A tv dinner of mushrooms on toast

Sometimes you just need something simple, quick and tasty to eat in front of the telly.  For me this week it was mushrooms on toast.  Made with mushrooms from Unicorn Grocery and bread from Barbakan.

Where has the week gone?  Not much excitement on the food front to report – but tonight Mr Rigg and I have planned out our meals (in theory!) for the next week.  There’s something deeply satisfying about being grown up and able to write a list of all the things you want to eat and being able to go out, buy the ingredients, and come home and eat those things.

As well as food planning, I’m also longing for a weekend of getting the house ready for Christmas – hopefully a tree can be found and a wreath put up.  Is anyone else starting to decorate for Christmas?

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Creamy mushrooms with a seasonal leaf salad

I’m set on making this meal one of my winter staples.  It was so delicious, and not difficult at all to make. 

Somewhere between mushrooms in a cream and wine sauce and a Stroganoff, this is a vegetarian meal full of flavour – I could have quite happily eaten it straight from the pan.

The mushrooms
Clean and cook the mushrooms in a knob of butter – I used a mixture of tiny button mushrooms (from the market) kept whole, and sliced white and chestnut mushrooms.  Cook them until all the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are tender and starting to go golden.  Season with salt and pepper.

The cream and wine sauce
In a separate pan, melt another knob of butter and soften a finely chopped small onion.  Add about 200ml dry white wine to the pan and let it bubble until it’s reduced by about half.  Then add in about 150ml double cream and stir until the mixture begins to thicken. 

Creating the creamy mushrooms
At this point, simply add the cooked mushrooms to the cream sauce and stir in.  I added a glug of milk to loosen my sauce up a bit and give us more of it.  Once the milk was added, I just allowed it to heat through a thicken a little.  Finally, taste and season, and stir through some chopped parsley if you want.

What to eat it with
We ate our creamy mushrooms with a pile of steaming rice and a crisp seasonal leaf salad, but it would also be delicious on toast.  We also added a naughty sprinkling of grated Raclette cheese – not essentially but delicious.

Afternoon tea in an urban meadow

Yesterday at work we celebrated our 11th Birthday – why 11th, you ask?  Well, we forgot last year that the business had turned 10, so we’re celebrating now.  Also, my dear colleague Paul is leaving us and heading back to his native Australia.

So we celebrated with a very English afternoon tea in a meadow, believe it or not in the city.  We had a tented camp, bunting hanging from the trees, live music, and lots of good friends.  There were scones and jam, make-it-yourself knicker-bocker-glories, and baskets of tiny sandwiches. 

My colleague and I were responsible for the baskets of sandwiches, and had spent all morning making them.  We made three varieties: egg mayonnaise with lots of chives on a white Polish rye bread; smoked salmon with a tangy lemon cream cheese on a deep campagrain bread; and (my absolute favourite, and my own invention) my take on cheese and pickle, a Welsh blue brie with sweet onion chutney on a fragrant seeded bread.

So here’s a quick round-up of our lovely afternoon:

…How to make your knicker-bocker-glory…

…A table groaning under the weight of jam, cream and Jane’s utterly perfect scones (recipe coming soon!)…

…The wheelbarrow of drinks on ice…

…Soft white egg and chive sandwiches with pretty cocktail flags…

…and the band creating a lovely atmosphere…