WILD MUSHROOM RAGOUT WITH SOFT

Ingredients

Mushroom Ragout

30 g (1 oz) dried wild mushrooms

30 ml (2 Tbsp) unsalted butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

5 sprigs of thyme

Spring in Calgary is often bonechillingly cold, and we still look for food that warms and soothes, filling your kitchen with the rich scent of the forest, along with that hint of the spring we long for. Fresh wild mushroom season is still a few weeks away, but dried wild mushrooms fill the void until our native ’shrooms show their shaggy heads.

Dried chanterelle and porcini are readily available, and if you can find dried morels then rush to use them, their intense flavour is sensational. I like to use a mixture of cultivated mushrooms too, for a variety of texture and taste.

The Italians have always known how to cook and eat mushrooms and a classic pairing is this wild mushroom ragout with soft polenta.

Instructions

Ragout

450 g (1 lb) mixed mushrooms, chestnut, shiitake and oyster, sliced

120 ml (4 fl oz) white wine

120 ml (4 fl oz) vegetable stock

60 ml (2 fl oz) heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Polenta

1L (32 fl oz) water

30 ml (2 Tbsp) unsalted butter

250 g (8 oz) instant polenta

250 ml (1 cup) Parmesan cheese, finely grated

5 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked off the stem

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soak the dried mushrooms in 250 ml (1 cup) of boiling water for 20 minutes. Meanwhile melt the butter in a large frying pan and sauté the shallots for five minutes over a medium heat, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and sprigs of thyme and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the sliced fresh mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook over a medium heat until soft.

Drain the soaked dried mushrooms (reserving the soaking liquid) and add them to the pan. Pour in the white wine, turn the heat up to high and cook until the wine has evaporated. Pour in the stock and reserved mushroom soaking liquid and cook again until the liquid has evaporated. Turn the heat back down to medium, fish out the sprigs of thyme which will have given up their leaves, and add the cream, letting it bubble for a minute or two.

Set the pan aside in a warm place.

Polenta

Bring the water to a rolling boil with a teaspoon of salt and the butter. Pour the instant polenta into the boiling water in a steady stream, stirring all the time. Turn the heat down and stir for another minute or two until the polenta comes away from the sides of the pan.

Stir in the Parmesan cheese and season to taste.

Warm the mushroom mixture, pour the polenta into a large serving dish, tip the mushroom ragout over the polenta and garnish with the thyme leaves.

Serves 4