Jane Grigson’s
Stuffed Mushrooms - 31/12/12
Casting around for something different for new year's eve
supper, I found a number of stuffed mushroom recipes in "Mushroom
Feast" - the source of the chicken croquettes that are easy and brilliant,
but nothing quite seemed to fit, so I stated looking elsewhere. Several
indexes later, I opened another Jane Grigson - "Good Food", and there
it was. Mushrooms stuffed in the style of Berry. I made a few
alterations, culled from some of the other recipes in Mushroom Feast, so this
isn't quite exactly as she wrote it, but it is very good. It looks hard
work but really it isn't.
Tips:
·
I have done this
several times now, and I think that you can use the shallot or onion raw, which
is one less job and it is somewhat better.
I didn’t dare use the garlic raw, but if you cook them for longer as I now
do, it should be fine. I only use Parma
ham if I happen to have some in the fridge, and the hard boiled egg is optional
too.
·
Try to top up the
liquid with porcini juice (or stock) so that you have a small amount of well
reduced juice left at the end to pour over the mushrooms before you serve them.
·
I usually put them on
to a bed of something – creamy mash into which some well browned leeks or
onions have been mixed, or leeks cooked in cream, even, last night, some left
over sprouts well chopped and fried in butter and nutmeg.
·
Adding the extra
chopped mushrooms lightens the mixture but, again, I would only use them if
they were hanging about in the fridge waiting to be used up.
For two quite hungry people:
Four medium or two very large open mushrooms.I used
chestnut, but anything will do.
2 good sausages with a high meat content, say Toulouse or
Cumberland.
1oz or so of shallots or onion
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
4 or 5 small cornichon/gherkins
2 thin slices of Parma ham (optional)
1 egg (optional)
1/2 oz dried breadcrumbs and milk to moisten
Dried parsley &/or oregano &/or thyme - or fresh
parsley if you can get it. I used a teaspoon of Persillade bought in
Arles market.
3 or 4 smaller mushrooms (optional)
Butter. Salt. Pepper. Milk and maybe a touch of cream.
Dry white wine or, better, Dry Vermouth
Half a dozen dried porcini.
Soak the porcini in a cup of boiling water and set aside. If you can do this an hour ahead, so much the
better. Turn the oven on to 180C to 160C fan. Our oven needs the
higher setting, yours may not. Hard boil the egg. Add the dried
herbs to the crumbs and moisten with milk. You probably need three
tablespoons. It will get very solid after a minute or two - don't worry.
Peel the shallots and slice. Peel the garlic,
discarding any brownish bits and splitting the cloves to remove any green
shoots, which are bitter. Slice it finely. Roll the Parma Ham into
a tight cigar and slice as thin as you can. Carefully remove the stalks
from the large mushrooms and add the stalks to the chopping board.
Now chop all these for as long as you can stand it; ideally
the mixture should have no piece bigger than a peppercorn. Heat a
generous 1/2 oz of butter in a saute pan and fry over a gentle heat.
After two or three minutes, add a splash of wine/Dry Vermouth, raise the
heat and cook till there is little or no liquid left.
Chop the hard boiled egg. Strain the porcini, keeping
the liquid and chop very finely. (I left them out, most of the flavour is
in the liquid).
Chop the cornichons as finely as you can be bothered. They give a pleasant acidic balance to the richness of the pork. Put the sausage meat in a medium bowl (split and skin
sausages if using those) with the egg, the chopped porcini if using them, the cornichons and
the mixture from the pan. Add a little cream or more milk to the crumbs
so that they are just workable and add about a well heaped old style tablespoon
- I doubt you will need all of them - use your judgement. They are there
to soften the final mixture. Season with salt and plenty of pepper and
mix all together very well indeed with a wooden spoon.
Wipe the pan of any bits, add another 1/2 oz butter and let
it get gently hot. Put the destemmed large mushrooms in the pan and cook slowly
for about two or three minutes, then add a good splash (1/2 a wineglass?) of
white wine or dry vermouth and turn up the heat. The idea is that the
mushrooms are about 1/2 cooked, so turn them a few times and remove. Add
the porcini liquid to the pan and boil fiercely till reduced by at least half.
You need to be left with about a wineglassfull, say 150cls.
Put the mushrooms gill side up into an ovenproof dish with
sides of at least 2". Divide the mixture and pile it neatly into the
mushrooms. There may be some left over, which is good! Melt a
tablespoon of butter and carefully drizzle it over the mixture. Put the
dish on the oven shelf, and carefully add the liquid, pouring it so that it
surrounds the mushrooms but does not touch the stuffing. Bake for about
20 minutes and have a look. I put mine under the grill for ten minutes to
brown - you may feel that it is not necessary. The sausagemeat needs to
be completely cooked so not less than 30 minutes overall, I think. You could also cook them for longer and
slower, but watch that the liquid does not evaporate completely and burn.
Whilst the dish is cooking, you have a little treat.
Very lightly grease a nonstick pan, get it hot, roll any remaining
mixture into cakes about 1" across and half as high, and fry on a high
heat till browned. Very good indeed. I am going to do some for our
12th Night Party, I think!
Serve, pouring the buttery dark juices over the mushrooms.
We had mashed potato with butter, cream and a little nutmeg in the
seasoning, and cabbage cooked in butter, Dry vermouth and cumin seeds.
The recipe is in an earlier post I think. Mas de Daumas Gassac 1998
which had been opened four hours before and decanted for an hour, which was a
magical treat!
It seems long now that I have written it out, but it really
is not at all fiddly or painstaking and is well worth the effort.
