Creamy Mushroom Gravy

Most mushroom gravy tastes of not very much because the mushrooms were stewed rather than browned. Cook them in two batches in a hot pan and they go nutty and dark, which is where the flavour lives. A small handful of dried porcini does the rest of the heavy lifting for very little money.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for four generous plates

• 10g (1/3oz) dried porcini mushrooms
• 150ml (5fl oz) boiling water for soaking the porcini
• 300g (10oz) chestnut mushrooms thickly sliced, not chopped small
• 30g (1oz) butter
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 2 garlic cloves finely sliced
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 200ml (7fl oz) hot vegetable or beef stock
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 120ml (4fl oz) double cream
• 1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Kit

• Wide frying pan
• Small bowl for soaking
• Sieve
• Wooden spoon

Method

1. Put the dried porcini in a small bowl, pour over the boiling water and leave for fifteen minutes. Lift them out with a fork, chop them roughly, and keep the liquor. Pour the liquor through a sieve or a piece of kitchen paper to leave the grit behind.

2. Get the frying pan properly hot over a high heat with half the butter and all the oil. Add half the chestnut mushrooms in a single layer and leave them alone for two minutes before stirring. They should hiss loudly and go deep golden at the edges. Tip them out and do the second batch the same way.

3. Crowding the pan is what makes mushrooms grey and watery. If they start to release liquid and stew, turn the heat up and let it boil off before you carry on browning.

4. Return all the mushrooms to the pan with the rest of the butter, the chopped porcini and the sliced garlic. Cook for one minute, until the garlic smells sweet rather than raw.

5. Scatter over the flour and stir it through for a full minute so it toasts on the mushrooms rather than sitting raw. Pour in the strained porcini liquor and the hot stock a splash at a time, stirring, and it will thicken smoothly as it comes up to a simmer.

6. Simmer for five minutes to cook out the flour and concentrate the flavour, then add the soy sauce. Taste and check the salt at this stage, before any cream is in the pan.

7. Turn the heat down to its lowest setting and pour in the double cream. Warm it through for two minutes without boiling, then stir in the parsley off the heat and serve straight away.

Tips worth knowing

• Slice the mushrooms thick. Thin slices give up their water instantly and steam themselves, while a slice the thickness of a pound coin holds together and browns.
• The soaking liquor is the best ingredient in this recipe, so do not tip it away. Pour it slowly and stop before the last tablespoon, which is where the grit settles.
• Add the soy sauce and check seasoning before the cream. Cream mutes salt, so a sauce seasoned after the cream nearly always ends up over salted the next day when it has sat in the fridge.
• If you want it thicker without more flour, take the mushrooms out with a slotted spoon, boil the liquid down by a third, then put them back and add the cream.

Keeping and reheating

Three days in the fridge in a sealed tub. It thickens as it cools because of the flour, so reheat gently with a splash of stock. It freezes acceptably for two months, though the cream can look grainy on thawing, in which case a hard whisk over a low heat pulls it back.

Questions people ask