Creamy mushroom and bacon pasta

The Boy saw a friend of his post this recipe and asked for it. He said it looked good and wanted me to make it for us. Guess what? It is good.

Slow cooker beef with mushrooms and barley

On Sundays, I like to cook a nice meal for dinner and have leftovers for the week, so the dish needs to be something which leftovers will work. Some dishes just don't lend itself well to leftovers.

Anyway, this Sunday, I really, really wanted to do a slow cook meal and I thought beef would be nice, since The Boy likes beef and because I don't eat much red meat, he doesn't get much beef at home.

I pulled out my slow cooker cookbook, Essentials of Slow Cooking. I actually was looking for a different cookbook but couldn't find it. I think we may have taken it up to The House and left it there accidentally, but now we won't know till we get up there again and check.

I flipped through the beef section of the cookbook and found the Beef with Mushrooms and Barley recipe and decided that that was what I wanted to make for tonight's dinner. I like mushrooms and I like barley.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 30g dried mushrooms such as porcini
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1kg beed chuck, cut into 2 inch / 5cm pieces
• 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 500g fresh mushrooms, preferably cremini, brushed clean, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
• 2 cups beef broth / stock
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 parsnips, peeled and finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Instructions:

• Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl and add 2 cups boiling water. Let soak for 20 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth (muslin) placed over a bowl. Rinse the mushrooms under cold running water and finely chop. Set the mushrooms and soaking liquid aside.
• In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Working in batches if necessary, add the beef and cook, turning frequently, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the onion to the pan and saute over medium-high heat until softened, 3 - 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the rehydrated mushrooms. Add the fresh mushrooms and saute over medium heat until they start to brown and release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mushrom soaking liquid and broth.
• OVEN: preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Transfer the beef to a Dutch oven. Add the mushroom mixture and stir to combine. Cover and cook until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Uncover and stir in the barley and 1 cup of water. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Uncover and stir in carrots and parsnips. Cover and cook until the beef and barley are tender, about 30 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• SLOW COOKER: Transfer the beef to a slow cooker. Add the mushroom mixture and stir to combine with the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook for 3 hours on low heat setting. Uncover and stir in barley and 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook for 2 hours. Uncover and stir in carrots and parsnips. Cover and book until the beef and barley are tender, about 1 hour longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Spoon the stew into warmed bowls, garnish with the dill and serve at once.

Well, for starters, as usual, I did a few of things differently here, just because I didn't have some things and didn't want to get them.

I did not have any dried mushrooms, so I skipped that. And because of that, I didn't have the 2 cups of mushroom water, so I used 4 cups of beef stock instead.

I bought two parsnips like the recipe said, but the parsnips I got were HUGE, so I'm going to have a lot of parsnips in the stew. :-)

Additionally, the recipe said finely chop the carrots and parsnips, but I didn't want it too fine and look like mush after it cooked down, so I went with little chunks that were just a touch larger than a pea in size. That worked out really well.

I also used a ton of garlic, just because I love garlic. I think I must have used 6 or 8 cloves of garlic instead of the recommended 2. Don't feel you need to do that at all.

With the beef, I coated them in some salt, pepper and flour, before I browned them, because I wanted the flour in the stock to thicken up the stock a bit into a nice sauce.

When I put everything into the pot, before going into the oven, I had the pot on the stove and brought it to a boil before putting it into the oven. I used the oven to slow cook as I do not have a slow cooker (nor do I have the room in my tiny kitchen for one!!)

Once I put the parsnips and carrots in, that took up a lot of space in the pot, but it also meant that there was not enough sauce / juice left and the sauce got quite thick while slow cooking, so I added another 2 more cups of beef stock (or just enough to cover the vegetables) and brought it back to a boil on the stove before putting it back into the oven to cook again.

On the last round of cooking while the vegetables where still in the pot, I cooked it in the oven for another hour, so in total, I cooked it for 2 hours, then 1 hour and then another hour. I always brought the pot back to the boil on the stove before putting it back in the oven each time.

The apartment smelled amazing the whole time that the stew was cooking!!

This stew turned out to be very delicious. The Boy loved it. In fact, he had been sneaking tastes in between each time I took the pot out of the oven. :-)

This is a fabulous winter dish. I served it with a side of quinoa and a side salad. The quinoa soaked up the sauce from the stew and was just delicious!!

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Cooking blog: http://dazinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dazinthekitchen
Twitter: @langshipley https://twitter.com/langshipley
Instagram: @langshipley http://instagram.com/langshipley
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/langshipley/
Keek: http://www.keek.com/langshipley
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/langshipley
Makeup and beauty blog: http://langshipley-deannasworld.blogspot.com.au/

Mushroom and wild rice soup

Last weekend, we went out walking - The Boy and I, and we decided ... okay, well, I decided that I wanted to stop at the fresh food markets. We went through and bought a whole heap of fresh fruit and vegetables. Among the stuff we bought were some amazing fresh mushrooms. The guy at the mushroom stall said that the mushrooms would keep up to 2 weeks refrigerated but we decided to use most of it the first night and made a lovely mushroom risotto. There was still plenty of mushrooms left, and The Boy said he wanted a mushroom and wild rice soup.

This weekend, we headed up to The House and brought the mushrooms with us and tonight I'm making mushroom and wild rice soup. The recipe which I found here, called for 1/2 a pound of mushrooms, so I bought another small package of fresh Swiss Brown mushrooms to add to the mix that I already had.

Here's the RECIPE I used for the soup, which I found on the interwebs. (However did we manage before Google?):

Ingredients: Makes about 6 servings

• 1 cup wild rice
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 celery stalks, diced
• 1 pound mushrooms, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 cheese rinds (optional)
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons rosemary
• 1 cup whole milk or cream
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons salt, divided

Instructions:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the wild rice and one teaspoon of salt, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 40-50 minutes, until the rice has burst open and tastes tender. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid to use as stock if desired.
• While the rice cooks, prepare the rest of the soup. Warm a teaspoon of oil in a dutch oven or stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and celery with a half teaspoon of salt, and cook until the onions have softened and turned translucent, 3-5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and stir in the mushrooms and another half teaspoon of salt. Cook until the mushrooms have released all their liquid and turned dark brown, 15-20 minutes. Don't skimp on this step! This is where the soup gets its deep, rich flavor.
• Add the garlic and oregano, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir until the vegetables become sticky and there is no more visible dry flour. Increase the heat again to medium-high and pour in the wine. Stir and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Continue simmering until the wine has reduced and thickened a bit.
• Add the bay leaf, cheese rinds, and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Add the rosemary, milk, and wild rice. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes, until the soup has thickened to your liking. Stir in the cider vinegar. Taste and add more salt or vinegar to taste.
• Leftovers will keep refrigerated for up to a week.

I didn't have cider vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar instead, but other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe exactly ... except for the fact that I used maybe 5 cloves of garlic rather than the 2 it asked for.

I also used the water that boiled the rice for the soup rather than throwing it out.

Oh! and I didn't have any cheese rind, so I left that out and I also used chicken stock rather than vegetable stock since I didn't have any of that, so that is what I used instead.

... So maybe I should take back the bit where I say I pretty much followed the recipe exactly ... because ... um, I didn't. :-)

The soup turned out to be very rich and creamy. Simply delicious.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dazinthekitchen
Twitter: https://twitter.com/langshipley
Instagram: langshipley
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/langshipley/