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Mushroom Recipes

Countess Morphy

1966

I heart the Countess!  I was trying to find something Spring-y and for some reason I grabbed this book.  The Countess never disappoints, at least with her ideas.  Execution is another thing.  If I had followed this single recipe to the letter it would have necessitated jumping around to four different pages for The Veal, Mushroom Stuffing, Mushroom Garnish, and brown Mushroom Sauce which is actually a variation of Sauce Espagnole.  No thanks.

The Countess, being a Countess, refers to her Paupiettes as “Collops”.  I bought cutlets and hoped for the best. Each cutlet is coated with a layer of Mushroom Stuffing.  The stuffing is made from finely chopped mushrooms cooked in butter, seasoned with salt and cayenne and mixed with half their weight of breadcrumbs.  I used one pound of mushrooms to stuff two pounds of veal cutlets.  After they’ve cooled, the mushrooms are bound with an egg and seasoned further with 1 tsp grated lemon rind and a squeeze of lemon juice.  This bit of lemon added a lot of brightness to an otherwise heavy preparation.

The cutlets get layered with stuffing,rolled, topped with bacon and tied.  I used toothpicks because I was feeling tired and lazy.  Although the recipe says to brown one sliced carrot, onions, and celery in bacon fat and THEN add the veal, I did the reverse because that is how I was taught.  The pan browned nicely so when I added the stock for cooking the veal it became rich with the caramelized veal juices.  So, browned veal, browned veg, add stock to cover halfway (no amount given, no stock specified), cover and cook in a “slow oven” for one and half hours.  Instead of the Mushroom Sauce I simply pureed the liquid and vegetables that were in the pan.  And because it was promising to be brown rolled in brown sauced with brown garnished with brown, I added some chopped fresh herbs to the sautéed Mushroom Garnish. And couscous.  Voilà:

I’ll say the same thing I did last time.  The Countess is lovely, but beware those of you who expect a nice, detailed list of ingredients and a thorough, careful explanation of how to prep. Posted in General