Mushroom Delight

The highlight here is clearly the mushroom sauce. When I normally cook it, it's more along the lines of fry the mushrooms with some onions, add some whipping cream and bring it to a boil. And that's not really bad considering how simple the whole process is. But it doesn't hold a candle to this sauce.
You need a lot of ingredients and it's rather time consuming. The end result is worth all of it. It's flavourful and the rosemary and thyme give it a nice pep.

I had some ideas to make ground meat muffins. But at the time I already had some other things planed. So I postponed it to a later date (like a lot of things I'm planing, there is just not enough time to cook all the dishes I have in mind).
That was around christmas time and I was visiting my family. For Christmas Eve my mom and I cooked an absoloutly delicious fish (I'm planing to do it again and sooner or later I'm going to share the recipe with you). But when there is fish my brother always needs special treatment. So we had to make an alternative for him. I used the chance to try out the ground meat muffins.
They were really great. Because they cooked in their own juice they turned out rather moist. And the top had a nice cunch to it. But... I won't do that again. The muffin pan was more or less ruined. It was already hard to get the molds mostly clean. But the top of the pan was a lost cause. Small bubbles were burned into the metal.
It's so sad. You have to weigh out what you want more, a delicious meat muffin or a whole muffin pan. I chose the pan. I have to think of the future. Of all the muffins and cupcakes I still plan to make in my muffin pans.

As an alternative for the muffins I made meat balls in a casserole dish. That way the balls would also cook in their on juices. It's not as good as the muffins, but it's close.
I have the recipe for the mushroom filling from my mom. It's kind of a common fillin for her meat loaf.

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Mushroom Delight

Meat

500 g ground meat, pork
1 big onion
2 garlic cloves
1 potato
1/3 cup milk
1/8 cup water
2 tbsp mayonnaise
salt
pepper

1. Peel the garlic. Mince it afterwards.
2. Peel the onion. Use a grater to make a puree out of it.
3. Peel the potato. Use a grater to make a puree out of it.
4. Put the ground meat into a big bowl. Add the onion, the garlic, the potato and the mayonnaise. Gradually add the water and milk. Combine everything with your hands. The mass should not be to watery or it won't hold when you later form the meat balls.
5. Season with salt and pepper.

Filling

1 onion
150 g mushrooms, jar
salt
olive oil

1. Peel the onion. Cut it into fine cubes.
2. Use a colander to drain the water out of the jar. Rinse the mushrooms with cold water.
3. Cut the mushrooms into fine cubes.
4. Heat some oil in a frying pan.
5. Add the mushrooms and onions into the pan. Fry everything until the onions turn translucent.
6. Season with salt.

To Assemble

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/390°F.
2. Grease a casserole dish. It shouldn't be to big, just enough place that the meat balls won't touch.
3. Take a small handful of the prepared meat. Hold it in your hand and press it flat.
4. Put about a tabelspoon full of the mushroom mixture into the middle of the patty. Form a ball around the mushrooms.
5. Place the formed ball into the prepared casserole dish. The meat balls shouldn't touch.
6. Bake for about 60-70 minutes.

Sauce

500 g pasta
1 cup reserved pasta water

3 tbsp olive oil
400 g mushrooms, fresh
2 tsp rosemary, dry
1 tsp thyme, dry
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 tsp soy sauce
salt
pepper

2 tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves
1 onion
3 tbsp flour
4 tbsp white wine, dry
1 1/2 cups milk
salt
pepper

1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water for later use.
2. Clean the mushrooms. Cut them into thin slices.
3. Peel the garlic. Mince them afterwards.
4. Peel the onion. Cut it into fine cubes.
5. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan.
6. Add the mushrooms to the pan. Fry them for about 10 minutes, the mushrooms should turn brown.
7. Add the rosemary, the thyme and the red pepper flakes. Fry along for another minute.
8. Add the soy sauce and season with salt and pepper. Fry along for 3 more minutes.
9. Take the mushrooms out of the pan.
10. Use the same frying pan to melt the butter with the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil.
11. As soon as the butter is completely melted add the garlic and onion to it.
12. Fry them for 5-7 minutes.
13. Add the flour and mix it for about 2 minutes. If the mixture is to dry add 1-2 tsp olive oil.
14. Stir constantly while you add the wine.
15. Add the milk. Stir it until the sauce thickens.
16. Add the fried mushrooms.
17. Use the pasta water to thin down the sauce. Add more or less of it depending on how thick you prefare your sauce.
18. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the pasta with the sauce and the stuffed meatballs.

Bon appétit!!