Cocotte Egg with Mushroom

So let's check: 3 layers of clothes, a big blanket on the bed, temperatures below 10°C at night, yeap, it looks like autumn is coming in early this year. Not that I mind, it's one of my favorit time of the year, but it always takes some adjustement, because I'm a girl and I'm almost always cold, so bring on the big socks, polar jacket and blankets to watch TV.

Because of the (too) many concerts booked, the travels that are planned and some upcoming expenses I know I will have until the the end of the year, I'm mostly cooking out of my pantry these days. Which, once again, proves that it is important to have a well stocked pantry.
This simple recipe is done under 30 minutes (even if you are slow like me) and fits perfectly these early autumn days, for a decent budget.

The mushroom are still from last year's hunting, dried up and stored properly, you can keep them easily. Onions and garlic have to be in every house, I used dried up parsley (obviously fresh would be better, but as said, I'm cooking out of the pantry), a small piece of speck leftover, some cream or soja cream and you're good to go. Enjoy your autumn!

Cocotte Egg with Mushroom

for 2 Cocottes

1 Handfull of dried up Mushrooms (I used trumpets of death)
1 Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of Parsley (dried)
10cl of Cream
50gr of Speck
2 Eggs
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the dried up mushroom in some hot water and let them sit there for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, peel and dice the onion aswell as the garlic clove.

In a non sticky frying pan, heat up some olive oil and add the onions with a bit of salt and cook them for about 5 minutes. Add the dried up parsley, the garlic and the diced speck, lower the heat.

Drain the mushroom (but keep some of the water aside) and add them to the onion and garlic mixture.
Pour the water you kept in the sauce pan and reduce it on a high heat, when there is about 3 or 4 spoonfull left, add those spoonfull to the cream, it will add a nice mushroom flavor to it, add a bit of pepper.

In your cocotte, place the mushroom, onion and garlic mixture first, than poor over the cream/mushroom sauce on it and top it with a raw egg. Place in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, depending how you like your yolk to be.

Serve with some toasted bread if you want, but if you have a nice fresh loaf of good bread no need to toast it first.

Mushroom Lasagna

I'm not a supersticious person, or at least not to a point it prevents from stepping outside. Sure I try to avoid walking under ladders or opening an umbrella inside, I even have clothes or coins I believe are lucky, but that's about it.
But so far this year, I bruised (or maybe even cracked) a bone and I have been knocked out by a quite bad virus. And this is only january... Than it hitted me, we are in 2013! Like 2013...

Good thing that a friend of mine got me a "luck calendar", with good luck advices and quotes. Let's see how it gets me thru the year. Plus to focus on the positiv side, I also have a new favorit toy in my kitchen: the kenwood triblade and it's full accesories pack, I particularly like the little blender that comes with it: handy and easy to clean.

So to get back to something reliable in this crazy hazy days, I picked one of my favorit cookbook up: Bryn's Kitchen. Flicking thru it, the Mushroom Lasagna sounded like something I wanted to try. The results on picture is fairly unimpressiv, it lacks of height. I think making it smaller with one more layer is a good option. Nevertheless this is flavor packed, if you like mushroom obviously, I think it could take a few onions and parsley, but I stuck to the original recipe for this first try.

Mushroom Lasagna (from "Bryn's Kitchen")

Serves 2

for the pasta
10ml Olive Oil
1 Egg
150gr Flour
A pinch of Salt

for the filling
25gr of Butter
500gr of Mushroom (Button or cream)
1 Tablespoon of Thym
Salt, Pepper
100ml of Cream
2gr of Agar-Agar
Parmesan

Make the pasta, using a blender (or by hand, but it will take more time) blitz the ingredients together, until it has a crumbly consistency, than tip it on you worksurface and start bringing it together. Add a bit of water until you have a smooth dough. Wrap it in clingfilm, place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out your pasta dough , preferably using a machine. I used the kitchenaid attachement, and rolled it out to size 6 (2 stops from the finest one). Lay the pasta sheet on a clean towel. I've cut the pasta sheet to roughly the size of my dish. Now cook them in boiling salted water for 1 minute and place them immediatly in a bowl with cold water. Once cooled, take them out and leave them on the clean towel, or kitchen towel, to dry.

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Peel and slice the mushroom. In a large saucepan, on a medium heat, melt the butter and add the mushroom with the thyme, keep stiring every now and then for about 10 minutes, until the water is evaporated. Add salt and pepper.

Take half of the mushroom out, then pour the cream on the remaining mushroom in the saucepan, cook for a couple of minutes. This is the mixture you need to pour into your blender, adding the agar-agar. Mix until you have a smooth purée.

Now combine the mushroom purée with the slices of mushroom you saved, and set aside to start making the lasagna.
Grease the baking dish you are going to use, make a first layer of pasta, and spread half the mushroom filling on top. Place a second layer of pasta, and the second half of the mushroom. Finish with a last layer of pasta, that you wil sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan.

Place in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, cut into portions and serve with a green salad.

Back from the forest: Trumpet of the dead cream sauce

Some time ago, I saw on TV that if you ask children to draw a fish, some of them actually draw a square or a rectangle, or whatever shape they get when they order (what passes for) fish in big fast food chains... Is it just me or is that plain scary?
Now I didn't grew up on a farm either, I've never milked a cow or butchered a pig (I'm thankfull for that actually). Beside cherry tomatoes or some fresh herbs I grow, I'm not much of a provider myself.

But a few weeks ago I had the chance to go mushroom hunting again, which I hadn't done since I was a child I think. And it's been so nice, walking around in a peacefull, sunbathed, quiet forest, looking for what nature has to offer us.
Trumpet of the dead is what I came home with. Once cleaned, they have been dried in the oven (door open, 50°C with fan, for about an hour) and store in glass jars for the winter.

Of course it means getting up at dawn on a sunday morning, walking a few kilometers in the cold, but it's so much more rewarding than queueing at the check out line of the supermarket.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cave person, quite the opposite, ask my friends: I'm such a geek. But I think it's important to know that fish don't have the shape of a rectangle, that peas don't grow in tin cans or that bread should not come in a plastic bag with a list of 23 ingredients in it.

Pasta with Trumpet of the Dead Cream Sauce

serves 1

60gr of Pasta (orechiette)
20gr of Dried Trumpet of the dead
Hot Water
10cl of Cream
1 Small Shallot
1/2 a Clove of Garlic
1 Teaspoon of Cornstarch
2 Tablespoons of Fresh Parsley
Butter
Salt, Pepper

In a bowl, rehydrate the mushrooms with some hot water. This should take about 20 minutes.

Heat up some salted water to cook the pasta, according to what the packaging is saying.

Chop the shallot  and the garlic as finely as possible, in a non-sticky pan slowly heat up some butter and add the shallot and garlic and stir for a few minutes.

Drain the mushrooms, but keep 10cl of the water you used to rehydrate them. Add the mushrooms in the pan, stir (still on a low heat) for a few minutes.

In the 10cl of water you kept from the mushrooms, add the cornstarch and stir to dissolve it. Pour this, aswell as the cream on top of the mushrooms. Keep stiring for a few minutes, until the sauce has the wished consistency. Add salt and pepper to your taste.

Drain the cook pasta and serve with the sauce on top, to finish sprinkle the freshly chopped parsley on top. Instead of pasta, you could serve this white meat or game if you like.