Inspired by my European blogging buddies, I splurged and bought myself 500g of dehydrated wild mushrooms for Christmas. It really wasn’t that huge a splurge – this very large container cost me $39 and will last us for a looong time.
The instructions for rehydrating were very specific – the mushrooms had to be soaked in lukewarm water for fifteen minutes, then drained, then “dipped” in boiling water for a further ten minutes, before rinsing well in cold water. I saved the liquid from each stage to use as mushroom stock. Here’s what the mushrooms look like rehydrated..
We had a gourmet “pantry” dinner tonight – Pete took the mushrooms, Di’s organic garlic, Maude’s porcini oil, lemon juice, white wine, and mushroom stock and created this wickedly good risotto…
….then topped it off with shavings of buffalo parmesan, cracked black pepper and a drizzle of cousin Andrew’s delicious extra virgin olive oil.
Hmmm…given that 20g of dried mushrooms was enough for dinner for all four of us, our 500g container should provide us with twenty-five meals. Surely that means it’s a bargain rather than a splurge?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
