Ashy's vegetarian recipes ©2002 all rights reserved

 

Mushrooms with Sour Cream

 

- "Such tasty mushrooms, darling, Where did you get the recipe?"

  - "From a detective novel."

  In Britain wild mushrooms are generally treated with suspicion. This is because of scare mongering from childhood and ignorance of the true facts. As children we are taught that anything not from the shop is a 'toadstool' and will kill you if you touch it. As adults, although we know there are good-to-eat wild mushrooms out there in the woods somewhere, most of us are sure it takes an expert to spot them. This is a pity, as wild mushrooms generally have more flavour and character than commercially grown Agaricus bisporus.

  In the past few years, different varieties of mushrooms have become available in the shops, but these are usually very expensive and at the same time they are for sale in the shops, they are also in the woods and fields in huge quantities, ready to be picked for free. Furthermore, the commonest and best edible wild species - for example ceps, wood blewits, St.Georges mushrooms, shaggy inkcaps, oyster mushrooms, giant puffballs and various wild Agaricus species - can, with a little background research, be gathered without any danger of confusion with poisonous species.

  Be brave, get a book, ask someone who knows, pick some mushrooms and see what you've been missing. Here's a recipe which suits most types of mushrooms. This is the Russian version. If you want to try the Bulgarian version, add a level teaspoon of paprika just before the sour cream.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 kg mushrooms
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 tablespoons of sour cream
A few crushed black peppercorns
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil for frying

  Chop all the vegetables. Heat the vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan and when it is hot, add the mushrooms and onion. Fry on a high heat and stir for about 5 minutes. The mushrooms should start to produce a lot of water. Turn the heat down a little, add the garlic, salt and peppercorns and cover the pan (leave a space for steam to escape). Cook until the water has dissappeared - 10 -20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sour cream. Serve with toast.

  more mushroom recipes