Not everyone likes mushrooms ... but WE DO. We eat a lot of mushrooms at our house. They're versatile, they add a lovely earthy flavor, and they're still (at least on February 2, 2023) relatively inexpensive as far as grocery prices go.
John found a recipe in the NY Times for Wild Mushroom Stew which sounded good and didn't look too complicated. We made it last night. As usual, we tweaked the recipe some, and then dissected it, and made notes on what we'd do differently the next time.
Here's our recipe - it has parts of the NY Times recipe and then some things that we tweaked for our taste. As an example - we often find rosemary too strong of a flavor and it overpowers all the other great flavors. So we punted and used Italian Seasoning. We also used cherry tomatoes as they're our go-to winter tomato. When we make this the next time, we'll likely try oregano and perhaps a smattering of tarragon too. Playing with herb combinations is always fun in our kitchen.
When we're at our ski condo in Oregon, our kitchen doesn't yet have a cast iron dutch oven (or a new gas range), but we do have a nice big non-stick pan with about 3" sides that works for most things. We don't get lovely bits on the bottom of the pan to deglaze, and honestly I do miss deglazing lovely bits, so I think it's time to go shopping for a dutch oven.
Our recommendation is that you have all of the ingredients prepped and ready; once you start cooking this recipe goes together quickly. Which is handy, as it's a relatively fast and delicious dinner for a night when you're short on time.
Mushroom Stew with Soft Polenta
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb Cremini mushrooms - either brown or white, thinly sliced
1 lb Shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 medium sweet onion (we prefer sweet onions), diced
3 cloves garlic, grated or very finely chopped
4 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl unsalted butter
salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsps dried Italian Seasoning (see notes above)
1/2 tsp dried thyme (see notes above)
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 Tbl tomato paste
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered and seeded (these are the tomatoes we had on hand)
1 Tbl flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken or mushroom broth
1/4 cup cream cheese
Soft Polenta or Couscous - follow package instructions
In a large wide pan or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and saute for approximately 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook again until both are soft and onion is translucent; about 5 more minutes. Be careful to not burn the garlic. Remove from the pan.
Add 1 Tbl butter to the pan, then all the mushrooms. Turn the heat up to medium-high and brown the mushrooms on all sides - approximately 5-6 minutes. The trick is to use a large enough pan that the mushrooms have room to spread out and contact the heat. You want them nice and brown and the liquid gone.
Season with salt and pepper (about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper)
To the mushrooms add the Italian seasoning, thyme, cayenne pepper (optional), and the tomato paste.
Cook and stir over medium heat for approximately 1 minute to incorporate the flavors.
Add in the cooked onion and garlic, the tomatoes, the other 1 Tbl of butter, then sprinkle in the flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring to incorporate the flour and heat the tomatoes through.
Slowly add 1 cup of the broth and stir until it thickens.
Slowly add in the other cup of broth to a 'loose gravy' consistency. **We decided we wanted ours a little thicker and a little less soupy, so we didn't use the entire second cup of broth.
Divide the cream cheese into about 3 parts and drop into the pan. Slowly incorporate over gentle heat; you want a creamy consistency. Be careful not to scald at this point.
Sprinkle with a bit of chopped fresh parsley.
While you're working on the mushroom stew, you can cook the polenta or couscous. We prefer quick-cooking varieties as we rarely plan far enough ahead for the long-cook kinds.
Put the polenta (or couscous) in a lovely big bowl and ladle the mushroom stew over the top.
We had a delightful glass of Helix Wines Tucker Legacy Red along with our dinner and decided this was a recipe we'd definitely make again. And probably tweak again. Because, well ... that's what we like to do. Cook good food, drink good wine, and spend time together in the kitchen.
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