Mushroom Stroganoff , Parsley Rice & Exotic Chocolate Cups

Mushroom Stroganoff & Parsley Rice

An old favourite from Nigella Lawson’s Feast. This is a fabulous stroganoff. Earthy, gutsy with garlic, nutmeg and paprika, smooth and creamy with sour cream, comforting with a little sherry. We as a family all love mushroom stroganoff. I cook it once or twice a year on a Saturday night usually, because although you need a good quantity of mixed mushrooms (1,125g) and they are fairly expensive, it’s something that won’t tip me over the edge after a busy day and it’s quickly put together. It feels like a treat.

The only two things I part company with Nigella on is that I halve the butter to 50g instead of 100g and I can only get it to feed 4, not the 8 suggested in the book. I either serve it with plain basmati rice and parsley sprinkled over the mushrooms or as tonight with Parsley Rice.

Parsley Rice

The rice is based on a recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. This is cooked longer than any other absorption method I do, but it leaves the rice a nicely sticky and the stock makes it taste great. If your stock was not salted add a bit of salt as well, but mine is so I don’t bother. This is a slightly changed version of their recipe. The main changes I have made is to reduce the butter and parsley quantities. 4oz butter to 2oz and 1 1//2 cups parsley to 1 cup, but they can easily be upped again if you’d like to. It makes a very moreish delicious rice.

4 cups chicken stock (I use bullion and don’t add any extra salt)
2 cups white basmati rice
2 oz butter
1 cup parsley

Bring stock up to a boil, add rice, stir. Bring back to a boil stir then clamp on the lid and turn the heat down to low, then cook for 25 minutes.

When the time is up fork in the butter and chopped parsley. Serves 6-8

Exotic Chocolate Cups

From Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food, Romantic section. Before I start I must thank Kathryn (of From Page to Plate and Jamie) for pointing me in the direction of these pretty little cups. Some things you just HAVE to buy!

These were exotic tasting. I doubled it up as well to make 4 portions. They were rich and full of chocolate, orange, spice and rum. I almost expected them to taste a bit Christmassy, but they didn’t at all – a taste of the Caribbean I thought. Just the thing to perk up a March evening. These were delicious - I could probably have made a bit of a pig of myself on these, so it was a good thing they were in little portions! Jo sugggests in her notes that Malibu could be used instead of the rum and I’ll give this a go as well.

They are made by heating cream, sugar and orange then adding chopped chocolate, egg yolks, butter and rum. They are similar in style to Nigella’s chocolate pots from Nigella Bites, but I have room in my reportiore for (at least!) two good chocolate pots.

I had a little fiddle with the recipe, but only a little one. I used half milk and half dark chocolate, golden caster sugar instead of white and mixed spice instead of allspice.

I’m wondering how quickly I can justify making the Malibu version now…