Mushroom Sauce with Dried Wild Mushrooms

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Delicious mushroom sauce that balances button mushroom taste with dried mushroom flavour.

This sauce can be used with many types of dishes. The typical ones are pasta, rice, kopytka (gnocchi), and, most often, potato patties (kotlety ziemniaczane). It can also be used as a sauce (gravy) for meat dishes.

This recipe is using white or cremini mushrooms with some dried wild mushrooms added. This will give the sauce the specific dried mushroom flavour without being overwhelming. If you do not have access to Polish dried mushrooms you can use other dried mushrooms (like ones sold in Costco). Even without dried mushrooms the sauce will be quite fragrant.

Ingredients

680 gWhite or cremini button mushrooms
25 gDried mushrooms. Boletes (Porcini) are best, but pricey. Other varieties are cheaper. Costco Canada sells Wild Mushroom Co Dried Gourmet Mushroom Mix, which is significantly cheaper but satisfactory. If you can, add at least one medium sized dry porcino, it will make a difference.
1Onion (optional, but suggested if you don’t have dried mushrooms).
150 mLSour cream.
2 tbspButter
to tasteSalt, ground pepper.

Recipe

  1. Soak dried mushrooms in a pot in about 1.5 cups of lukewarm water for at least a couple of hours, or better overnight.
  2. Mix the content of the pot vigorously to dislodge any grit and sand they usually contain.
  3. Fish out the hydrated mushrooms with a slotted spoon or spider strainer.
  4. Using a fine sieve, filter the remaining liquid. This should trap any grit.
  5. Rinse the pot from any grit remaining.
  6. Return the filtered liquid and hydrated mushrooms to the pot and cook them on medium for 10-15 minutes, making sure there is at least 1 cup of liquid left.
  7. In the meanwhile rinse and clean button mushrooms, then cut them into 4-5 mm (0.2 inch) slices.1
  8. Put the cut mushrooms into a large pot or large pan. Add 1/2 cup of water and cook them until soft (about 10 minutes). Keep adding water if it evaporates.
  9. If using onion, peel it and chop finely, then fry it in small amount of oil or butter until it is soft and translucent.
  10. Take out the hydrated dried mushrooms and let them cool a little, then cut them into small pieces (about 1/4 inch cubes). They are tougher than button mushrooms. Add the remaining liquid to the main pot.
  11. Add the hydrated chopped mushrooms, and the fried onions (if using them) to the main pot.
  12. Continue cooking while seasoning with salt and pepper. Make sure there is enough liquid in the pot so the mushrooms are almost covered.
  13. Take out about 100 mL of liquid from the pot and whisk it with sour cream. This will prevent sour cream from curdling when added to the main pot.
  14. Add the diluted sour cream to the main pot. Continue cooking until well incorporated. You can cook longer to evaporate some water if the sauce is too watery. Towards the end of cooking add butter, and stir until completely molten and mixed.
  15. It can be served immediately, or used in preparation of meat dishes. You can also store it in a fridge, then gently reheat before serving.
Footnotes
  1. I use Börner V-slicer for slicing a lot of things, including mushrooms. The sharp V design makes slicing easier than using slicers/mandolines with more perpendicular angle of the blade. Beware, the blades are very sharp, so using the safety holder is a must, having cut-resistant gloves is a good idea. Several versions are available on Amazon.ca.
    Disclaimer: I have no association with the manufacturer nor Amazon, and do not benefit from expressing my opinion here. ↩︎

To contact me with questions or comments, please send me an e-mail to [email protected]

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