Creamy mushroom ragout with nutmeg mash

Hurrah, yesterday was Thursday and Thursday means organic vegetable delivery day.  And I couldn’t blog yesterday because yesterday was also go to the pictures and see Slumdog Millionaire (how can they promote a film that is riddled with death, violence and heartbreak as a “feel good movie”?), then go to Prezzo with our cheapskate’s “two for one main meals” voucher and eat deep fried mozzarella, bruschetta and pizza and drink red wine day and I get home and my vegetable box from Riverford Organic Vegetables is waiting for me, hidden as usual (until the local E17 vegetable thieves read this) under my recycling box and this is what awaits me

Organic vegetable box delivery 29 January 2009
Organic vegetable box delivery 29 January 2009

and there’s bananas (hooray) and apples (boo) and mushrooms (yay yay yay yay yay yay yay) and sweet potatoes (just about scraped into the plural there, what with there only being a not very generous two of them) and broccoli (that’s next week’s soup sorted then) and cabbage (oh fuck, not another “what am I supposed to do with this then?” week) and I go to work and think hmm, what shall I have for dinner tonight and I remember I bought some potatoes from the shop in the week and so I put mushrooms and potatoes into the wonderful BBC Recipe Finder and it gives me eight recipes to choose from and I opt for the Creamy Mushroom Ragout with Nutmeg Mash and go to Tesco on the way home and buy some double cream as it’s the only ingredient I’m missing apart from the sherry but I buy some red wine to use instead and I think shall I make the amount for 4 and freeze some or quarter it to make the amount needed for the sad-spinster-of-the-parish-who-lives-alone-with-her-cat  portion and I weigh the mushrooms on my shiny new scales and it says I only have 205g of mushrooms and the recipe calls for about 900g so I have to go for the lonely old woman portion and so I quarter everything else while I’m making it and so according to the recipe I need about 100g of cabbage but when I get to fry the cabbage, I decide there’s too much and only use about half of it and it all comes together nicely and it looks like this

Creamy Mushroom Ragout with Nutmeg Mash
Creamy Mushroom Ragout with Nutmeg Mash

and I sit down to eat it and oh my, it’s REALLY REALLY NICE.  Yum.

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4 comments

  1. The best thing to do with cabbage is chop it up finley. heat a frying pan up to quite a high heat and then bung the finley chopped up green stuff into the smoking hot pan. Give a shake and stir for about 30 seconds then lob in a lump of butter and black pepper shake and stir like a mad women for another 30 seconds (i would say add a few lardons of bacon at this point but……nah!!!)

    Serve!

  2. Ah, now I see why you haven’t had time to blog your runs and keep us entertained over there! This new blog is mouthwateringly delicious!

    I often use the BBC recipes too, so many to choose from.

  3. My cabbage recipe is a bit like Phil’s but with some extra flavours. Heat some oil and butter in a wok, when hot fry some finely chopped onions and about a teaspoon of cumin seeds. When the onion is golden add the finely shredded cabbage. After a few minutes add a tablespoon of water and steam for a little bit longer.

    The mushrooms and mash looks very fine

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