Sovay's Profile

From: Northern England,

Joined: October 7th, 2012

About me: I've embarked on a mission to cook something new from every cookery book I own - currently 260 - and am planning to use my account here to keep track (thanks to rfb from Librarything for tipping me off to the existence of this site). I've made a couple of rules for myself: to cook the recipe as given, with no substitution or variation unless suggested by the author; and to try to pick a genuinely new dish from each book - in other words, as I've cooked many Leek and Potato Soups in my time, I don't get to count Leek and Potato Soup as a new dish just because I haven't used this specific recipe before (unless it has really significant differences from the usual versions).

Hodge Podge from Mrs Beeton's Cookery Book

Beef and vegetable soup with beer - turned out disappointingly bland. The recipe had no seasoning other than salt and pepper - having tried it, I added a stock cube and some Worcester sauce, which helped... read more >

recipe reviews (241)
book reviews (5)
useful review votes (43)

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Sovay's Reviews

2 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 2Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Mushroom Feast

By Jane Grigson
Penguin Books - 1983

Not the most obvious combination but it really works - cooking intensifies the flavour of the cucumber so it can hold its own with the mushrooms. I couldn't bring myself to put the oven on for an hour to cook one cucumber so I braised it on the hob, which worked fine and was a lot quicker - took about 20 minutes. The recipe suggests either dill or basil as an accompanying herb; I used basil simply because I had some to hand. Next time I may try omitting the herbs but using tarragon vinegar for the initial marination as I think that will work with both the cucumber and mushrooms. I recommend keeping an eye on the cream and mushroom sauce towards the end as it's easy to over-reduce - I had to add a drop of boiling water at the last minute.

useful (0)  

I tried this out mainly to avoid wasting half a box of mushrooms for which I had no other plans, and was pleased with the result.

I ate mine within 24 hours as I was conscious that the mushrooms had been sitting around for 2 or 3 days before they hit the marinade. Because of this the aromatic flavours weren't as strong as they might have been if the mushrooms had been left to marinate for the recommended minimum 4-5 days; if I made them again with the intention of eating them that soon I'd lightly crush the garlic, juniper and peppercorns and quarter the onions and shallots.

I'd also recommend removing the juniper and peppercorns before serving.

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