Fungus Fair, week-old asparagus and a meal worth remembering

I just came back from dinner, and I'm really sleepy, but this was the last thing on my to-do list and I procrastinated, so I'm writing this all in one shot. Today's post is about what I call my comfort food. Simple ingredients treated well and cooked with a simple mix of spices that help the natural colours and flavours of the ingredients stand out. The dish of the week is spinach pasta with mushrooms and asparagus. That's it.

Ingredients: My roommate went to a FUNGUS FAIR...which is not something I knew existed, but while he was there, I asked him to find me some good mushrooms I could cook with, and he delivered. He bought 225g of Shiitake mushrooms and 120g of Chestnut mushrooms, which was just enough for me to make dinner for us and our neigbours. I have a small but growing list of people who want me to cook for them, and so I'm slowly working through it. It's tough, though, because it's a lot of work cooking for 6-8 people at a time, but I'll get to all of you eventually. Anyway, as for the spinach and asparagus, we got those from a farmers market earlier in the week, but I didn't feel like cooking on a weekday, so I waited to cook them. 

Mushrooms: One thing I definitely recommend with most mushrooms, especially ones that you've never tried before, take one small mushroom from each type and in a pan, cook it until it softens. Then, taste the mushroom and try to figure out what its profile is so you can cook it. Texture and flavour both matter here. In my case, the chestnut mushrooms tasted more light and reduced less in size while cooking, which told me that they would do well with light flavours. Meanwhile the shiitake tasted earthy and lost a bit of water, which told me they could handle more strong flavours and could absorb a marinade better. So, I marinated the shiitake mushrooms for a couple of hours in a mix of spices (Oregano, salt, black pepper, chilli powder, orange peel, balsamic vinegar and olive oil). For the chestnut mushrooms, I didn't marinate them, and cooked them with a lemon-oregano spice mix, some garlic, herbs and some butter.

Recipes

For the Shiitake mushrooms

225g shiitake mushrooms (Cleaned and stemmed)

Italian herb mix

Salt

Pepper

Chilli powder

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

2 Cloves garlic, minced

Orange rind (optional)

1. In a bowl, toss the shiitake mushrooms with the herbs, salt, pepper, chilli, olive oil and vinegar. Let them rest for 2-4 hours before cooking
2. In a pan, heat up the olive oil over medium-high heat. Then, pour in the mushrooms and garlic and cook until softened and brown

For the Chestnut mushrooms

110g chestnut mushrooms (Cleaned and stemmed)

Lemon-oregano spice mix

Salt

Pepper

Mix of herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, etc.)

3 Cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 stick butter

1. In a pan, melt up the butter over medium-high heat. Then, pour in the mushrooms, spices, salt, pepper, herbs, lemon juice and garlic and cook until the mushrooms are softened and brown

For the asparagus

150g asparagus

Salt

Pepper

Italian herb mix

Olive oil

1. In a pan, heat up the olive oil over medium-high heat. Then, pour in the asparagus, salt, pepper and herbs and cook until the asparagus is softened and brown

For the sauce

80g spinach, washed

20g flour

30g butter

100g grated parmesan

100ml milk

30ml olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1/2 lemon, zested

1. In a medium pan, add the olive oil and wait for it to heat up. Once heated, put the spinach in and let it cook. Once the spinach is dark green and shrivelled up, remove from the pan and put into a blender along with the oil
2. In the same pan, add the butter and the flour and stir a bit until thickened. Then, add the parmesan and milk, along with some pepper. Once the sauce is somewhat thickened and bubbling, remove from the flame and pour into the blender with the spinach
3. Blend the sauce until it is homogenous, and then add salt and lemon zest to taste. Blend a bit more and pour into the same pan to heat up again

Now it's pretty easy...boil pasta, toss in sauce, put mushrooms and asparagi on top and serve! If you don't feel like pasta, do what I did and eat it as a soup...it works just as well!