Duxelles pancakes
“This simple recipe from the 17th century maximises mushroom flavour. We paired it with gluten free sun dried tomato pancakes.......a heavenly combination.”
Prep time - 15 minutes
Cook time - 20 minutes
Difficulty - Medium
Serves/makes - 2 portions or 4 small portions
Duxelles Ingredients
40g shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
240g chestnut mushrooms or any brown mushroom
80g shallot, finely diced
Extra virgin olive oil
The leaves from 4g thyme stems
Duxelles Method
Remove the stems from the shiitake, these are often too tough to be pleasant to eat. Put them into the chopper attachment of a handblender (or food processor) and pulse until they are in small pieces.
Roughly chop the other mushrooms and pulse them also, now squeeze the water out of them. This is an important step as the water would make the mushrooms soggy. Duxelle can be cooked to be wet, as in a no-Beef wellington recipe, or you can make it dry, as in this recipe.
Fry the shallots in a dash of olive oil for 5 minutes on a medium heat until they are translucent and soft. Add the mushrooms and thyme to the pan, stir well and reduce the heat to very low.
Cook for around 20 minutes until the flavour has intensified and all liquid has evaporated. Add salt only after you have tasted it as it may already be flavoursome enough.
Pancake Ingredients
60g sun dried tomatoes
8T / 120ml aquafaba (the water from a can or jar of chick peas)
140g gram flour
8 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
250ml dairy free milk (unsweetened)
Pancake Method
Whilst the duxelle is cooking you can make the pancakes. Warm a frying pan and keep it on a low heat while you make the batter.
Blend the tomatoes with the aquafaba with a hand blender or similar. Add the gram flour and nutritional yeast, salt and 1/4 of the milk, blend again then add the rest of the milk and blend one final time. Let the batter rest and thicken for 5 minutes.
Add a dash of oil to the pan, Add 3 ladles of the batter so you make 3 small pancakes, once they are cooked on the bottom, flip and fry the other side. Once they are cooked on both sides remove from the pan and put onto a plate and then cover them with a tea towel. Cook the remaining pancakes.
To serve stack the pancakes with duxelle in between each layer.
Notes
White pepper, truffle oil and thyme leaves are all options for a last minute addition to your plate.
Duxelle would work well as a pasta sauce.