MAGIC WITH MUSHROOMS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 516, 13 May 1949, Page 22

MAGIC WITH MUSHROOMS

dainty little sauces and side-dishes with mushrooms, but thousands of New Zealanders are able to get really worthwhile quantities of mushrooms just for the gathering, and enjoy plentiful helpings of them fried in baconfat, or good cod-fat (in the absence of the ideal, cooking in butter). Dry some of the broken ones, in a cool oven on sheets of paper until shrivelled. They make good flavourings for soups and stews, either soaked in water or just rubbed in as a coarse powder. OTEL chefs may prepare Mushroom Ketchup This is a very old recipe. Its. special feature is repeated boiling, up to 6 times. It makes the best ketchup. Wipe fresh mushrooms, sprinkle with a little salt and allow to stand in a large crock in a warm place 24 hours, covered with a damp cloth. Then mash well and strain. To every quart of juice add loz. peppercorns. Boil 4% hour, add loz. allspice, 1 blade mace or a little powdered mace and Yaoz. root ginger to each quart. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Let get cold, then reboil 15 minutes, and again cool. Reboil fifteen minutes longer, then strain, bottle and seal. ‘Mushroom Gravy : Cook about Y2Ilb. sliced mushrooms in the fat in the roasting pan after taking out the meat, probably about 5 minutes, then strain off fat, add flour and water and make as usual. Mushroom Soup sera You need some broth. Chicken is best so save the broth from boiling a fowl, but veal broth or even mutton will do. Half a pound of mushrooms makes quite a lot of soup. Don’t peel, just chop finely. Simmer 5 minutes in a tablespoon of butter (or cod-fat) with a tablespoon of minced onion and twice as much minced celery. Add 2 cups broth and ‘simmer. 10 minutes. Meanwhile make a white sauce by melting 2 tablespoons butter, stirring in 2 tablespoons flour till smooth, and then adding gradually 2 cups cold milk, pepper and salt to taste, and cooking steadily till smooth and thickened. Then add mushroom mixture and heat together. Serve at once. Straining is optional. Baked Mushrooms Remove stems from a pound of mushrooms, put them in a greased casserole, cut tips off stems, slice them, and add to casserole. Mix 2 tablespoons butter, 11% teaspoons salt, dash of cayenne pepper, and % cup of top milk, and pour over mushrooms. Cover and bake in moderate oven (about 375 degrees) about 50 minutes or till tender. Stir once during the baking, without spoiling shape of mushrooms. May be served on toast or with devilled steak. Have this cut an inch thick and having scored it with a knife squeeze the juice of a lemon over each side. Mix up 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 dessertspoon any dark jam, 1 large dessertspoon Worcester sauce, 2 tablespoons tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon each pepper and salt, 1 or 2

tablespoons vinegar. Pour over steak, pressing steak well into it. Soak 2 hours, then grill. Heat any of "devil" left and pour over as sauce, ‘ Mushroom Omelette. Chop enough peeled mushrooms, caps and stems, to make. 1% cups. Fry lightly 5 minutes or until tender in 2 tablespoons butter. Season with salt and pepper, and a few grains nutmeg. Add to an ordinary omelette, when cooked, and fold it over. Stewed Mushrooms » Remove skins and stalks from 1b. mushrooms. Melt 2o0z. butter in saucepan, add juice of half a lemon, put in mushrooms, season with pepper and salt. Cover and cook gently 20 to 30 minutes, shaking pan occasionally. Mix a tablespoon of flour with a breakfast cup of milk, pour this into saucepan, stir and simmer for a few minutes till blended and thickened. Serve with hot toast, grilled steak or friéd liver.