Last night at the Home Hardware in Osoyoos, we attended the second cooking class of the season. The owner of the Home Hardware, Frances, is one smart lady. Marketing is in her soul.
The Chef of the evening, Justin Paakkunainen of Walnut Beach Resort: https://www.walnutbeachresort.com put on a terrific evening with mushrooms and the wine pairings were from Quinta Ferreira Estate Winery. https://www.quintaferreira.com Both were fabulous.
I asked Justin for permission to use his recipes and he gave it. Lucky me, lucky you.
- 2 cups of your favourite mushrooms
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1/2 onion finely diced
- 1 tsp. finely diced garlic
- 4 tbsp. white wine
- 1/2 cup 36% whipping cream
- 1 tbsp. high quality balsamic vinegar ( a really good one)
- 1 crusty baguette, or a loaf of your choice (ciabatta works well)
- olive oil for drizzling
- 1 cup mozzarella
Slice the baguette to the desired size. This depends on whether this is an Appetizer or Hors d’Oeuvre; place on a sheet pan, drizzle with oil and lightly toast in a 400 degree oven for 6 minutes, remove and set aside. Switch the oven to Broil.
In a hot saute pan, brown the mushrooms and continue to cook until finished and remove from the pan.
Put the tbsp. of butter in the hot pan and proceed to saute the onions until translucent. Stir in the garlic. Once you smell the garlic coming from the pan, deglaze with the white wine and reduce by half.
Add the cream and reduce by half again. You will see the cream getting thicker and thicker. Once the sauce coats a spoon, add the balsamic and reduce further until the same consistency.
Season with salt and pepper and place mushroom mixture on top of the toasted pieces of baguette.
Top with a pinch of mozzzrella and place the pan back in the oven until the cheese is a golden brown. Watch closely as they can very quickly burn.
These were fabulous. The wine pairing was the Rose wine from Quinta Ferreira. Delicious!
I will use a couple more of his wonderful recipes BUT I will not use the recipe for his mushroom stuffed pork loin roast. He is getting this in a magazine and he deserves the kudos on this own.
