Our wedding anniversary was fast approaching and I decided to surprise Erin by cooking a 7 course meal by using mushroom as my main secret ingredient (obviously this is heavily influenced by Iron Chef America). “So now America friends, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle: ALLEZ CUISINE!!”
- Oysters – Mushroom Ceviche
For starters, it was freshly shucked oysters. Since I can’t go with the usual kilpatrick or mornay style, I used a ceviche instead. Hence, Oysters – Mushroom Ceviche. The ceviche actually substituted the need of lemon.
- Portobello Mushroom and Beef Carpaccio
First up for entree was ‘Portobello Mushroom and Beef Carpaccio’. This was really simple as everything can be pre-prepared except the rare beef. After pan frying the beef for 1 minute on each side, you will need to cut the beef as thin as possible and pound it with the back of your knife.
- Mushroom Soup
Next was ‘Mushroom Soup’. This soup was unbelievably easy to make and it was made from scratch. Best served with dinner rolls but I only had multigrain bread that night. It wasn’t too bad after I toasted it.
- Prosciutto Wrapped Enoki Mushroom
Final entree for the night was ‘Prosciutto Wrapped Enoki Mushroom’. This entree was improvised from a recipe I saw on a cooking channel. He made bacon wrapped asparagus instead. This was the simplest dish to make and it looked impressive.
- Seafood Stuffed Mushroom
After 3 wonderful and delicious (quoting myself) entree, the main was served. For a mushroom themed night, I can’t get away with not making stuffed mushroom as one of the dishes. Since Erin loves seafood, the stuffing I chose was seafood based. It has prawns, scallops and crab on a big flat mushroom and two little fresh mushrooms.
- Mushroom Seafood Risotto
My last savoury dish for the night was ‘Mushroom Seafood Risotto”. This took me the longest to prepare and cook. It was also my first time cooking any type of risotto but guess what, it turned out to be really nice (or maybe Erin was too nice to give me any negative comment).
- Mushroom Ice-Cream
Last but not least, it’s dessert time. As everyone would know, using mushroom in dessert is quite impossible. Finally after a lot of researching and many hours of looking through the internet, I made ‘Mushroom Ice-Cream’. It’s not what you think it is. The closest I could get to match with the night’s theme was to make something that resembles a mushroom.
If I have to judge my own food, I would give myself 10/10 for every single dish because I am bias. That’s why I will leave it to Erin for constructive criticism.
Well, we had a wonderful night of wonderful food with absolutely wonderful company. By the end of the night, we were as stuffed as the mushrooms. LOL!
Anyone who is interested in any of the recipes, just drop me a line in the comment. I am more than happy to share it with you. It was just too long for me to type out every single one of it.
wah..awesome..
how’d you make the ice-cream look like that? =D
Cute le? It’s too easy. You just have to have some sort of mould that looks like a mushroom root to make the ice cream. Any flavour will do. There is a trick to it though. you have to use glad wrap and butter. Then you have to bake the cookie(hat) to a certain time then mould it on top of the mould you used to make the ice cream (mushroom root). I will show you next time.
You forgot to blame Timo for ruining batch of mushroom ice-cream. That Timo, what a nuisance, always calling when others are in the middle of preparing anniversary meals. Tsk, tsk.
LOL! That’s right. Totally forgotten about this. Timo made me baked the cookie (mushroom hat) a few times to get the texture right.