Day 17 – Mushroom Compote with Cauliflower Puree, Seared King Mushrooms and Shiitake Bacon
This recipe was a bit of a challenge, I’ve posted a few “quick and simple” recipes lately, so I wanted to try something that was a bit of a challenge, with multiple elements, different cooking techniques and several pots on the go at a time. This one certainly fit the bill.
To make this simpler for myself, I prepared the Shiitake Bacon ahead of time and set it aside. I halved the quantity the original poster had used and added 1 tsp sugarfree maple syrup and a few drops of liquid smoke, to amp up the bacon flavour. Based on my experience with mixed nuts yesterday, I decreased the heat of the oven to about 160’C and checked the mushrooms more frequently than stated, and I found that mine were crisped and brown after only 20 mins.
Next I prepared the cauliflower puree. For the rest of this recipe I have quartered the original recipe, as I’m only cooking for me. I replaced the potato with an equal quantity of cauliflower and the soy milk with almond milk, to bring the carb count down. Before starting the mushrooms I followed the califlower recipe until the puree was blended, then set it aside for reheating at the last minute.
For the mushroom compote I followed the recipe mostly as written, using a mixture of oyster and button mushrooms and replacing the fresh thyme with dried and the vegan margarine with butter.
A note on timing – I started to fry the king oyster mushroom and also returned the cauliflower puree to a low heat at the same time I added the mushrooms to the wine stock mix.
This dish blew me away. It looked appetising in the pictures, but I wasn’t prepared for how tasty it was in practice. The cauliflower puree was rich and creamy, the mushroom compote was hearty and buttery and the shiitake bacon added a note of smoky crunchiness. The king oyster mushroom was more subtly flavoured, but provided a textural counterpart to the rest of the dish. If I had to make a change, it would be to fry the king oyster mushroom in butter rather than olive oil, to add a little salt and bring out the flavour.
This might be a little complex for the regular rotation, but is definitely a recipe I would pull out if I was expecting guests and wanted to impress!
I love anything with mushrooms and that sounds gorgeous!
You’ll be seeing more mushroom dishes – I overpurchased to make this dish, and I’ll need to use them up.