Fusion Chicken

"Fusion of what?" you say.

Very hard to know.

But Uncle I and I (by which I mean me and Uncle I, in case that was unclear) went to the store to get more chicken and on the way settled on a bottle of wine that suggested it would go well with "fusion dishes", whatever that means.

Since I had no nuclear reactor on hand with which to fuse my chicken, we settled on a fusion of mustard and mushrooms, because hey, who's ever done mustard and mushrooms before?

Since my last go at mixing up chicken and mustard was such a blinding success, I saw no reason why this shouldn't work for a second effort, but I decided to make this one more of a casserole.

Overall: Well-fused. Fusionality. Fusacious. (by which I mean: it was good, in case that was unclear.)

Mushroom Chicken Fusion Casserole

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

1.5kg Chicken Drumsticks and Nibbles
2T Mustard Powder
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
2T Potato Flour
2T Dried Basil
2T Worcester Sauce
Olive Oil for frying
1/2C White Wine
2 Chopped Onions
1C Chicken Stock
200g Sliced Mushrooms
Hot Water
Toss the Chicken Pieces in the mustard powder, salt and pepper, potato flour, basil and Worcester. Coat well and cook in hot olive oil until browned all over.

Add 1/4 Cup of the white wine and reduce, then add the onions.

Allow the onions to soften slightly, then remove the chicken and onion to an oven dish.
Deglaze the pan with the rest of the white wine and the chicken stock. Add the gravy to the oven dish and place the mushrooms over and around the chicken.
Add enough hot water to almost cover the chicken, then cover and place in the oven at 200C for 1 hour.
Serve with piles of fresh veges and mashed potato. (And keep your Geigermeter handy, just in case...)

Mushroom and Sausage Soup

What do you do when your sister brings you a big bag full of delicious field mushrooms that only you will eat? And much as you would love to just fry them up with bacon and eat them, you're busy cooking sausages for dinner already?
Easy.

You make soup.
Chop up the mushrooms, and take some photos, pondering the odd nature of these particular mushrooms that seem to be slightly out-of-focus in the real world (couldn't possibly be the camera, much less the photographer...).
Since you're already cooking up sausages, simply keep the oily pan, add some butter and the chopped mushrooms, and simmer away while you're eating the afore-mentioned sausages, keeping one aside. There was also a certain amount of fried onion in the sausage pan, which we will just take as a given.
Chop up that lone spare sausage.
Add 2 Cups of light chicken stock to the mushrooms and bring to a rapid simmer, then add a 1/4 cup of cream.
Take a stick blender or pour the soup into a blender. Pulse it a few times so that you're left with some yummy chunky bits. Then mix the sausage through.

Sadly, this is the best "Final Result" photo I have, since I then took both servings to work for lunch, where there is no camera. *sigh*

Alfredo with Chorizo and Mushrooms

This is a variation on a theme using our favourite Alfredo sauce. Big Ups to Aunty A for the inspiration for this one. This is a great midweek meal, as it's quick, easy and tasty.

Alfredo with Chorizo and Mushrooms (Serves 3)

Boil a pot of salted water with a good lug of olive in it and put a handful of long pasta in to cook.

In a steamer over the pasta cook some brocolli, cauliflower and carrots.

Slice up 5-6 button mushrooms and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Heat 1T of olive oil in a small pan and brown the mushrooms and garlic.

While these are cooking, slice 3-4 Chorizo sausages. With just a little oil (the Chorizo will release plenty of their own!) brown the sausage on both sides.

In a small pot, prepare the Alfredo Sauce: Melt 2 T Butter. Add 1 Cup of cream and gently stir for 5 mins or so. Heat well without boiling. Whisk in 3/4 Cup of Cheddar Cheese and about 1/4 Cup of stronger cheese, like Parmesan or Emmental until melted. Add pepper and parsley to taste.
Everything should come together about the same time. Drain the pasta and mix in the Chorizo and Alfredo sauce. Dish, layering the mushrooms on top and drizzling extra Alfredo over the steamed veges. Serve with pepper and a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.