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| The finished result, fresh from the oven |
This is a very hearty, stick-to-your-ribs autumnal dish, perfect if you want to give your vegetarian friends a good warming feast, but want to accommodate carnivores at the same meal: it feels like a meat dish, even though it isn't. The recipe is from The Guardian, and its drawback is that it involves a lot of fussy transferring from pan to pan, which is unfortunate. It serves six people a little frugally.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoonfuls of olive or rapeseed oil
- 1 onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 large knob of butter
- 750g of mushrooms (I used a combination of common mushrooms, including button ones)
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1 tablespoonful of thyme leaves (I used fresh from my new plant)
- 150ml of red wine
- 250ml of vegetable stock
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Sour cream, to serve
(for the scone topping:)
- 175g plain flour
- 2¼ teaspoonfuls of baking powder
- ½ a teaspoonful of salt
- 75g of chilled butter
- 1 teaspoonful of English mustard
- 75g of mature cheddar
- 1 large egg
- 125ml of milk
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190°C.
- Chop the onion, carrot and celery finely.
- Heat 1 tablespoonful of oil in a large pan and add the onion, carrot and celery. Cook over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms into thick slices, but leave some little button mushrooms whole. Also, crush the garlic and chop the thyme leaves.
- Take another large frying pan and heat 1 tablespoonful of oil along with the knob of butter.
- Cook the mushrooms in this second pan in batches, stirring often. When I did this, the first batch soaked up all the butter and oil, which meant that the ensuing batches were pretty much dry-fried. But it all worked out in the end. I put the cooked batches onto a plate.
- Add the garlic and thyme to the last batch and fry briefly (just until you can smell the garlic cooking, but not burning). I guess this is where you should use the third tablespoonful of oil, to stop the garlic burning on the hot pan.
- Add the all the mushrooms (including the garlicky ones) to the other pan of vegetables.
- Pour the wine into the pan that the mushrooms were cooked in. Stir, and let it bubble for a few minutes. Then pour it into the other pan of mushrooms and vegetables.
- Pour the stock into the pan of mushrooms and vegetables. Bring to a simmer, and leave to cook while you do the scone topping.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
- Chop the butter into little cubes and add to the bowl.
- Rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers, until you have little breadcrumbs.
- Grate the cheese and stir it into the crumbs along with the mustard.
- In another bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork. Then stir this into the flour mix to create a soft, sticky dough.
- Season the mushroom stew and pour it into a wide oven dish.
- Drop large spoonfuls of the scone mixture on top of the stew.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the scones are well risen and golden.
- Serve with the sour cream.
