KITI’S BEST MUSHROOM SAUCE
- 400 g brown mushrooms (white can be used, brown has more taste)
- 1 onion, diced
- 30 ml oil or butter
- 600 ml cream
- 5 ml freshly ground pepper (adjust to taste, use more or less)
- 5 ml mushroom powder (recipe below) or replace with 2.5 ml salt
(If you don’t use mushroom powder, then use 5 ml salt) - Roux:
- 50 ml melted butter
- 30 ml flour, combined with butter
Freshly chopped parsley, as much as you want.
Fry chopped onions off until tender, not browned. Add mushrooms and fry until dry and browned (this is the good bits). Add cream and just heat through, add pepper, mushroom powder (use it, you can thank me later) and salt to taste. Even if you use mushroom extract powder, taste and decide if you want to add salt. DO NOT let it come to a rolling boil, the cream may separate.
Add the roux made from the melted butter and flour and stir through while heating. Remove from heat as soon as it has thickened.
Taste to make sure the flour taste is gone (cooked) and to adjust seasoning.
Serve with a scattering of parsley on top.
- MUSHROOM POWDER EXTRACT
- 1 pack dried mushrooms
- 400 g fresh mushrooms (buy the cheapy ones on special, perfect for this)
- Soy sauce
Soak mushrooms in just enough soy sauce to wet everything. You can add more if it gets absorbed too quickly.
Soak for 2 hours or more, or overnight. Drain in a colander or sieve.
Distribute in a single layer on a sheet of baking paper. Trust me on this, you will need that baking paper!
Dry out in an oven of no more than 120°C for a few hours. It must be very dry and hard, not bendy. You can also put it in the dehydrator. I leave it in the oven to cool down completely. Put it in a good food processor and mill as fine as you can (think ground pepper consistency). Also add those dry bits of soy sauce that is so easy to remove from baking paper, impossible to get of any other surface (told you to use baking paper!)
Seal it in a container that seals really well, like an old herb bottle.
Note:
Add one of those little envelopes that you get in the dried foods to keep it dry, on top. This trick keeps it completely dry. One of them lives in each of my herb and spice containers.
Use this in any stew or sauce that needs that extra oomph.
Just REMEMBER to reduce the salt in the recipe, as the soy content not only preserves this mix, but has a lot of salt.
Note:
Ek het iets opgelet met die metode wat ek doen sonder om te dink. As ek die room inroer, dan skakel ek die plaat af (gas, so dadelik af). Dan rus die sous so met die herbs en spices tot net voor ons eet, dan maak ek vinnig warm.
En dan is dit lekkerder as direk na jy room ingooi. Al die geure “infuse”.
Recipe and photo: Kiti de Jager
