Flambéed Mixed Mushroom Pasta

This pasta dish started with the gift of a bottle of brandy. We aren’t really drinkers, so I started wondering what other uses I can have for the brandy. After reading up about the original recipe of Stroganoff, I decided that I would play around with it a bit and come up with a healthier, vegetarian version.

The first time I flambéed the mushrooms, I almost lost my fringe! But the taste that came out was worth the fright! I also made it on my birthday for lunch when my parents, brother and sister came over. While I was making the dish I could hear everybody laughing and talking behind me (we are a loud family), once I added the brandy and set it alight, all was suddenly very quiet behind me. After a couple of seconds my mom joked:

“Ok Jouré, we won’t be naughty any more…”

So here is it. The dish for those that behave themselves 😉

Ingredients:

Smoked salt – the clumpy ones

½ teaspoon whole coriander

½ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

1 clove fresh garlic – crushed

Butter

Pepper

4 heaped tablespoons of plain yogurt

125ml cream

50-75 ml of Brandy

1 punnet of small brown mushrooms – roughly chopped

1 punnet of mixed wild/exotic mushrooms (Enoki, Oyster, Porcini, etc) – roughly chopped

Method:

1. Dry fry your mustard seeds, coriander and salt for about 1 minute on high heat. Take out of the pan and put it aside
2. Fry your mushrooms and garlic on high heat in the butter. You will see how much they need. Mushrooms usually need quite a bit to make them extra creamy
3. Add you fried spices and pepper
4. Add the brandy and light it up! It will burn for as long as there is alcohol in it. Let it burn out by itself
5. Add the yogurt and cream and let it simmer – it will thicken by itself. It isn’t a very thick sauce but that is what makes it so great. It will cover your pasta and there will be sauce left that you can scoop up with some delicious home made bread

Bagna Cauda

♥ This is a warm vegetable dip called Bagna Cauda.
I ate this for the first time at an ex-boyfriend’s house when his mom made it for his 21st. I fell in love with the dish immediately, and over the years have been researching recipes and perfecting my own version of it. It is such a sure way to get people to eat raw vegetables. I even ate raw broccoli! 😉

Be sure to serve it with a warm, fresh bread. Also, since most people don’t like a meal without meat, I sometimes make a steak and cut in into strips for those that want it. ( I can hear the men say AMEN!)

This dish always works best if you keep it in a hot plug in pan thing, and dish it out in small quantitites as you need it.

So here it is, with lots of love ♥

Ingredients
1/2 cup peeled, crushed garlic
1/5 cup olive oil
500g butter
1 tin capers
1 tin anchovy fillets
250ml double cream

Method:
1. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic and the olive oil to form a paste
2. Cook this paste over a low heat
3. Add the butter
4. Add the capers and anchovies – cook until the anchovies start melting
5. Add the cream, bring to almost boil (just bubbling) and serve

*Tip: If you are sensitive to the garlic smell, soak your garlic in whole milk for at least an hour before you use it. This will remove a lot of the garlic smell.