Monday, June 13, 2011

Secret Recipe Club: Mushrooms and Potato Stew

No Wednesday post this week because I joined the secret recipe club. The secret recipe club assigns you a member blog and you choose a recipe from that blog to make. You're not obligated to stick to the exact recipe, but instead, you can adapt it to your own taste or style.

I was assigned Cook Book of Trial and Error, by The Cooking Rookie. There were a lot of unfamiliar recipes and methods to choose from. Wanting to play relatively safe the first time through, I chose a potato and mushroom stew. It calls for the stew to be cooked in the oven, in a dutch oven - I've never done that before. My first throught was "I really hope my Jamie Oliver pot comes out in one piece!"

The recipe itself, named Chanterelles and Potato Stew called for chanterelle mushrooms, some chicken stock and a tablespoon of brandy. Since the recipe is from a site that emphasizes trial and error, I'm hoping that I'm forgiven for the liberties I took with it.

First, I couldn't find chanterelles, so I bought some portabella mushroom instead (and a good helping of white mushrooms as well). I also didn't have any brandy, but I did have some wine left from the previous evening and a bit of brown sugar to sweeten it up.

The one mistake I made was the time I chose to start cooking - we ended up eating about an hour later than planned.


print recipe

Mushrooms and Potato Stew
This stew, inspired by the The Cooking Rookie, uses mushrooms and white wine for a tasty vegetarian bowl of comfort.
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 300g portabella mushrooms, chopped
  • 450g white mushrooms, chopped
  • 1.3 kilos potatoes, diced to 1/2 inch
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup white wine (or rice wine for gluten-free)
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.2. In a dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat and saute onions until translucent and they start to brown.3. Add garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes. 4. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes.5. Add potatoes, butter, wine, brown sugar, salt and pepper, stir and let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.6. Remove from heat, stir, cover and transfer to oven. Bake for 90 minutes.Note: in the event that you don't have an oven-proof pot, The Cooking Rookie recommends reducing the heat to medium-low, covering and stirring every 20-30 minutes. The potatoes with be a little mushed, but it will taste the same.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4-6 servings



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22 comments:

  1. I'm impressed that you've got a Jamie Oliver pot! And glad that it came out of the oven intact too... The long cooking time must've been worth it because your stew looks incredible, even (especially?) with the substitutions!

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  2. I was lucky - the JO set was on sale so it was inexpensive. They're an excellent set. The pot easily survived the oven and I occasionally wipe them down with vinegar to get the shine back in the pot, but that's about it.

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  3. Dan - Thank you so much for dropping by my blog. My motto is "If all else fails- chocolate." So yes, I agree that chocolate always does the trick. :)

    It is hard to go wrong when you have wine and mushrooms involved in a dish, don't you think? Especially with portobello mushrooms, they are so delicious.

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  4. @Ali: yeah, it did strike me as a "couldn't really fail" recipe - appealing to me in this particular situation... first time out for the club and all. My only worry was the pot, but those worries were unfounded.

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  5. Sounds interesting and good; I mean what is there not to love about mushrooms and potatoes? Especially since I just got a bunch of both with my weekly CSA share and need a use for them, stat! I would have had to substitute for the chanterelles too but think I'll go the brandy route. Yum.

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  6. This sounds really good, I wonder if my kids would eat it? lol I would need to seriously disguise the mushrooms!
    I love that cooking lends itself to substitutions so easily, you could add a whole lot of other good stuff to this recipe too and I bet it'd be fantastic!

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  7. @betcha: I've seen mushrooms minced and fried as a substitute for ground meat as well. I guess you just need to let all of the water release. That might be a better way to "hide" them. My oldest won't eat mushrooms either and I have no way to hide them (he won't eat ground meat...).

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  8. Mushrooms and brandy in a stew sounds that sounds like the ultimate comfort dish packed with flavor. I am bookmarking this.

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  9. Thanks so much for trying one of my recipes! I am glad that the main problem was the cooking time, and not the taste :-). I love the changes that you've made - I'll remember for the future to use wine with brown sugar if I don't have brandy. And it's good to know that Portobello mushrooms also work well in this stew; chanterelles are my favorite mushrooms by far, but they can be really hard to find and expensive, so it's good to have alternatives. By the way, I really love your blog - so many nice recipes, I'll have to come back and try some of them :-). Maybe your eggplant lasagna would be next...

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  10. What a nice vegetarian meal to try. Love how flexible this recipe is!

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  11. I love mushrooms and stews are always so hearty! Would be a great meal to try!

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  12. Delicious! I love mushrooms! My husband would be asking where the meat was.

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  13. I think this dish would be fabulous with almost any mushroom and almost any non-sweet booze...great selection. Now I'm craving mushrooms :)

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  14. Looks good! I'm impressed that you were willing to risk your pot--and glad it wasn't damaged :)

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  15. This looks so good! There's always time for a nice pot of stew - definitely going to try this comforting dish soon =)

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  16. This is my first month in The Secret Recipe Club and it's so much fun! I'm just loving all the new blogs and recipes I'm seeing. This recipe looks so good.

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  17. I love seeing how a recipe morphs in different hands as it is passed along. That stew sounds delicious.

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  18. It really is interesting watching recipes evolve, and your version of this tasty stew sounds really good! Thank you for sharing it with the Hearth and Soul blog hop!

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  19. This is certainly the perfect combination.

    I have to get back to Kugels on a stick. You area right about making it an appetizer. What fun.

    I vote for you to create it. I make kugel muffins and overnight kugel in a crockpot. None on a stick.

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  20. @chaya: I might just need to talk to my mom - she's the family kugel maker.

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  21. It's great having the liberty to do as we please with a recipe and making it our own. This sounds and looks so delicious. Yummy!

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  22. Looks comforting and delicious! I could go for a bowl.

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