Mushroom lovers, here’s how to give a festive way to serve mashed potatoes or creamy French style purée.
I don’t know if in your country you can easily find ceps and if they are affordable. In France, ceps season in in Autumn, and they are really expensive. However, we can find dried ceps all year long. Jars of dried ceps might seem a budget but you only need a small quantity to flavor a whole dish. If you do a bit of math and look at the cost per serve, you’ll see that this dish is not that expensive.
How to make a perfect French purée with a twist
In this recipe, I use 40 grams (1,4 once) of dried ceps, which is only 10 grams per person. The idea to the recipe is to prepare a smooth purée (or more lumpy mashed potatoes if this is what you prefer) in which you will add ceps. The first thing to do is to rehydrate mushrooms in milk for at least 1 hour. Don’t throw away the rehydratation liquid when you drain mushrooms as you will use it in the purée. This milk gets all the flavours of ceps. I choose to briefly sauté ceps in butter, add the drained milk to reduce a bit, then mix to get a smooth cep purée. Finally this is simply added when you mash potatoes, with more butter, cream and milk according to the texture and smoothness you wish.
You’ll find the step by step in photo below the recipe.
Purée with Dried Ceps and Potatoes
Equipment
- Food mill or Potato masher
- Mixer or food processor
Ingredients
- 700 gr potato = 600 gr peeled. 1.5 pound
- 40 gr dried ceps 1.4 once
- 500 ml milk
- 3 tbsp cream
- 2 nuts butter
- salt
- Pepper
Instructions
REHYDRATE CEPS
- In a bowl, place dried ceps, cover with milk and leave them for at least 1 hour to rehydrate. The milk will get a brown color.
COOK POTATOES
- Peel potatoes, cut them into large cubes. Cook potatoes: either in a steamer for 12 to 15 minutes depending on the size or in a large volume of salted water.
- Check if potatoes are cooked using a sharp knife, then drain.
Sauté and mix ceps
- Heat a knob of butter in a pan. Drain mushrooms but do not throw away the milk that will be used later.
- Sauté ceps for a few minutes. Add the drained milk, fry for a few more minutes to reduce a bit.
- Mix this preparation to get a smooth mushroom purée.
PREPARE purée
- Place the drained potatoes in a large bowl. Mash them using a food mill or a potato masher adding the mixed mushrooms, cream and a knob of butter.
- Season, taste and add more butter, cream and/or milk depending on your taste and the texture you wish.
