Delicious Imperfect Mushroom Ragout

The title should read "Mushroom Ragout with Poached Duck Egg", but as I never made it as far as the duck egg, that feels a little disingenuous. I was mucking around in the kitchen playing with this recipe roughly a week ago, very informal and off-the-cuff. As a result, it isn't as by-the-book as many of the other recipes I've made from Plenty, and unfortunately I've realized that I wasn't being patient enough with my camera as the photos aren't as good as I'd like them to be, either. I am going to post this anyway, as a record of sort-of getting through this recipe and apologize for it being less put together than I'd prefer. I thought about not posting it at all, but realized that this is often how things go for me in the kitchen - things morph and shift and are imperfect yet delicious. Why not share that? I am pretty sure every home cook has been there...

The recipe reminded me of the bread salad that I made a few months ago and as I had a plethora of mushrooms for a change I decided to give it a shot. I had intended to substitute chicken eggs for the poached duck eggs once I got that far into the recipe and ended up opting out of the egg component and contenting myself with just the mushroom and bread ragout. Which was not in any way a compromise - it's quite delicious on its own. Given that I am also not a big fan of soft yolks, I figured the omission wouldn't bother my palate - but if you love the soft yolks, go to town!

This recipe takes some time, so be sure to read through it and make sure you understand what is required. I was a bit lax in this when I was making it and that made the experience a bit less awesome than it could have been. Teach me to try a fairly complex new recipe when I am not in the mood to be detail-oriented! The results are worth the effort though - a really great flavour and a fun set of textures. 

As usual, the ingredients are from the book, and the written instructions incorporate my substitutions and alterations.

Mushroom Ragout (with poached duck egg)

(p. 50, Plenty)

Serves 4

1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms

2 1/2 cups water

1 1/4 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms (wild or cultivated)

3/4 ld sourdough bread, crusts removed

6 1/2 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 medium onion, sliced

1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced

3 celery stalks, sliced

1/2 cup white wine

3 thyme sprigs

salt

4 duck eggs

vinegar for poaching

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp chopped parsley

black pepper

truffle oil (or olive oil, if you prefer)

A few alterations to start: I omitted the celery as I didn't have any at the time, but included a bit of celery salt in the broth. I also omitted the sour cream, although I think it would be a great addition. If I make it again, I'll be sure to have some sour cream on hand. I highly recommend the truffle oil for this dish - it makes it smell fantastic and adds a lovely depth of flavour. 

Preheat the oven to 400F. Then, measure out the dried porcini:

Soak the porcini in 1 cup of the water for 30 minutes (I find they reconstitute better if the water is warm). Brush the fresh mushrooms to clean them and then cut them up into quarters, slices, or large chunks. What you are after is texture, so feel free to mix it up. Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. I chose to leave my crusts on and I don't feel that negatively impacted the final presentation.

Toss the bread cubes with 2 tablespoons of the oil, the garlic, and the salt. I chose to dice my garlic, rather than crush it. Spread the bread out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until brown, roughly 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside to let the croutons cool down. 

Next, pour 1 tablespoon of oil into a medium-sized heavy pan and heat it well over medium-high heat. 

When the oil is hot, add some of the chopped mushrooms to the pan, being careful not to crowd it (or the mushrooms will steam rather than brown) and leave them for 1 to 2 minutes or until they get golden on the side in contact with the pan. 

Once lightly browned, turn them over and let them cook for another moment or two. Then remove them from the pan and put them in a bowl, and repeat the process with the remaining mushrooms, processing in as many batches as required to brown them all. Add an additional tablespoon of oil to the pan with each new batch of mushrooms. 

Once all of the mushrooms have been browned and set aside to cool, add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and saute the carrot, celery, and onion on medium heat for about 5 minutes, softening them a bit without browning. Add the wine and let it bubble away for a moment. 

Lift the porcini out of the soaking liquid and squeeze out the excess liquid. Set the porcini aside for now. Add the soaking liquid to the pan carefully, taking care to leave any grit from the porcini in the bottom of the bowl to be discarded. 

Add the thyme, the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, and a little salt, and then simmer gently for ~20 minutes, or until you are left with ~1 cup of liquid in the pan. 

Strain this stock and discard the vegetables; return the stock to the pan and set it aside. 

If you are wanting to include the poached eggs, here are Yotam's instructions:

"To poach the eggs, fill a shallow saucepan with enough water for a whole egg to cook in. Add a splash of vinegar and bring to a rapid boil. Carefully break and egg into a small cup and gently pour it into the boiling water. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and set it aside. After 6 minutes the egg should be poached to perfection. Lift it out of the pan and into a bowl of warm water. Once all of the eggs are done, dry them on paper towels."

While you are poaching the final egg, re-heat the stock and add all the mushrooms, the porcini, the sour cream, most of the chopped herbs (reserve a little bit for garnish) and then add salt and pepper to taste. As soon as the mushrooms are hot, place some of the croutons in the bottom of a bowl and top with the mushrooms. Add an egg, if including, the remaining herbs, a drizzle of the truffle oil, and some more black pepper. Then enjoy.