I never tire of eating beans, steak and mushrooms, so it is a really good idea for me to pair them all up with cauliflower. If you are tiring of this months eating theme, it is quite alright to slip in a few chicken meals. Is there an excuse for not including cauliflower? Perhaps, if there is an emergency, or perhaps, if the person in front of you takes the last one off the shelf.
Is loathing cauliflower an excuse? Most definitely! Include a different vegetable for the month. Carrot, or cabbage would make a good substitution.
The home made gravies are progressing quite well. I now have 2 cups of gravy in the freezer. That will be enough. The really pleasing thing about the Port and Cream mushroom sauce recipe is that it has words like “approximately”, “roughly” and “near enough” in it. The ratios of Port, cream and gravy are “approximately” one to one. If you have a bit more of one than another, it will be “near enough”. I find that two cups of gravy match up quite well with 600 Mls of unthickened cream, which is the size of the cream container. It would be quite annoying to have 100 Mls of cream sitting in the fridge just to get a perfect one to one ratio. If you want a lot of the sauce increase the amounts of each of the port, cream and gravy by “roughly” the same amounts.
On the day of cooking the sauce make sure that the gravies are thawed out. If you forget it is possible to heat them from frozen, but that is a lot more fuss so its much better to remember to thaw them out. The amount of mushrooms required ranges from as few as you want to as many as you can squash in the boiler saucepan. We mix some fresh ones with canned champignons. I like to use a reasonable quality of port, but any brand will do.
I start by mixing the gravies together and bringing them to the boil. Then add the cream and the port and mix all three. Then put in the mushrooms. Bring them to the boil. I use a boiler that has a few inches of empty space up the top, a too full boiler is difficult to manage. It is really important to stir the mixture a lot to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Decrease the heat to quite low so the sauce is simmering nicely, not boiling too frantically. Keep stirring, very frequently for the next 10 or 15 minutes. The alcohol in the port mixture will evaporate out. After this keep the sauce simmering and stir it reasonably frequently. Gradually it thickens up as the water from the homemade gravies (or commercial brand preparations) also evaporates out of the mixture. This process may take an hour, or longer if you are making a larger amount. The sauce may be served immediately, or it may be reheated on moderate heat stirring very frequently, near to the meal’s serving time.
The sauce is just as nice on steak as it is on chicken. We just choose this month’s eating theme to cook it due to it incorporating mushrooms. The really good news about this sauce is that if there is any left, and that is a big if, it freezes well for some other time.