Dish 11: Mushroom Sauce

The dish

If you do not like mushrooms, you'd best stop reading now, because this dish is not for you. To quote You've Got Mail (and technically Shop Around The Corner): 

"Well, if you don't like Kathleen Kelly, I can tell you right now, you're not going to like this girl." "Why?" 

"Because it is Kathleen Kelly."

The preparation

One takes mushrooms. Several kinds of mushrooms.

You chop and tear them up, and then you get to do what I love: chuck them in a pan. Naturally you add about 10 other ingredients to this pan, including some stock and you add your other ingredients in the order that Andy tells you to. 

You end up with something that looks like this (or at least, I did!):

I know, it may not look as appetising as you may have expected, if you expected anything at all. But, the proof is in the pudding and not in the way it jiggles.

And naturally there is something that makes everything look better. Tasty garnish! Add some parsley and voilà, a tasty looking mushroom sauce.

Not too shabby, right?

The result

If you have not realised this already: Andy Allen loves his citrus. Almost every dish I have made up until now has had lime/lemon juice or zest through it. Sometimes I find that the acidity can dominate the other flavours a little, but in this sauce, it is amazing; the saltiness of the stock combined with those delicious mushrooms and the freshness of the parsley just fits perfectly alongside the sour lemon juice..

And if, like my best friend and I, you like your mushrooms next to a good piece of meat, you could try combining it as follows:

A good piece of steak, oven baked potatoes and green asparagus. Delicious.

Next time

I don't think I can avoid the fried food for much longer, so get ready to get your deep fryer out of the garage or from the attic (because surely you can't use it that often?). It's time for some Popcorn Chicken with Lime Mayo (p. 106).

See you at our next elemental meal!