Mushroom Cappuccino & Baked Mushrooms

I went to a fabulous event at the Hilton in Brisbane on Sunday. It was the Hilton Masterclass and involved going to 5 sessions each one to one and a half hours long. You could choose out of 4 different classes for each session. During the session you were treated to a cooking demonstration and given samples of the dishes being prepared along with matching wines. One of the classes I attended was hosted by Jacques Reymond, a well known chef from Melbourne. I decided last night to try two of the dishes Jacques made for us.

The first dish is a simple mushroom broth served in small cappuccino cups. The mushrooms are packed into a saucepan with a little water and salt and pepper and left to simmer to draw out their natural juices. The juice is then strained off and mixed with cream and milk before being frothed with a stick blender. This broth is quite rich and you only need a small amount of it. I think next time I would reduce the amount of milk and cream and add a little extra salt. I love the look of the soup in the coffee cups and think this is a lovely way to serve any soup or broth as an appetiser.

Rating 7 out of 10.

The second dish was baked mushrooms which were made by placing the mushrooms stalk side down on a baking dish lined with alfoil and baking paper. The mushrooms were topped with sliced garlic, golden shallots, roasted hazelnuts, thyme, parmesan shavings and olive oil. You were also meant to use hazelnut or walnut oil which I couldn't find at the supermarket (obviously a deli item) so I just added some chopped walnuts for extra nutty flavour. Swiss Brown mushrooms would be best for this recipe which I also couldn't find so I used a mixture of button and quartered portobello mushrooms which was still nice.

The mushrooms are covered with alfoil and roasted for 10 minutes at 180 degrees C which wasn't enough as the cheese wasn't fully melted and the shallots were not fully cooked. I would increase the heat and cooking time.

This bake is quite rich with the nuts and cheese but worked really well with steak. I decided to blend up the left over bake and had it on toast for lunch today which was also nice. You could use it as a "mushroom pesto" or dip.

Rating 7 out of 10 (but I think with longer cooking time it would be an 8-9 out of 10!)