Polish Mushroom Gravy

Dried wild mushrooms are the whole point of this one. Polish cooks use borowiki, which are dried porcini, and their soaking liquid is treated as an ingredient in its own right rather than something to throw away. The result is a gravy with a woody, almost meaty depth that has no meat in it at all, traditionally served over potato dumplings, kasza or at Christmas Eve supper.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six

• 30g (1oz) dried porcini mushrooms sold as borowiki in Polish shops and as porcini or dried ceps in supermarkets
• 500ml (18fl oz) just boiled water for soaking
• 40g (1½oz) butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 250g (9oz) chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• 30g (1oz) plain flour
• 300ml (½ pint) hot vegetable stock
• 1 tsp dried marjoram the standard Polish herb for this, more floral than oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 allspice berries
• 5 tbsp soured cream
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Bowl for soaking
• Saucepan
• Fine sieve or muslin
• Whisk

Method

1. Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl, pour over the just boiled water and leave them for thirty minutes. Lift them out, squeeze them over the bowl and chop them roughly. Strain the soaking liquid through muslin or a very fine sieve, leaving the last tablespoon of grit behind in the bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and cook for eight minutes until soft and just starting to colour at the edges.

3. Turn the heat up, add the fresh mushrooms and cook for seven or eight minutes. They will release water, then the pan will go quiet and start sizzling again, which is when they begin to brown properly. Wait for that.

4. Add the chopped soaked mushrooms and cook for two more minutes so they take on a little colour too.

5. Sprinkle over the flour and stir it through the buttery mushrooms. Cook for two minutes until it smells toasted and coats everything in a thin paste.

6. Pour in the strained soaking liquid a little at a time, whisking hard, then the stock. Add the marjoram, bay leaf and allspice berries.

7. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes, stirring now and then, until the gravy has thickened and turned a proper dark brown. Fish out the bay leaf and allspice berries.

8. Take the pan off the heat and let the bubbling stop. Whisk a ladle of hot gravy into the soured cream, then stir the lot back in. Add the dill and lemon juice, season generously and serve over potato dumplings, mashed potato or buckwheat.

Tips worth knowing

• The soaking liquid is the best thing in the recipe and people pour it down the sink all the time. Strain it carefully through muslin and use it in place of most of the stock.
• Soured cream splits if it hits boiling gravy. Take the pan off the heat, temper the cream with a ladleful first, and do not let it boil afterwards.
• Marjoram rather than oregano is what makes this taste Polish. It is milder and slightly sweeter, and easy to find in any Polish shop.
• For a vegan version, use olive oil instead of butter and an unsweetened oat or soya cream. It works well, since the mushrooms carry the flavour rather than the dairy.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and the flavour deepens overnight. Freeze for three months without the soured cream, then stir it in fresh after reheating. Loosen with stock as it thickens on standing.

Questions people ask