It's all about Shrooms......

Today I wanna share a very favourite ingredient of mine. Mushrooms. They are highly nutritional and they are a good source of protein for vegetarians or people diagnosed with Gout and cannot take beans which is another protein source. Depending on the variety, most mushrooms tastes earthy and has a meaty texture and having a considerable high natural sugar content, which means they taste rather sweet provided prepared correctly.

When choosing mushrooms be it free-ranged or packaged, the first sign you wanna look out for are smooth, dry caps as it depicts the mushrooms' freshness. Next would be the gills of the mushroom which is located under the cap, it should be clean and has a good dark colour to it. And lastly is the stem, again depending of the variety for example a white button mushroom, the stem shold feel firm and meaty. If you're at a supermarket where the mushrooms are all packed and displayed in opened chillers, best way to check for freshness is ti look out for the one with the least if not no condensation on the plastic rap. As the climate in singapore is hotter and mushrooms had to be kept refridgerated, often condensation will occur ad dampened the mushroom caps so make sure you get a good look before buying.

For the following dishes that I'm about to teach I'll be using mainly White Button mushrooms as it is the most common and basic type of mushroom. So once you think you're ready to be adventorous, be creative and experiment with other different types of mushrooms.

Mushroom Ragout(serves 4)

A very classic italian dish. It's basically a mushroom stew. Kinda like mushroom soup but chunkier, thicker and not blended. Very simple to prepare too.

600gm Fresh Button mushrooms(roughly cut into chunks)

1 no. Large White onion(Chopped)

1 cup White Wine(Preferably Chardonnay...)

1/2 cup Plain Flour

2 cups Chicken or vegetable stock

2 tbsp Chopped Italian Flat-leaf Parsley

50gm Unsalted butter

2 tbsp Heavy cream

1 tbsp Fresh Thyme

Bay Leaves

Salt & cracked black pepper

In a pot, melt half of the butter and keep the other half refridgerated. Add chopped onion and saute till golden and caramelized. throw in the mushrooms and saute them till they are slightly softened, season with salt and pepper. Grab your thyme by the stem and then just run your fingers through it and retrieve the leaves, throw them in without the stem and add in a bay leaf or two. De-glaze the pot wth white wine and dust the mixture with flour. Stir the mushrooms around quickly to prevent the flour from burning. Once flur is dissolve into the misture, add in stock and bring it to boil. Once the mixture is bubbling away, bring it down to low heat and let it simmer away for 20-30 minutes stiring it occasionally. The mixture should reduce to at least 1/3 and should be rather thick after 30 minutes. At this point,season to taste and add in the remainder butter which has been chilled into the mixture and stir until the butter is fully melted. To serve, ladle the Ragout into the bowl, drizzle cream and sprinkle parsley on top. You can eat it on it's own or you can have it with slices or toasted Foccasia bread or with mashed potatoes to make t a complete meal.

Chris's Spaghetti Al Funghi(serves 4)

One my personal favourites. A classic pasta dish with a twist. I came up with this dish when I was in Seattle visiting my relatives. Initially there was a very crucial flaw in this dish because it was a cream-based sauce pasta. As it is cream-based, it's very rich and if not done right it can be very gelate and not very pleasant for the palette. Half the time you see people having problem finishing the whole plate due to it's richness. So the key is to cut through the richness of the cream and cleanse the palette on every single bite so that people would be able to finish their plates. My uncle tried it I believed he was blown away by the taste.

1 pkt Spaghetti

6oogm Sliced Button mushroom
1 no. Chopped white onion

1 cup Dry white wine

2 cups Heavy Cream

1 tbsp Freshly chopped mint

Salt and Cracked Black pepper

Olive oil

In a large pot of boiling salted water, throw in pasta and cook for 7-8 minutes till Al Dente. Once that is done, strain the pasta and keep aside for further use. In a large, hot pan, saute onions till translucent with a bit of olive oil. Throw in the mushrooms and continue to saute till lightly softened. Add in the cook pasta and oss it quickly to prevent it from sticking to the pan, deglaze with 1/2 cup of wine and add one cup of cream. Season lightly with salt and pepper let the cream reduce slightly. you'll notice that the pasta will have a very thin coat of cream after it has been reduced. At this point, add in the remainder wine and cream in the same procedure as before and season the pasta again. Stir in freshly chopped mint before serving.

Points to ponder....

For Mushroom Ragout, I mentioned stiring in the remainder chilled butter into it before serving. This is a finishing process called Monte Au Buerre (mon-tay-oh-bur). It simply means to lift with butter. What the butter does is it gives a rich flavour and shiny texture to the sauce or in this case, Mushroom Ragout.

In the case of Al Funghi, there are several key factors to look into when preparing this dish in order to prevent the dish from becoming too gelate and yet not compromising the flavour and tecture to it. Firstly, introducing an acid to cut through the creaminess, in this case it will be a high acidity wine. Citric acid like lemon juice can do too but if you're not carful you can smother the flavour of the cream. Next is to introduce your wine and cream in batches, this gives the pasta time to absorb richness of the cream so that you don't have to drink cream from your plate. Lastly is the mint, by adding mint into the sauce, it will leave a slight refreshing taste in your mouth so that you won't feel that the dish is too gelate.