Crumbed mushrooms with sherry cream sauce
A classy little entrée to serve to dinner guests.
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 8 equal-size portobello mushrooms
• ¼ cup flour, seasoned with 1 tsp porcini powder * and salt and pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
• 1 cup panko crumbs
• ½ cup olive oil
• chopped chives to garnish
Sherry cream sauce
• 50g butter
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed with ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup sherry
• 1 cup cream
• ½ tsp porcini powder *
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
* Porcini powder
• Place dried porcini mushrooms in a spice grinder and process until fine. This will keep for ages in a jar in the pantry and is a handy seasoning for a multitude of things.
Method
Remove the stalks from the mushrooms.
Put the flour, eggs and panko crumbs into three separate dishes. Dip the mushrooms in the flour, then into the egg mixture and finally in the panko crumbs.
Heat the oil in a frypan to a medium heat and fry the mushrooms until golden brown on both sides.
To make the sherry cream sauce, place the butter and garlic into a small saucepan and heat until the garlic starts to sizzle. Add the sherry and simmer until reduced by one third. Add the cream and simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and is nice and shiny. Season with the porcini powder, thyme and black pepper. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
Serve two mushrooms drizzled with the sauce per person. Sprinkle with chives.
Lemon spaghetti
This is my ultimate “I can’t be bothered with a vegetable” comfort food. I don’t even put a salad on the side as that just interrupts the zingy passion moment I have going on with this meal. This is a great example of the theory that the simpler you keep things, the better it tastes.
Serves 2
Ingredients
• 250g dried spaghetti
• Salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 250ml cream
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated parmesan
• Chopped parsley
Method
Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of well-salted boiling water until al dente.
While the spaghetti is cooking, make the sauce.
Combine the oil and garlic in a deep frypan over a medium heat. As soon as it starts to sizzle, pour in the cream and lemon zest. Season with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Turn the heat up and leave it to simmer until it has reduced to a nice shiny thick consistency. Add the lemon juice and bring back to the boil.
Once the spaghetti is cooked, use tongs to transfer it to the sauce, taking a good amount of cooking water with it, and mix well. I find the spaghetti cooks in about the same amount of time as the sauce takes to make. But if the sauce is ready sooner, turn off the heat until the spaghetti is ready.
Serve topped with an extra grind of black pepper, some grated parmesan and chopped parsley.
Tip
When you first plunge your spaghetti into the boiling water, make sure you stir it well and a couple of times thereafter so the noodles don’t stick together.
Beetroot and onion pakoras with coriander and mint raita
These are great as a pass around snack or served loaded up on a salad as an entrée.
Makes about 25
Mint raita
• ½ cup Greek yoghurt
• ½ cup roughly chopped coriander, stalks included
• ¼ cup mint leaves
• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped
• Zest and juice of ½ lemon
• Pinch salt
Pakoras
• 200g coarsely grated fresh beetroot
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 tsp flaky salt
• 50g chickpea flour
• 50g plain flour
• 2 tsp curry powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 100-150ml cold water
• 1 tsp toasted coriander seeds
Method
To make the raita, place all the ingredients in a jug and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until required.
To make the pakoras, place the beetroot and onion into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and then by hand gently massage the mixture together. Set aside for 10-30 minutes, then drain off any juice. Heat a deep fryer or saucepan of oil to 175°C.
Whisk together all the dry ingredients with 100ml of the water, adding more if needed, to achieve a thick batter.
Stir the beetroot mixture into the batter along with the coriander seeds.
Drop dessert spoonfuls of the batter into the fryer, allowing it to fall quite loosely from the spoon to form lots of crunchy gnarly bits. Leave a gap between each spoonful so they don’t join up. Fry the pakoras for about 2 minutes until golden brown and crispy, flipping them over halfway through cooking. You will need to cook them in about three or four batches.
Drain on paper towels and serve nice and hot with the raita.
Tip
As the raita chills, the flavour will develop more so check the seasoning just before serving rather than just after making. You may need to add a little more lemon juice or salt.
Apricot and blackberry cobbler
Apricots are the announcement of summer; they’re so versatile and they continue to ripen after they are picked so don’t be put off by them being firm at the market. Here is a beautiful summery dessert that showcases them at their best. You can make this in the winter using tinned or frozen fruits.
Serve with cream, ice cream or yoghurt.
Ingredients
• 700g fresh apricots
• 120g raw caster sugar
• 300g fresh or frozen blackberries
• 60g raw caster sugar
• 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
• icing sugar
Cobbler topping
• 50g raw caster sugar
• 100g flour
• 60g ground almonds
• Pinch salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp grated lemon zest
• 100g softened butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan bake.
Cut the apricots in half, removing the stones. Place the halved apricots into an ovenproof dish, ideally a 24cm round ceramic or glass pie dish, and sprinkle with the first measure of sugar. Bake for 20 minutes until the apricots are tender. Set aside to cool.
Toss the blackberries in the second measure of sugar and the cornflour. Set aside while you make the cobbler topping.
To make the topping, place the dry ingredients and lemon zest in a bowl and mix in the butter until well combined (do this by hand or use a spatula). Lightly whisk the egg and vanilla together and fold into the mixture.
Spoon the coated blackberries on top of the cooled apricots, then use a clean spoon to drop random dollops of the cobbler topping, leaving gaps in between.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes until the topping is golden and the filling is bubbling up.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Tip
You can use the cobbler topping for any fruits you like.
An edited extract from Comfort Cooking, by Wendy Morgan (Bateman Books, RRP $45).
