When Ken met Kylie

Two popular TV chefs met in my kitchen last weekend. I was flipping through my cook books looking for inspiration and brainstorming for an appetiser/pre-dinner nibble for a friend’s dinner party last weekend when I came across Ken Hom’s Braised Fusion Mushroom with Herbs recipe. Having recalled that this dish is rather simple to put together and was well received, if I could use apply this recipe in a different manner. Thankful for cable TV and my borderline TV junkie behaviour, I decided to use Kylie Kwong’s mushroom tart hors d’oeuvre idea that I watched on TV a week or so ago. Ken and Kylie, two common household TV chef names, were then married in my kitchen to produce my Asian mushroom tarts.

Asian Mushroom Tarts
Serves 8



Ingredients
500 g shiitake
100 g oyster mushrooms
200 g enoki mushrooms
200g button mushrooms
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 Tbsp coarsely chopped garlic
2 tsp salt
1 tsp five spice powder
4 Tbsp shao hsing wine
4 tsp light soy saue
2 tsp sugar
50ml double cream
3 chopped spring onions
Tart pastry cups

Method
Slice the button mushrooms.

Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic and stir-fry for 15 seconds. Then add the salt and pepper and all the mushrooms with the mushroom liquid and stir-fry them for 2 minutes.

Add Shao Hsing, soy sauce and sugar and continue stir-frying for 5 minutes or until the mushroom liquid has been reabsorbed by the mushrooms or evaporated.

Give the mushrooms a few stirs, transfer to a plate.

Fill pastry cups with mushroom mixture, sprinkle with spring onions and serve at once.

Kitchen Experiments: Thai-Styled Portobello

Recipe:

I crushed the following in the pestle and mortar to make the dressing:

2 cloves of garlic
Chili
Salt
Pepper
Fish Sauce
Sesame Oil

Directions:
1. Dress the Portobellos and then finish off with drizzle some olive oil.
2. Let the dressing sit for about 15 minutes
3. Then pop it into the oven at about 200 degree Celsius for about 10 minutes
4. Serve with thinly slices mangoes or small diced mango cubes.

Result: It was pretty good. The sweetness of the mango offsets the saltiness of the rest of the ingredients, although I went a little garlic crazy so I used 4 cloves and so I think 2 would be better.