Quick Mushroom Ragu

The current issue of Cook's Illustrated (March/April 2011) includes a recipe for a Quick Mushroom Ragu, a spaghetti sauce based on pancetta, tomatoes and two types of mushrooms (dried porcini and portabello).  The idea of a quick sauce full of rich mushroom flavor appealed to me, so as soon as I read that recipe, I knew I'd want to try it out.  Last week I finally did so.

This sauce came together really quickly.   The recipe is advertised as being ready in just 30 minutes, but I think it actually took a bit more than that.  Not much, though... 45 minutes at most.   That's a pretty good amount of time to get a meal ready, and especially if the meal is a good one.

I thought it was great.   The porcini mushrooms are soaked in chicken broth, which is then microwaved, and the broth is used as the liquid for the sauce.   The hearty portabellos, flavorful porcinis and the bit of meatiness provided by the pancetta come together to produce a deliciously rich flavor blend.   Served with spaghetti, a sprinkling of grated Romano cheese and a Caesar salad, I thought this made for a very satisfying meal.

Juli would disagree with that assessment, however.   I loved this recipe, but she was not a fan.   She wasn't fond of the texture of the pancetta, and I think she found the concentrated, smoky flavor of the porcini mushrooms somewhat over-strong.  I think this is just one of those occasions when our tastes differ.  Unfortunately, that means I probably won't be making this one very often, but I do plan to keep this recipe in mind for the occasional weekend when she is busy with something work-related or off visiting family.  I'm perfectly content to make it for myself and finish off the leftovers over the next couple days. 

Jeffrey and Juli's Mushroom Bisque

This recipe was inspired by a recent post from one of my favorite blogs, The Iowa Housewife.  I was making the Fresh Mushroom Bisque recently featured there and had just about finished cooking the soup.  Jeffrey and I tend to like our food on the spicy side, and we wanted to perk the recipe up by adding more herbs and seasoning.  So we came up with a variation on the fly that adds thyme, bay leaf and cayenne pepper. 

We actually had to add the herbs and spices at the end, but that's not ideal, so the recipe is written the way we should have done it (if we weren't adjusting for flavor after the fact).  The finished soup is decadently creamy with a really deep, meaty mushroom flavor.  It is light years apart from condensed mushroom soup and manages to be both elegant and hearty.  Trough-worthy, for sure!

 
Jeffrey and Juli's Mushroom Bisque

4 generous servings

4 ounces fresh white mushrooms, cut into eighths
4 ounces fresh white mushrooms, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf

6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups half and half cream

4 tablespoons butter for sauteing onion, mushrooms, and garlic
1/4 cup sherry

1.  Start by chopping the mushrooms, onion, and garlic as directed.  Set aside.

2.  Using a small sauce pan, add the chicken broth and heat on medium low until just simmering.  Add the instant bouillon and whisk until mixed thoroughly.  Add thyme sprigs and the bay leaf.  Simmer all together for 5 minutes.  Remove the thyme sprigs and the bay leaf with a slotted spoon.

3. Using a 2 quart sauce pan or small Dutch oven, melt 6 tablespoons of butter on medium low heat.  Add flour, salt, white and cayenne peppers.  Cook over low heat.   When the mixture begins to bubble, remove from heat.  Add chicken stock, milk, and half and half cream slowly, whisking as you add the liquid to avoid lumps.  Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.  Cook over medium heat until thickened (keep stirring!), remove from heat and set aside.

4.  Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saute pan/skillet.  Add minced onions and cook for 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid and shrink, and the mushroom liquid has cooked off.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add sherry to the pan to deglaze and cook until the sherry has mostly cooked off or been absorbed by the mushroom mixture.

5.  Stir the mushroom mixture into the cream mixture and cook on low heat until heated through.

We served our soup with fresh ground black pepper, a little garnish of grated cheddar cheese, and oyster crackers.

Four-Mushroom and Spicy Beef Stir-Fry

I've had beef and mushroom stir-fries in Chinese restaurants, but I've never found a good recipe for the dish in a cookbook, cooking magazine or online, so I decided to make up one of my own.   In order to produce a strong mushroom presence with a variety of textures and flavors, I decided to use four types of mushrooms I try to keep on hand at all times:  dried wood ear and shitake mushrooms, canned straw mushrooms and fresh button mushrooms.   The first three are commonly used in Asian cooking, though the wood ear mushrooms are more often used in soups than in stir-fries, while the common, white button mushroom is a good, basic mushroom around which to base a recipe. 

After deciding on the mix of mushrooms, the rest of the recipe came together pretty easily.  Since mushrooms have something of a beefy flavor of their own, I decided to focus on giving the beef itself some heat.  I achieved this with a variety of Asian ingredients that work well with beef - Chinese black vinegar, dried chili peppers, hot mustard and Szechuan peppercorns - plus a bit of garlic and some soy to round out the flavors.  With the heat centered in the beef, I could then focus on boosting and rounding out the earthy aspects of the mushrooms' flavor by adding some black bean and hoisin sauce, and by using some sesame oil to add a nutty undertone.   Ginger and white pepper would give the mushrooms a more subtle heat, while the orange zest would add a bit of sweetness and tartness.  After deciding to toss in some carrots and green onions for added color, texture and variety of flavors, I had a working recipe.

This is one of those recipes that worked great as written, resulting in a great-tasting stir-fry from the first try.  The mix of ingredients results in a really rich blend of flavors, all unified by a smooth sauce.  The bits of heat, sweetness and tartness serve to accent the core flavors of the mushrooms and beef.

I hope some of our readers will try out this recipe.   If you do, I am confident you'll find it a winner. 

Four-Mushroom and Spicy Beef Stir-Fry

yield = 6 servings

1/2    ounce dried shitake mushrooms
1/2    ounce dried wood ear mushrooms
1 1/2  cups water
1 1/2 pound beef flank steak, thinly-sliced against the grain
6       dried Chinese red chili peppers, chopped
2       tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
2       tablespoons peanut oil, divided
1       tablespoon soy sauce
2       teaspoons minced garlic + 1 teaspoon
2       teaspoons hot mustard powder
1       teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, ground
1       can (14 ounces) straw mushrooms, drained
3       tablespoons black bean sauce
1       tablespoon hoisin sauce
1       tablespoon cornstarch
1       tablespoon orange zest
1       teaspoon fresh peeled and grated ginger
1/2    teaspoon ground white pepper
2       large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into long "matchsticks"
1       bunch green onions, white and green parts separated,
         white parts thinly sliced, green parts chopped
8       ounces fresh button mushrooms, quartered
2       teaspoons dark (Asian) sesame oil

Place dried mushrooms in a bowl.  Pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water over the dried mushrooms and allow them to soak for 30 minutes.   Remove softened mushrooms from the liquid, squeezing excess liquid back into the bowl.  Slice mushrooms into thin slices, discarding woody parts of stems, then set aside.   Strain soaking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer, retaining liquid and discarding silt and other solids collected in the strainer.

While the mushrooms are soaking, combine beef slices, chopped chili peppers, Chinese black vinegar, 1 tablespoon peanut oil, soy sauce, 2 teaspoons garlic, hot mustard powder and Szechuan peppercorns in a zipper-lock bag.  Shake to mix and evenly coat, then refrigerate for 1/2 hour. 

Combine black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, cornstarch, orange zest, ginger and white pepper in a bowl with the liquid retained from soaking the mushrooms.  Stir to mix thoroughly, then set aside.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the beef mixture and stir-fry until the beef is browned.   Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Add remaining tablespoon peanut oil and the sesame oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering.  Stir-fry carrots and the white parts of the green onions until the carrots have started to brown, about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining teaspoon garlic and stir-fry 30 seconds.  Add the shitake, wood ear, straw and button mushrooms to the skillet and stir-fry until they have softened and cooked through (about 4 minutes). 

Stir the black bean sauce mixture to the skillet, then stir in the beef and the green parts of the green onions.   Cook for about one minute or until the sauce thickens, then transfer to a serving bowl and serve with rice.

Note:
Depending on your tolerance for heat, you may want to remove the red pepper pieces after cooking the beef mixture.  They are edible, but are there primarily for flavoring purposes and can be quite hot to actually eat, and removing them after the beef is cooking won't hurt the flavor of the dish.

Crimini mushrooms can be used in place of button mushrooms in this recipe, but their stronger flavor might overwhelm the subtler flavors of the straw and shitake mushrooms.   Portabella and dried porcini mushrooms are not recommended for this recipe, as they will almost certainly overwhelm the other mushroom flavors.

Cooking Tip:  It's easier to thinly slice beef if  you
freeze it for a bit before slicing.  The same trick
works well for poultry and pork.