Long forgotten, good but fattening Cream Mushroom & Potatoes

There was this restaurant that was known to be pricy and we would only go on special occassions likes their promo days, or farewell... It was here that i had the Cream Mushroom & Potatoes. It was interesting because someone had ordered that as a starter communal dish to go with their fresh right out of the oven house baked bread, it tasted creamy good! 

Then our orders came, some order pasta dishes, some ordered lighter bites like open toast dish, while others were the usual fish or meal mains. It came as a surprise when we realized the mushroom pasta dish and the mushroom open toast were the same cream mushroom, just less the potatoes. Looking at the price in the menu again, prompted me to try taking a shot to recreate the dish... and i did!

 

From tasting the dish, all i could get was the following:

• > White Button Mushrooms (It had to be white, else it will not have the white cream appearance; while brown or darker colour mushrooms will cause the sauce to have "muddy" or "dirty" look... go try and u will see.)  
• > Cooking Cream / Coconut Cream (In asia, coconut cream is much cheaper than cooking cream and its much more creamier and tastier than cooking cream; However the amount used has to be just right, else it will be very overpowering, causing discomforts and indigestions, due to its coconut oil components.)  
• > Garlic & Onion (How can we not have aromatic?!! Garlic gives a nice bite and fragrant scent, cutting through the cream. While the onion will help to add sweetness to the dish and also becos i adores it. :X)  
• > Potatoes (Its starchy properties will compliment the cream and adds texture to the dish.)  
• > Misc - Oil, Salt & Pepper, Water, *BUTTER* 

=========================================================================== So here goes:

1. Sauté the chopped garlic & onion; let the garlic cook till fragrant and onions turn translucent.
2. Throw in the roughly cubed white button mushrooms and stir.
3. Add a nice bit of butter, be generous... you will not regret! (suddenly i sound like Paula :X)
4. Remove the skin and chop the potatoes into bite size, nothing too big lest it be hard to cook through while everything else is done.
5.  Cover and let everything cook through, add a tablespoon bit of water to help steam the potatoes.
6. Open and stir, checked for anything burnt and if everything cooked.
7. Finally pour in the cream, add a little at a time with bit of stirring and simmering before adding more. Repeat accordingly.
8. Once the texture is right, cover with lid and turn off fire. Any more stirring may split the cream.

And its done! Its a great sauce to work with, from pasta to toast ... and to even dips.

Great party menu item, i made tis for my housewarming party and it was a hit!

Memory Recall Exercise - Repeato - Cucumber hash with egg

To cut the long story short, my 90% complete post was wiped out becos i did not save while i was writing the post; hey, i was busy trying to recall the whole line of events leh, then i also dunno this app no autosave ah... what to do... Anyway, MOVING FORWARDS... i am looking for new app that fits my working criteria... if you have any to suggestion please do. The frequency of posting will be the best result slip.

Now, about today's real juice... (no, not fruit jucie or veggie juice, and NO not battery juice... *roll eyes*

Food is the forever theme here, had a simple challenge this morning to make use of overdue residents of fridge land to make brunch for one. And the rules states to be nothing to meaty, cos i have been feasting whole week and cant really take in so much meat any more. Then i have been warned by the royal chef that today's lunch is gonna be tomato based pasta. So there goes my option to make

Spaghetti aglio e olio - out the window. :(

So, i took one step at a time... checking on what i have:

 - Leftover frozen diced uncooked bacon (*Priority to clear)

 - Cucumber (*Priority to clear)

 - Tomatoes(*Priority to clear)

 - Egg (*Use sparingly, only left 4)

 - Canned whole mushrooms (*Use sparingly, royal chef may need for pasta lunchie)

 - Long overdue dried oregano

 - Daiso Rice Vinegar

 - Garlic

Here goes the delayed telecast of thought events log.

1. Leftover frozen diced uncooked bacon tossed into cold pan, the turn on fire to smallest and lid it.

2. Minced garlic to quantity of my desire, and set aside.

3. Pan had heated up, bacon had defrosted and there is liquid from the melting of frost & bacon fats.

4. Throw in the minced garlic and keep it lid on.

5. Open canned whole mushrooms, diced half for my use and remaining sliced for royal chef.

6. Pan open lid to mix around a little, make sure bacon is cooked (regardless steams or fried).

7. Throw in the diced mushrooms and put lid back on.

8. Diced the tomatoes and throw into pan, with oregano + salt & pepper.

9. STIR & MIX.

* Everything seems pretty much cooked... Seems like missing a star lead huh? *

10. Flatten all the stuff into level plain and crack egg on top, add a table spoon of water to side of pan, giving some liquid for steaming top of egg with lid covered. Turn off fire if egg whites has settled, if egg yolk or some white still like under done, keep lid on and let the remaining heat in the pan too cook them.

* Err... cucumbers??? diced salad again? boring... blah... need something to tingle... tangy!

11. Cut 1 jap. cucumber into 4 sections, 2 sections thinly sliced and place flat in plate. Pour little rice vinegar to form small shallow ponding to cover half the height of the green slices, and add sugar to balance the sour. Check plate should not have liquid more than a teaspoon sized.

*No salt in this pickling, cos bacon is salty and the pan has been seasoned with salt & pepper already!

12. Remaining section to cut into small dice pieces, take half and put on top of pickled cucumber in plate; keep the rest for other uses.

*Non pickled cucmber can add additional crunch & refreshing taste, and can help to lightening the tangy from pickled cucumbers when mixed it all up.

13. Once egg is done, transfer everything on top of the cucumber mixture with the egg in the centre. Fill the mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, garlic around the egg.

14. Serve & enjoyed.

15. The creation of CUCUMBER HASH WITH AN EGG.

 

Backend system re-constructions - Getting Organized

Well what can i say, i finally remember why i blog less and less, history has just repeated itself and lost a 90% completed post of painful memory recaling of this morning's recipe conjuring line of events! 

*jaw dropped and demoralized* 

Argh, cant they just add an autosave feature to this app?

I used to do all my blogging from a laptop, then to a netbook, and now finally to an iPad... all in the name of technology advancement and convenice for mankind... isnt technology suppose to be doing that for us? I mean, i am trying not to re-invent the wheel and go back to old ages of stone and craving... do i? *GULP!* No way! Time to get my act together and put my techno ass back on the current trend of age now and not try to live with something that works and stay with something that works... sounds strange huh?

A moment of side track here, my personal experience tells me that latest and most popular doesnt necessarily means its working for your needs, regardless its software, or hardware or apps...

K, so back to lets get organized and re-evaluate the suiteable apps, especially those with auto-saving and workable offline features!

*PS. hope i can recall my earlier post contents :(