SC - mushroom salad results

[Stefan li Rous]

Olwen asked:
> >Ok. Then I must be in a funny mood. After looking through a mushroom 
> >cookbook
> >for something to add to our family get-together/late Yule tomorrow, I 
> >decided
> >I liked the recipes for mushroom salads. But I liked some of what was in A
> >and some of what was in B but the procedure that was in C... And I had this
> >stuff that was similar to what was in D, but with more 'bite'. So, it was
> >kind of a combination of all those and my imagination.
> >
> >I hope it turns out ok. I know my wife won't eat it - it has mushrooms in
> >it. :-) Hope the others like it. We shall see.
> >--
> >THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra

> So...how did your mushroom/alphabet dish come out??

It was well liked by everyone but my wife, who wasn't going to try any,
anyway. While my wife had bought me some cremini(sp?) mushrooms I decided
I needed more, but all I found at the store (HEB) was white button mushrooms,
more cremini and some portabellos, which I decided were way too big. So
I bought some white button mushrooms. Central Market would have had six
or eight varieties to pick from, but they are much further away.

As I was blanching the cremini/button mushroom mix in lemon juice and salt,
I remembered I had a bag of dried Shiitake mushrooms, so I threw four 
of them in the water. I needed to cut them up, but dried that didn't
work. 
So into the pot and I pulled them out later and cut them up. I guess I 
should have boiled them longer after straining out the other mushrooms 
or rehydrated them previously because the Shiitake mushrooms were rather 
chewy, altough they did tenderize some more sitting in the vinegar/oil 
mixture overnight.

I used a 50/50 mixture of balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar and some
olive oil.  At least one of the recipes used white (distilled) vinegar, 
but I didn't like that idea. One of the recipes called for parsley, but
I 
thought cilantro would have more taste and folks liked that. I also
mixed 
in various dried herbs and spices from my collection. Garlic salt with parsley,
red chili, oregano, tarragon, thyme and others I can't think of right
now. 
Other things in there were diagonally sliced green onions, minced
red(ripe) 
green peppers and the olives. Also I tossed in two chopped up pickled
hot peppers. Only two as I was being cautious. They were barely evident,
though.

Sorry, I guess that's not very organised, but sometimes that is how
I cook. Rather impromptu, a little of this, a little of that...

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****