Making mushroom ragout
Some old-fashioned dishes are absolutely worth making and this mushroom ragout is one of them. Infinitely tastier than what you can buy in a can at the store.
Making your own mushroom ragout
The secret to making a really tasty mushroom ragout is to process it with mushroom stock. This makes it really mushroomy (nice word huh. Haha).
We used to regularly eat ragout at home. Always from a can by the way because you know, my mother was no kitchen princess. And despite it being from a can, I still like it. There was just always something special about such a crispy cup of puff pastry and then the nice creamy ragout inside.
What can you find in this post:
Which kind of ragout we always had I honestly don’t remember. I suspect chicken or mushroom ragout. Anyway; if you love it? Then you’ll absolutely love these.
Puff pastry cups
To start with, of course, the puff pastry cups. I just buy these ready-made. I once participated in a Daring Kitchen challenge to make my own puff pastry and then use it to make puff pastry cups, but to be honest, I find that too much work. If you want to know how that went, you can find the post about making vol-au-vent here. After all, that’s what it’s called in French.
By the way, it is a post on my blog from 2009 so it has been around for a while. It’s strange when you consider that I have been blogging for 16 years (insert shocked emoji). Anyway, that’s another story. Back to the mushroom ragout.
So you buy the puff pastry cups ready-made and heat them up in the oven while making the mushroom ragout.
Baking the mushrooms
The first step in making the mushroom ragout is to bake the mushrooms. I personally always like that best in a good piece of butter combined with some oil. The oil keeps things from burning too quickly on high heat.
Fry the mushrooms with the thyme and rosemary and remove it from the pan as soon as it is brown. You then continue making the roux in the same pan.
Making the roux
Basically, mushroom ragout is not much more or less than making a roux and further flavoring and filling it. Roux is a base for all sorts of different sauces but can also be used to thicken something.
It is a combination of melting butter and adding flour. You fry the flour briefly in the pan so that the rawness of the flour is gone. Raw flour is not what you want in your roux, so give it some time. Don’t turn the heat too high at this point. You do not want the flour (or the butter) to brown.
Adding the liquid
Once you’ve made the base, finish it off by adding a liquid. If you make – for example – a cheese sauce, then you add milk or cream. In this case, you add mushroom broth.
I made the mushroom stock the easy way by using a cube. You add the broth in portions. I usually pour the stock in a little at a time and stir well with a wooden spoon until it thickens. Then I add the next bit of liquid. When it reaches the desired thickness, check to see if it thickens further.
What I usually notice when making a roux is that the flour needs some time to bind with the liquid. So if you stop too quickly then it thickens even more later and may become too thick.
In that case you simply add a bit more liquid.
Once you have a good base, add the mushrooms and tarragon and season with salt and pepper.
With chicken or beef
It’s easy to change the mushroom ragout into a beef or chicken ragout. It works the same way. You just add the chicken or beef instead of the mushrooms.
How long can you store the ragout?
You can keep the ragout in the refrigerator for about two days. Keep in mind that when refrigerated it thickens considerably so you will have a thick blob of ragout. By heating it, it will become smoother and you can add some extra broth if necessary.
If you have more you can also freeze it. The ragout is also delicious on bread. Reheating it is no problem.
Is salpicon also a ragout?
Yes, but a thicker variant. It is used for filling a croquette, for example.
My mushroom ragout has become too thin. Now what?
Don’t panic. If you have accidentally added too much liquid to the ragout, you can easily thicken it by adding some extra flour or cornstarch. It is handy to first mix this with a teaspoon of broth and then stir well to prevent lumps.
My mushroom ragout has become too thick. Now what?
Basically the same as above, only now you don’t add starch but you add some broth to make it a little thinner.
Mushroom ragout in puff pastry cups
Ingredients
- 400 grams mixed mushrooms cleaned and cut into strips
- 2 shallots chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 50 grams butter
- 60 grams flour
- 400 ml mushroom stock cooled
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 1 sprig rosemary only the needles and chopped
- 2 sprigs tarragon picked and coarsely chopped
- 4 puff pastry cups
- 1 sprigs parsley
- Heat a little oil in a frying pan and brown the mushrooms along with the thyme and rosemary over fairly high heat. Remove from the pan and place on a plate.
- In the same pan, melt the butter and let it brown. Add the chopped shallot and garlic and sauté gently. Then add the flour all at once and mix well. Allow to cook gently for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Then add the mushroom stock in 3 parts, making sure it is well absorbed before adding the next part.
- Then stir in the mushrooms and tarragon, season with salt and pepper.
- Bake the puff pastry trays according to the instructions on the package.
- Fill the trays with the ragout and garnish with parsley.
Nutrition Information per portion
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
One comment on “Making mushroom ragout”
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Your mushroom ragout looks absolutely delicious Simone. And as you say most things cooked from scratch do taste better than from a tin. I’m rubbish at making my own pastry though so I’m definitely buying the vol-au-vents. Ha ha!