Recipe
Boreas Inn's Wild Mushroom, Chive and Sausage Shortcake
Recipes Index | Innkeeper Specialties
This is a special dish that takes relatively little time to prepare. It's one of Susie's favorite recipes. If your guests like biscuits and gravy, this gourmet edition of that classic comfort food will make them happy indeed! The Long Beach Peninsula produces a bounty of wild mushrooms. Lobster mushrooms (pictured with this recipe), Porcini (aka king boletus), chantrelles and the rare matsutaki's are plentiful. As I mention in the notes, using dried mushrooms is a great idea yielding the "ju" from reconstituting them. Making the dish the day before, allowing it to cool and then adding the mushroom ju enriches the flavor of the gravy. It is simply delicious.
Ingredients
- Boreas Inn’s Wild Mushroom, Chive, and Sausage Shortcake
- Gravy
- 1/2 lb. bulk pork sausage
- 3/4 lb. wild mushrooms, brushed clean, trimmed and coarsely chopped * (see note)
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 T. fresh minced chive
- 2 cups half-and-half or milk
- Salt and freshly ground pepper and dash or cayenne (or more if desired!)
- Biscuits
- 2 cups flour
- 1 T. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 6 T. cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 3/4 cup milk or half and half
- 2 T. fresh minced chives
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Lightly butter (or spray) a heavy baking sheet.
For the biscuits, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend.
Add the butter and pulse until it’s finely chopped and mixture has the consistency of coarse cornmeal.
(You can also cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives).
Transfer the mixture to a bowl.
Add the milk and chives and stir until the batter is evenly mixed.
Don’t over-mix or you will have tough, heavy biscuits!
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.
Press the dough into a rectangle about six inches across and one inch thick.
Cut the dough into quarters, setting the biscuits on the baking sheet with one inch or so between them.
Bake the biscuits until they are puffed and lightly brown on top, 12-15 minutes.
Transfer them to a rack to cool.
Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until cooked through and lightly browned, 12-15 minutes.
Stir often and break up the sausage chunks as they cook.
Spoon out and discard excess fat.
Add the mushrooms and onion.
Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender and any liquid they give off is evaporated.
This will take about 5-7 minutes.
Add the four and cook for 1-2 minutes longer, stirring so that the flour evenly coats the sausage and mushrooms.
Slowly stir in the milk or half and half and cook until the gravy has thickened, 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the chives and season to taste with salt and pepper.
You may choose to add additional seasonings to taste.
To serve, cut each of the biscuits in half horizontally and set the bottom halves on the individual plates.
Generously spoon the mushroom-sausage gravy over, top with the top of the biscuit.
Makes 4 servings.
I prefer to use 1/2 pound dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted in a cup or so of water.
Drain the mushrooms and save the liquid.
Make the wild mushroom and sausage gravy the night before and then use the saved liquid to thin the gravy prior to heating and serving.
The liquid adds more depth to the wild mushroom flavor of the dish. Delicious!
- Categories
- Innkeeper Specialties
- Published
- February 1, 2010
- Author
- Susie Goldsmith & Bill Verner