Say what you want about funghi, but most of my friends either love or hate mushrooms. I'm definitely in the former category, if you couldn't tell from earlier blog posts. In the spring I'd been using this Morel Cream sauce quite a bit from the Crampton's Market blog, but unfortunately Morel's have a very short season. They're a very mushroomy mushroom that grows wild just north of here, but can only be harvested in the early spring. Having just gotten a rather nice supply of early season chanterelles though, I wanted to adapt the recipe. Unfortunately, when I started to cook, I realized I had to substitute a rather key ingredient. I'll go into detail below, but what I ended up with was a rather tasty meal, just not at all what I'd planned on!
Original Recipe
15-20 fresh morels, sliced/chopped appropriately
1 large shallot, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, chopped fine or minced
1 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add shallots and then garlic, stirring until softened but not brown.
3. Add butter and stir until melted, then add morels. Stir until mushrooms start to brown, about 4 min.
4. Add chicken stock and cook simmering for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add cream and cook on low until reduced and thickened. (This may take time... I've added butter to speed things up as needed, and considered flour and cornstarch too...)
Serve on chicken breasts, toast, steak, etc etc etc...
Screwing it all Up
The original plan was to prepare the same sauce and just substitute the chanterelles for the morels, cook the chicken in the pan before and after the sauce and keep everything else straightforward. Then I started cooking and realized that I didn't have any cream and decided to substitute 1 % milk and extra butter instead. Long story short, I ended up with a very tasty mushroom mixture for my chicken breasts, but it wasn't really a sauce, and it definitely WASN'T creamy! :p Lesson to self - cream is important!
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