Delicious recipes for dried porcini mushrooms wanted.

June 18, 2010 9:19 PM

Vegetarian recipe filter: I have 17 oz of dried porcini mushroom pieces in my freezer. All I can think of to do with them is soup and risotto. I'd love some more ideas or recipes.

(I do own several vegan cookbooks -- The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, Vegan with a Vengeance, How It All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan, and Veganomicon -- so if you'd like to recommend any recipes or modified recipes by page number or whatever, that is fine.)

The only dietary restriction is that the recipes must be lacto-ovo vegetarian or vegan.

posted by shamash to food & drink (16 answers total)

Other than send them to me, which is obviously the preferred thing to do, try incorporating them into a mushroom bolognese. Every time I make mushroom bolognese, I use dried shitake and deeply regret that I'm too cheap to keep dried procini around. Something like this (with veggie instead of chicken stock and without the polenta, obviously). I'd use a couple of ounces soaked and sub the soaking liquid in for some of the broth. Ideally, serve it over fresh pasta or gnocchi.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:31 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Why without the polenta? It's vegetarian -- it's just cornmeal.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:46 PM on June 18, 2010

I recently discovered the joys of UMAMI OATMEAL for breakfast. Whereby, instead of putting sweet things like fruit and maple syrup in your oatmeal (i like steel cut!) you dump a delicious saute of mushrooms & garlic in it. mmmmMMMMmmm, umami ...
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 9:50 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

No paricular reason not to do the polenta, I just very much prefer it over pasta.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:50 PM on June 18, 2010

I was just about to come in to suggest polenta. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook has a Broiled Polenta with Mushrooms and Cheese recipe that's really tasty, see p. 152.
posted by crazycanuck at 10:21 PM on June 18, 2010

Porcini-Mushroom-Quiche
posted by bottlebrushtree at 12:07 AM on June 19, 2010

Barley and mushroom stew - I'm paraphrasing from a Mark Bittman recipe, but it's more or less sweating some onion, celery and carrot in a heavy-bottomed pan, adding a little barley and the chopped mushrooms, and cooking with plenty of stock for 20 minutes to half an hour. Barley soaks up liquid at a rate of about 3 cups liquid per 1 cup of grain, but I think the recipe only calls for half or three-quarters of a cup of grain.
posted by harriet vane at 1:09 AM on June 19, 2010

Porcini Mushroom Soup.
posted by inmediasres at 5:59 AM on June 19, 2010

You could make a mushroom stock, something along the lines of: saute mushrooms, onion, celery carrot and some herbs for 10 minutes, then add a few quarts of water and simmer for 30 minutes.

This freezes well, and you could use it for all kinds of tasty things: mushroom soups, mushroom risotto or other grain dishes with a mushroom flavor, etc...
posted by JumpW at 6:08 AM on June 19, 2010

I came in here to suggest mushroom bolognese but I see mostlymartha beat me to it. Mushroom lasagne is lovely.
posted by arha at 6:11 AM on June 19, 2010

Wild Mushroom Strudel -- I made this for Thanksgiving a while back, and it was completely delicious. There's lots of recipes out there for it; this is close to the one I used. I know it calls for assorted varieties, but I'm sure it would be fine with just porcinis.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 8:24 AM on June 19, 2010

I like to make a spinach/mushroom mixture and put it on top of a puff pastry sheet. You can use a homemade vegan pastry; you can cut it into various shapes and make them open-faced or close them over like little turnovers, or roll them up with the mixture inside and cut slices before you bake them.

The mixture is a saute of olive oil, onions, garlic, mushrooms, spinach and whatever herbs look good from the garden (we have thyme, oregano, basil, savory, rosemary and marjoram). Just chop the veggies into about 3/4 inch pieces, saute them in the order given, then distribute among the pastry and bake til browned. I also like to put in a bit of a really flavorful cheese - romano, blue, aged cheddar, etc - but you could leave that out for vegan. The herbs give it enough flavor.

If the mushrooms are whole instead of chopped, we do the same mixture but just use the stems of the mushrooms, chop everything a bit smaller, and then stuff the caps and bake them; no pastry.
posted by CathyG at 8:48 AM on June 19, 2010

On preview, very similar to the mushroom strudel, but add some chopped spinach too.
posted by CathyG at 8:49 AM on June 19, 2010

I've never done this myself, but a friend of mine would buzz them nearly into powder in the food processor and use them in breading combined with panko.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:02 AM on June 19, 2010

Thanks, folks -- these are great ideas and much appreciated!
posted by shamash at 12:26 PM on June 20, 2010

You can make a lovely sauce for a porchini tagliatelle or somesuch...

Rehydrate your porchinis, start with maybe two ounces or so in 6-8 ounces of very hot (but not boiling!) water. Once fully hydrated, chop the porchinis and reserve the liquid.

Make a roux with 2-3T butter and 2-3T flour. Cook it for a few minutes until it starts to take on a golden color.

Meanwhile, take your reserved liquid and boil in a small saucepan until reduced by half.

Take your reduction and add it to your roux, making a thick sauce. It will start off paste-like at first, but then thin out as you add more liquid.

Then add some hot milk, I'd say about two cups, a little at a time to maintain temperature. (If your feeling naughty, use cream instead.) Add liquid until you reach the desired consistency, then reintroduce your chopped mushrooms.

Serve this over a nice tagliatelle or fettucini.

To make vegan, replace butter with a neutral oil and milk (or naughty cream) with a nice, hearty vegetable stock.
posted by slogger at 1:30 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]