- mixture of fresh regular supermarket mushrooms and dried porcini and morels,
- shallots,
- a little garlic,
- thyme,
- salt and lots of pepper
- white wine
- veal stock (I also successfully used chicken stock)
- a squeeze of tomato paste,
- parsley
- a bay leaf
- corn starch (could do with potato starch, no problem)
- Soak the dried mushrooms – I leave the in water overnight.
- Sauté them all with shallots, a little garlic, thyme, salt and lots of pepper.
- Deglaze with white wine and reduced to zero; repeat; repeat again.
- Add veal stock and the strained soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms, along with a squeeze of tomato paste, parsley, a bay leaf and a little more thyme.
- Let it simmer for an hour or so. Very rich, very brown, very mushroomy it will be.
- Thicken it lightly with a cornstarch-water slurry.
It was initially meant for Absolutely fantastic Mediterranean meat balls, but can be applied anywhere (Kotlety Kartoflane? Pasta?). It also freezes well, in one-meal size seal-able freezer bags. I would normally make lots of sauce, and lots of meat balls, and freeze the (separately), to re-heat when an immediate gourmet meal is required.