A surprise mushroom bourguignon

"I always argued that most of the things people thought they liked about meat they actually liked about the sauces and braises and spices they were cooked in" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

Last night we were invited to dinner at my son's house - for a French mushroom dish - his wife told me - when the invite was issued. A lovely surprise in itself but the meal was also a delicious surprise.

I should say here, that although my younger son does indeed cook quite a lot, he mostly sticks to pasta and pizza - his favourite foods. But last night he pulled out all the stops - the star being this mushroom bourguignon which I shall come to. It's shown here because it was the headline act in many ways.

Which is not at all to detract from the French onion soup for our first course, and which I forgot to photograph. It came complete with a toasted and cheesy slice of baguette floating on top, which, somewhat unbelievably, my husband didn't really know how to tackle, and did not seem to know, that bread in soup was a common French thing! Suffice to say that the caramelised onion broth was superb and the cheesy toast made it so French.

Then the main course, which was not named - we were left to discover it ourselves. And yes it was different. There was something odd about it. Was that meat? At one point I wondered whether there was beetroot in with the meat, and only when we had all finished was it 'revealed' that it was mushroom. I suppose I should have realised that it was not meat, because my vegetarian granddaughter was also partaking of the dish. She did not have a separate dish.

It was served with a wonderful gratin dauphinois - a Dearman family favourite, and a carefully assembled and dressed green salad - this from a young man who would not touch green salad whilst he lived at home with us. But I tell myself it must have ultimately come from me. The gratin certainly did.

I'm afraid I forgot to photograph the lemon tart - made by my other granddaughter - an accomplished cook - and it showed. All of this family of grandchildren actually cook - apparently my young ten year old grandson had a big hand in the gratin. I'm not sure about the other family, but then their parents are slightly less interested I think.

But enough of a family gathering about which you could say all the somewhat corny things about families gathering to eat, and on to mushroom bourguignon.

So I asked my son today whose recipe he had used. I hope he wasn't insulted that I had not assumed that he had made it up himself. And indeed I did make that assumption, because he obviously was doing something special, and he therefore probably had used somebody's recipe. As do I on such occasions. Today he told me it was this one - well I think it must be this one. He told me it was Jamie Oliver and this is indeed the Jamie Oliver Mushroom bourguignon that you will find on his website, but it's actually by Rosie Reynolds who contributed it to the Jamie Oliver Magazine. It's also one of the recipes that includes porcini and which also has a mix of various mushrooms. So maybe Jamie, maybe not, but at least Jamie Oliver endorsed - whatever that might mean.

I have to say that in the picture it does not look as rich and dark as my son's - less sauce too - the important part as Deb Perelman points out in my opening quote. And this is her Mushroom bourguignon which includes pearl onions and is served with noodles. Apparently she used to be a vegetarian, and when she gave that up she fell in love with Boeuf bourgignon. This dish was a somewhat guilty attempt - a successful one it seems - as various others, including Serious Eats, seem to refer to her recipe as the touchstone.

Nobody seems to know exactly who thought of making a vegetarian version of Boeuf bourgignon with mushrooms, but judging by my 'research' today it seems to be a favourite vegetarian dish. Vegan too because there is no dairy in this. And mushrooms are perhaps the closest vegetable to a meat substitute - almost the same texture - not as grainy I guess, but chewy - which is why the larger mushrooms are suggested, rather than the tiny ones.

When I typed 'mushroom bourguignon' into my first Google search the first result -

Easy mushroom bourguignon came from a website called Easy Cheesy Vegetarian, so following a resolution I made a long time ago, and which I don't always keep, I chose to present it. We should be more adventurous in our searches - well I should - some of those website recipe writers might even be better than the 'professionals' and the 'almost professionals'. It does look rather good, and another thing it has going for it, is the laissez-faire approach of its author who says things like:

"As the name of the dish suggests, it’s traditional to use a Burgundy wine to make a bourguignon (the French region of Bourgogne is known as Burgundy in English). But, since I’m not overly fussed with authenticity, I just used any old cheap red wine (don’t hate me for saying that, French people), and it still worked beautifully."

Which is probably true, unless you have a really trained palate, that can distinguish every individual ingredient in your stew as well as its provenance. It looks pretty good and I'm sure it tastes pretty good, and she did make it in a Le Creuset pot, so she obviously has some aspirations to being a good cook. As she says - it takes a mere 20 minutes to prepare with an hour or so in the oven. It probably tastes better when reheated the next day too.

I checked out my go to websites, like delicious. - who had nothing - and taste who had this from  Tracy Rutherford which emphasised the vegan nature of the dish in its title. Also served with mash and looking somewhat paler, and also with the ingredients looking more separate somehow. It's not an amalgamated sort of dish. But simple.

Melissa Clark is a frequent New York Times contributor but you may find that her recipe for Mushroom Bourguignon is behind a paywall, but fortunately a website called Chewing the Fat also has it, so I changed the link. Her recipe includes tamari - a kind of soy sauce, for extra richness, and is served on a bed of 'creamy, buttery' mashed potatoes. We don't have mashed potatoes in this house very often as David doesn't like them, hates them in fact, but I'm with those who say that mashed potatoes are a perfect accompaniment to stewy things.

Then there's Nigel who presented his recipe twice on The Guardian website. Both were served with mash - once from butternut squash and once a carrot one - Mushroom 'bourguignon' and Mushroom bourguignon, mashed carrots, but it's basically the same recipe - which includes balsamic vinegar as his little twist. On one of those he said:

"I like to add a little triangle of fried bread to each portion dipped in chopped parsley, as a nod to the original boeuf bourguignon."

Although I cannot see that in the photographs. I have to say the carrot one looks more tempting - but then that's all down to the photography and styling is it not? It is the same recipe after all.

And finally The Hairy Bikers, top their Mushroom bourguignon with blue cheese cobbler. I did see somebody else adding ordinary dumplings to the topping - well maybe these are too, but they haven't been covered and allowed to steam in the juices, and so they become crusty. Maybe that's the difference between a dumpling and cobbler. In this context anyway.

I do confess that I actually prefer the beef version - and my son has also made this for us in the past. It's hard to beat really isn't it, as it's really not that difficult to make unless you go all fancy about how you cook your tiny onions and button mushrooms as garnishes rather than as part of the dish. Nevertheless the mushroom version came pretty close, and it really was all about the sauce. Thank you Dom for making me try something new, taking such care, and providing such a warm and delicious evening.

YEARS GONE BY

June 15

2025 - Nothing

2024 - Food for the soul - religion in the curriculum

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Orange peel

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Lucky dip, Elizabeth David, simply delicious and coincidence

2017 - On holiday