sábado, 20 de octubre de 2018

Leek Mushroom Broth with Brown Rice

I made a potato leek soup the other day, and I still had the green upper stalk parts of the leeks in my fridge. I didn't want to throw them away, but I couldn't think of what to do with them. Ive been watching my fair share of cooking documentaries lately, and I felt like it was time to cook something warm and savory. A pre winter kind of meal. So I thought I'd use the leeks to make a broth, and since I had mushrooms, I'd use those too.

One of my aunts would always make button mushrooms in red wine that I loved during cold winter holidays. The recipe is simple, butter, wine, mushrooms, time. I always loved these, and since then I have made many a variation. I decided I wanted some sort of broth I could also pour over rice, so I concocted the recipe below.

It was hearty and delicious, just what I wanted. It served as a reflection of my own experiences, the rice making me remember all my cooking escapades on Tsushima, the mushrooms making me think of happier holidays with my aunt, the avocado to add some richness and umph because why not, and the overall mushroom soup and saltiness to remind me of those heavenly shiitake broths I used to make on Tsushima. I didn't have soy sauce handy in my fridge, and oh how I would have loved to have some local Tsush soy sauce, but the amino acids seemed to work well too.

Trust your palette, and adjust spices and flavors as needed. As always though, there is no substitute for time. That's probably why I make such dishes on weekends as I'm doing chores, which allows for all day cooking in spurts as I go about my day. Allowing a broth to marinate in itself over time is always worth it.



Makes 2-3 Servings

16 ounces of meatier mushrooms (I used baby bellos), rinsed thoroughly
2 leek stalks (green parts, washed thoroughly)
4 cups low or no sodium vegetable stock
1/2 stick butter
Dried tarragon, 3 tbsp.
1 cup red wine (good quality)
Ground black pepper, 2 tbsp, and more for garnish
Amino acids, or soy sauce, 5 to 7 tablespoons.
Brown rice, 1 cup, soaked for a few hours in mushroom stock
Avocado, for garnish

In a large pot, bring the leek stalks and the vegetable stock to a low boil. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes to 45 minutes on very low heat. Remove leek stalks completely.

Add butter, mushrooms, tarragon, black pepper, and red wine to pot with stock. Cook on lowest possible heat for about one hour.

Allow mushrooms and broth to cool for about 30 minutes.

Empty soaking water from brown rice, and ladle or pour enough of the broth from the large pot into a small pot with the brown rice. Don't put any of the mushrooms in, just the broth. Don't pour all the broth from the mushrooms pot into the rice, just enough for it to cook the rice over time.

Once you've ladled enough of the broth to cook the rice, add the amino acids or soy sauce into the large pot with the mushrooms (not the rice pot). Gently mix everything around, and let sit. This is done instead of adding salt to the mushroom broth initially, and so as not to add the saltiness to the rice.

Allow rice to further soak in the broth you poured for about 45 minutes to an hour. Once soaked, cook rice on low heat for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until rice is soft.

Once rice has cooked, slowly reheat the mushrooms in the same pot with the broth that was left over. Scoop out the rice into a shallow soup dish, and scoop out slices of avocado and place around rice. Scoop out the mushrooms and place on top of the rice. Then slowly pour the broth into the dish, just enough to cover a bit of the rice, but not too much as to make the whole dish like a soup. Just pour enough broth to get things a bit wet, since the broth is really rich, a lot of it won't taste too good if you eat too much of it all at once.

Grate some more black pepper on top of the mushrooms, and serve hot.

Enjoy!

Reserve any left over broth for use in some sort of delicious way later.

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