Mushroom and stock sauce February 16, 2010

I don’t mix milk and meat, and so I have had to come up with alternatives for making a sauce for steaks. This recipe is one I have played around with, and can be played around with a lot more. It works though, and tastes nice.

• Mushrooms (I usually use champingnons)
• Vegetable stock
• Basil
• Provence mix
• Shalotte onions
• Garlic
• Red wine

 
Cut the onion and garlic in small pieces, and fry them in a frying pan with olive oil, and salt. Cut the mushroom in slices, and add them to the frying pan, along with some pepper. Once they are about three quarters to two thirds of the size they were when you started, move to a deeper pan. Add water and the stock, as well as seasoning. I usually use dried spices, often most dried basil and Provence mix. Should you have any handy, add a little red wine to the mix. Let this simmer for a long time, the longer, the better, really.
 
Enjoy!

Panda Salad

Panda came up with this salad, which is easily varied and changed around. She’d made it for Trampe when he came home late from tending bar, and it was great, I can tell you.

How to do it (serves two):

• Half a bell pepper
• Half a cucumber
• One mango
• Six mushrooms
• Two avocados
• Lettuce

Clean and slice the bell pepper. Chop the cucumber in strips that are roughly three to four times as long as they are wide and tall. Remove the stone and skin from the mango, and chop into dices. Slice the mushrooms. Skin, de-stone and chop the avocados. Clean the lettuce and place in the bottom of your bowl. Mix up everything else, and keep some of the pepper and cucumber for garnish. Don’t worry about dressing, the juices in the various ingredients do the job for you. Taste it, and add spices to suit you. Serve.

Variations:

• You can fry the mushrooms
• You can add asparagus fried as described in asparagus in oil and salt You can add fried chicken breast (two breasts for this recipe)
• You can add diced feta cheese