Mushroom Stroganoff with Basmati Rice

Recipe by: Nigella Lawson | from Feast

Cookstr

Course: Main Course

Total Time: Under 1 Hour

Skill Level: Moderate

Cost: Moderate

Photo by: Joseph DeLeo

This may seem to require an awful lot of mushrooms, but you have to remember how much they cook down: what you find difficult to cram into a pan, turns out, when cooked, just to fill one serving platter.

This is a good recipe to do when you’re expecting friends round for dinner midweek as you can get most of it done the minute you get back from work, leaving yourself time for a quick bath with a drink before everyone arrives. Plus, it doesn’t matter if they’re late – as I’m sure they will be – as all you need to do is put a flame under the pan of cooked mushrooms and onion, reheat, adding the salt, sherry, spices and parsley as and when your friends are ready to eat.

Yield: Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup olive oil
8oz/approx. 4½ cups shiitake mushrooms
10oz/approx. 4 cups button mushrooms
8oz/approx. 4½ cups cremini mushrooms
8oz/approx. 4½ cups field mushrooms
1 stick butter
1 tablespoon sea salt/1½ teaspoons table salt
¼ cup Amontillado sherry
1 tablespoon paprika
½ tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
1½ cups sour cream
1/3 cup chopped parsley

Directions

Peel and quarter the onion and process with the peeled garlic cloves until everything is finely chopped. Heat the oil in a large wide pan and cook the onion and garlic mush until softened, but not colored.

Remove the stalks from the shiitake and slice them; quarter the button mushrooms and slice them too. Slice the cremini mushrooms, and peel and quarter the inky field mushrooms, discarding the stalks first.

Add the butter to the pan and tumble in the mushrooms when it has all but melted. Try and turn the mushrooms in the pan, although this will be difficult, I know, as even a big pan will be extremely full. Put a lid on the pan and cook the mushrooms for about 15 minutes. Stop at this point if you’re cooking ahead of time.

Take off the lid (reheat first if you’ve done the above bit earlier) and add the salt, sherry, paprika, nutmeg and sour cream. I don’t think this needs pepper, but by all means add it if you want to. Stir this deep, creamy buff-colored and nubbly mixture on the heat for about 5 minutes, add most of the parsley, stir again, then put it on whatever dish you’re serving it from and sprinkle over the rest of the parsley.

The Rice

I’d use 2½ cups basmati rice here. Cook according to package instructions. I have to say I am a firm believer in electric rice cookers (and see page 243 for a full enthusiastic exegesis on the subject) but don’t want to get into my salesman’s patter here. Whichever way you’re cooking the rice, lightly press on 3 cardamom pods with the side of a knife, just to crush them slightly first, and chuck them into the water along with the rice. I don’t salt my rice, finding the richness and depth of the aromatic and creamy mushrooms flavor enough. The cardamom provides musky fragrance, which is all this rice – beautiful in its plainness – needs.