Wild Mushroom Ragout with Soft Polenta
Servings 4
Ingredients
Mushroom Ragout
- 1 oz dried wild mushrooms
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- 1 lb mixed mushrooms, (chestnut, shiitake and oyster), sliced
- 4 oz white wine
- 4 oz vegetable stock
- 2 oz heavy cream
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Polenta
- 32 oz water
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 oz instant polenta
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 5 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked off the stem
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Ragout
- Soak the dried mushrooms in 1 cup of boiling water for 20 minutes.
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan and sauté the shallots for five minutes over medium heat, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Add sliced fresh mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook over a medium heat until soft.
- Drain the soaked dried mushrooms (reserving the soaking liquid) and add them to the pan.
- Pour in the white wine, turn the heat to high and cook until the wine has evaporated.
- Pour in the stock and reserved mushroom soaking liquid and cook again until the liquid has evaporated.
- Turn the heat to medium, fish out thyme which will have given up their leaves, and add the cream, letting it bubble for a minute or two. Set the pan aside in a warm place.
Polenta
- Bring the water to a rolling boil with a teaspoon of salt and the butter. Pour the polenta into the boiling water in a steady stream, stirring constantly. Turn the heat down and stir for another minute or two until the polenta comes away from the sides of the pan.
- Stir in the Parmesan cheese and season to taste.
- Warm the mushroom mixture, pour the polenta into a large serving dish, tip the mushroom ragout over the polenta and garnish with thyme leaves.