I'm marking again and opening up next semester's module too - hello second job/Sunday working. But also, hello new students, hurrah! Meanwhile, it's veg-forward week in my kitchen and I've managed to pick the most resolutely beige thing in the world: mushroom meatballs with barley stew. Not bad. But it did involve grating mushrooms. I never understood why stuffing a mushroom was the last straw in housewifery (mum used to stuff portabellos with sausagemeat which takes about 5 minutes for two meals), but I will say, this would be a hell of a lot easier if I had a food processor.
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| Shredded chestnut mushrooms |
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| Absolutely mithered shitake mushrooms sigh |
We begin, as ever, with an onion. Chopped, sweated, mixed with some garlic. But this is a useful recipe - take half as the basis for a barley stew (just pearl barley and stock in with this, 20 minutes cooking or so), and the rest as part of the meatball mix. Then add shredded chestnut and shitake mushrooms (chestnuts are *much* easier to grate), breadcrumbs, parmesan, eggs, parsley, seasoning...
It makes a horrible squidgy mess. I had dark forebodings that these meatballs would collapse or leak horribly in the oven, but nope. All good.
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| This is the cooked version. I appreciate it's hard to tell... |
Beige. Beige. Beige. But tasty. And a break from meat and cheese and spuds which have been a heavy part of my diet lately.
Now, I am always on the lookout for new mushroom recipes, and had not considered 'meat'balls. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThey were surprisingly successful. About 300g of mushrooms to 2 eggs (which was slightly too much but half an egg is never useful), 30g breadcrumbs and 30g rolled oats which I forgot to mention above. All by eye, though, so they're probably pretty forgiving as quantities. Definitely worth experimenting.
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