, then remove them from the pan too.
  • This is the fun bit – add a heaped teaspoon of mustard seeds to the fat and put on the lid. A glass lid is the most fun, as after a couple of minutes you can watch the seeds burst and fly about all over the place. The make shift tin foil lid is fun too though, as the exploding seeds cause brilliant indentations on the underside.
  • Once the seeds have all popped (after a minute or so) add the onions, garlic and celery, and gently cook them off until the onions are translucent.
  • Add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and stir until it has been absorbed – a kind of makeshift roux.
  • Pour in a little of the cider and stir, and keep adding more, stirring each time, until the cider has absorbed the roux.
  • Now add the carrots, return the chicken and lardons to the pan and add the sprigs of thyme and the bay leaves. You need to make sure the chicken is completely covered by the cider. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer, and cover it almost entirely with the lid – almost, but not quite – you want it to reduce, but not very quickly.
  • Leave to gently simmer away for an hour, checking occasionally – if it looks like it’s drying out too much add more cider.
  • When the hour is nearly up slice the chestnut mushrooms and fry them off in the remains of the butter – you want to get them nicely browned – once they are done, add them to the pan and leave it for a further 10 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes to soak up that delicious sauce.
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