Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Mushroom Ragout on Garlic Toast - Maybe I Could Be a Vegetarian

No, I couldn't, but when I eat a meatless dish as delicious as this mushroom ragout (pronounced ragoooo), I realize there are plenty of recipes that are just as tasty and satisfying as my favorite meat dishes. Of course, almost anything is good poured over garlic toast, and you'll see a great trick for ultra-fast and easy garlic-scented toast in this video recipe I recently produced for About.com. I did sneak some chicken stock into the sauce, but if you are a vegetarian you can use a vegetable stock and it will be fine.

Whenever I do a video recipe that uses Marsala wine I get lots of emails about what they can substitute. You can't, go get a bottle of Marsala wine. Just regular Marsala, not the sweet dessert Marsala as it is way too sweet to cook with. Ask the person at the wine shop to help you; tell them you are cooking with it and don't want the sweet variety and they will show you the right one. Buy the cheapest one of the selection they give you, and you're all set. Even the least expensive Marsala will be fine for this dish, as long as it's the real stuff, and came from a decent shop. Having said all that, if you must use something else a good Sherry wine (NOT the cooking sherry them sell at the supermarket) will fill in adequately.

Click here for the transcript and ingredients.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm putting mine over toast AND a steak! ;)

Anonymous said...

Chicken marsala, minus the chicken.

Chef John said...

yes, but Mushroom Ragout has more of a ring to it.

Anonymous said...

That looks so killer. I'm definitely trying it at dinner tomorrow night!

Gulfdiver said...

Awsome video John! 2 Questions tho.. can portebellos be used? Can the cream be omitted.. (my wife doesn't care for the creamed version of Marsala...)

Gulfdiver said...

Great Video John! 2 questions.. Can portobello mushrooms be used? Can the cream be omitted? (Does it need to be finished off with something else if the cream is omitted?) I was thinking of draining off the shrooms and finishing off the sauce with some cold butter instead of the cream? (maybe i'll try it anyway) :)

Chef John said...

you could use portebellos, but they are just crimini mushrooms that are grown up! Same mushroom. So I would save the $$ and use the regular mushroom.

Also you can leave out the cream, but not the same recipe as the cream gives richness and is what thickens the sauce. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Mushrooms are Gods gift to East Europeans. Try the wild morrels, if you ever go mushroom hunting.

I like mardala wine with steamed salmon (you add a large spoon of marsala to some fresh-grated ginger and few drops of very light chinese soya sauce to your salmon filet with skin on one side, steam gently in a thin porcelain bowl only for about 10 min, the salmon should stay pink and tender like lox).

The problem with even a cheap marsala wine is that it never stays for long here, the wine levels in the bottle rapidly decrease over few days. The salt in the marsala cooking wine version prevents the marsala drying-up problem

Chef John said...

sounds good! However I dont recommend ever buying a salted cooking wine of any type! They are usually very low quality, here at least.

Are you sure there is not another reason the wine is mysteriously decreasing over a few days?? ;)

Gulfdiver said...

Thats not evaporation.. that is considered CONSUMPTION!

Love the site John.. Congrats on your success and keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

what can u replace wine and any alcoholic beverage with

Chef John said...

you can leave it out, but nothing really can "replace" it.

Anonymous said...

Chef - just discovered you on Foodbuzz...still learning how to navigate there..
I wanted to share a few links with you and invite you to join my rolling Tuesday event: Non-Wimpy, Non-Meat, S/O/L/E Food Tuesdays.

Perhaps you'd like to join our sustainable seafood blog event, Teach a Man to Fish? This year we'll feature new chefs and great bloggers and lots of home cooks and foodies. Stop by and say hi! I was laughing at the cauliflower video. Don't you think there's going to be a shortage if people find out how easy it is make this yummy stuff?!

- Jacqueline The Leather District Gourmet

Vig said...

Hi Chef! I made this again last night. It's becoming one of my staples. I didn't have any marsala left, so I opened the bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream and used that instead. (I had to do a web search to find out if it was Sherry or a mixed-dairy-based cocktail . . . and it's just Sherry with an awkward name.)

Anyway, thanks again for all the inspiration you provide. This is a wonderful dish.

Vig

mtb said...

hi chef

been a regular to your site for quite a while, this is my 1st post.

been doing this recipe for years (family you know ;) mine comes with LOTS of parsley (just before serving of course). give it a try sometime.

thanks for your fantastic blog.

greetings from good ol' europe.

Anonymous said...

I've used your recipe in more ways than you can imagine. One of "my" (our???) go to recipes.

Problem, I work a lot!!! TIME (not times) is tough. Is there anyway this can be premade, frozen, whatever (oops, most aggravting phrase in the English language as of yesterday!!!) I say no, but maybe you know a trick?

Can't help it!, I'm a mushroom freak, mushroom feak! Maybe that's not how the song goes, huh!

Ed
Chicau

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe today together with the chicken teriyaki (also from this website). Wow, a lot of mushroom just for two individuals, but the result was amazing, it's a perfect side dish for barbecue.

André said...

Thanks Chef John!

This combination of browned mushrooms, Marsala Wine, Thyme and cream is divine.

Greetings from snowy Germany to sunny California!