Mushroom Pilaf

All right. It looks like I won't have all of the recipes up on the blog before the end of November, but I will have actually made them by the end of the month. All of the recipes will be posted, just not in the idea time frame.

This recipe is also from the Beekman cookbook. I can't find anything similar to it online, so I'm going to post the process and ingredients here, but I won't use the exact text from the book.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Shitake Mushrooms
1/2 bl Cremini Mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/2 tsp sage
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c finely chopped shallot
1 c long grain white rice
3/4 tsp salt
1 carrot, shaved into long slices
1 c frozen peas, thawed
1/2 pecans, toasted and broken into smaller pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First you have to create a mushroom broth. To do this, you separate the stems from the mushrooms and let them boil in a pot of water with the garlic and the sage. You add 2 1/2-3 cups of water to the stems. You'll need about 2 cups of the broth for later, and some will boil down.

We didn't have enough stems to do this, so we used some of the caps too. Our broth had a heavier mushroom flavor as a result. If you love you some mushrooms, use some caps too.

In a pan, saute the onions in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and saute those until they wilt, which should take about 4 minutes. 

Strain the broth into a separate pan, and measure out 2 cups. If you don't have 2 cups, you'll have to add water. Stir the rice into the saucepan with the mushrooms. Add the broth and salt and bring to a boil. 

Cover it and put it in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes or until the rice is completely cooked through. Stir in the carrots, peas, and pecans with a fork. Cover again and let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms, but I tried some anyway. I usually don't like them because of the texture, but in this recipe I found that the texture of the rice and the mushrooms kind of blended together and didn't bother me as much. It had a good flavor, and I'm glad I gave it a shot.