OYSTER MUSHROOMS & KALE IN WHITE WINE PARSLEY CREAM SAUCE
There is something truly special when you receive a gift that was clearly chosen with care and deliberation, specifically for its recipient. A few weeks ago, when a good friend and frequent dinner guest/cooking companion/house guest departed The Farm, she left behind a birthday present in the guest room for me. When I unwrapped it several days later, I was touched by the thoughtfulness of the gift.
This. Was. Exciting!! Even better than the fact that each kit only took 2 minutes to put together was the knowledge that it would only take about 2 weeks for the mushrooms to grow. I have to admit the brown mushrooms haven’t started growing yet, though I’m starting to see little brown tendrils beginning to emerge from the mix. (I’m pretty sure I followed the instructions properly - it was essentially “dump out dirt then cover in second bag of dirt” - but knowing me…it’s entirely possible I somehow managed to mess that up.) To my delight, however, the oyster mushrooms from Little Acre Mushrooms started sprouting almost immediately. After about a week, a little mushroom forest had begun to form.
Five days later, they had more than doubled in size and were ready for harvesting. But what to do with them? I didn’t want them to be just a background ingredient - given that these were my first mushrooms ever, and that they were a gift; they deserved to be the feature. At the same time, I wanted to do something different with them, something new. As luck would have it, The Roommate and I dined at D’Browes, a longtime local restaurant that serves up excellent, classic European food in an unfussy atmosphere. They had an appetizer of forest and field mushrooms in white wine parsley cream, which sounded heavenly - unfortunately I had to forgo them as I was distracted by the grilled sardines and about 3 other things. I didn’t stop thinking about what they might have tasted like though, and so I decided I would make my own version using the oyster mushrooms along with a healthy addition of our garden kale - for some colour, and also because the kale is growing faster than we can eat it.
The dish is actually fairly quick to put together. The component that requires the most preparation is actually the kale - de-stemming it, shredding it and blanching it takes about 10-15 minutes if you get the water boiling ahead of time. Otherwise, the only other thing you need to do is clean and chop up the mushrooms and some parsley (I grabbed a handful from the herb garden - which is also growing out of control). I wanted to retain the shape of the mushrooms where possible, so I kept the smaller ones whole and halved the larger ones.
The reason I blanched the kale first is because, like many other leafy greens, kale can release a lot of water when it’s being cooked. I didn’t want an overly watery sauce, so blanching it first meant that I could squeeze out as much water as possible out of the kale before adding it to the mushrooms. The rest of the cooking process is extremely straightforward: butter -> mushrooms -> white wine -> cream -> parsley -> kale -> salt and pepper. The result is a velvety, savoury and versatile dish that you can eat on its own, on toast or crostini, or tossed into a pasta.
Thank you to my friend for this unique and yummy gift, and thank you to D’Browes for providing the inspiration for a new dish to try at home. By the way, there is probably going to be an influx of kale recipes on here in the immediate to near future. Remember when kale was EVERYWHERE about 5 years ago? Our vegetable garden is catching up to that trend and apparently trying to make up for lost time at the rate it’s going, so some forced inspiration is likely to happen here - so keep your eyes peeled for a Kale Reunion Tour coming soon to a screen near you.
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp butter
1 punnet oyster mushrooms, large caps halved, small caps whole
1/2 bunch Tuscan kale, stems removed
1/4 cup white wine
2/3 cup cream
Handful of Italian parsley, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Method:
1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add a large pinch of salt, then blanch the kale for about 2-3 minutes until bright green and tender. Drain and run under cold water, then squeeze out as much water as possible and chop roughly. Set aside.
2. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown the mushrooms in the butter, then add in the white wine. When the liquid has reduced by a little over half, pour in cream and stir to combine. Let bubble for several minutes until the colour deepens, stirring regularly. Sprinkle in the parsley and stir to combine.
3. Add in the chopped kale. Once it’s heated through, test the mushrooms for doneness, then season with salt and pepper to taste.