Photo by
Provenance of Dish
I based this dish on old recipes for meatloaf. When my family went vegetarian I put a lot of old favourites in the "vegimator" substituting mushrooms for meat.
Recipe
Ingredients
1.5 to 2 lbs mixed wild mushrooms (can substitute some domestic if you don't have enough). Pick meatier types of wild mushrooms like chanterelles and hedgehogs and lobsters.
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2-3 tablespoons of butter for frying
1-2 eggs, depending on volume of mushrooms
1/2 cup breadcrumbs or panko or cooked rice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp or more pepper
fresh thyme, parsley to taste
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp Montreal chicken spice
2 cloves garlic
soy sauce or Worchestershire sauce, a couple of dashes
For gravy
1/4 lb butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups mushroom juice (warm)
salt, pepper and seasonings to taste
Instructions
If using fresh wild mushrooms dry saute in a cast iron skillet or pan. Drain juice and save for the mushroom gravy.
Remove from pan and put in a food processor in batches. Pulse 10-20 times until you have a coarse texture that looks like ground meal, not too small. Set aside
add butter to frying pan and saute onions and celery.
add spices
add finely diced raw domestic mushrooms if using (you can use the food processor for this step as well)
once the domestic mushrooms are cooked add the wild mushroom mix and heat thoroughly. Add any additional herbs and spices you like including soy sauce and Worchestershire sauce
remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes
add bread crumbs or rice
beat an egg and add. If the mixture doesn't want to combine add another egg for binding
spray a loaf pan and pat the mixture into the pan.
dab the top with a little butter if you like
bake in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes to an hour. If the top starts looking dry but not cooked yet, cover with foil for the last 10 minutes
Wild mushroom gravy
set a heavy bottomed 2 qt pot on medium heat on the stovetop
add butter and flour and stir until butter is melted into the flour to make a roux
keep stirring until the mixture browns. The darker the mixture the darker and more flavourful the gravy but don't let it burn.
add 2 cups warm mushroom juice all at once and stir until it thickens. Add salt and pepper and anything else you like in your gravy but the wild mushroom taste will always come through - yum.
Remove loaf from oven, cool for about 10 minutes and slice and serve as you would a meat loaf
serve with wild mushroom gravy
Vegan version - substitute olive oil for butter, 3 tbsp ground flax to 1 tbsp water for each egg and make a gravy using corn starch rather than butter.
Delicious both ways.
I'll have a photo at Christmas as we do this as our main dish instead of turkey. Very filling and really really tasty.
