Once again the Long Beach Peninsula is hosting their Wild Mushroom Celebration, and you're invited. As their website announces:
The annual celebration is a culinary and cultural event honoring the Pacific Northwest’s delectable, edible wild mushrooms. The six-week celebration features expert-led hikes through an Oregon state park, chef-inspired menus at some of the Long Beach Peninsula’s finest restaurants and lodging specials at acclaimed inns and vacation rentals.
We're joining in the celebration in our own special way. We're preparing a satisfying Chicken Stew with Wild Mushroom Dumplings, created by Laurie Andersen of The Shelburne Inn (the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State) and China Beach Retreat.
If you don't find yourself in the Long Beach area before November 15 when the festivities wind down, consider this recipe the next best thing to everything mushroom on the Peninsula.
These freshly cleaned white chanterelles
would be a great choice for the dumplings.
Shelburne Inn's Chicken Stew with Wild Mushroom Dumplings
For the Chicken Stew:
1 whole chicken
Water
Salt
4 to 5 medium carrots
4 to 5 medium potatoes
½ pound wild mushrooms, such as Chanterelles, Porcini, Lacterius Deliciosa, or Canary
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
½ teaspoon thyme
Salt & pepper to taste
Additional butter or rendered chicken fat
½ cup heavy cream
For the Wild Mushroom Dumplings:
Mushroom Mixture:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ small onion, chopped finely, about 1/2 cup
1 1/4 cups chopped chanterelles
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons white wine
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
¼ cup chopped parsley and basil, combined
Dumplings:
1 ½ cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
Make chicken stew, recipe follows.
Place the chicken in a large stock pot and cover with very lightly salted water. Partly cover the kettle, and cook the fowl until tender. Simmer gently, do not allow to boil. When tender, remove the pieces from the broth. When cool enough to handle, separate the chicken meat from the bones and trim into smaller pieces. Reserve. There should be four to five cups of broth. Skim off the fat and measure the broth. Cook peeled carrots and potatoes cut into bite-size pieces in the broth until fork-tender. Strain broth.
Chop the ½ pound mushrooms somewhat coarsely. In a separate pan, sauté them in melted butter about 5 minutes. Add chopped parsley and thyme. For each cup of skimmed broth, mix 1 ½ tablespoons of the rendered fat or butter (or a mixture of both) with the same amount of flour. Stir several spoonfuls of the hot broth into the fat/flour mixture, and then pour the mixture back into the broth in the kettle. Cook the gravy until it is slightly thickened. Add ½ cup heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken, mushrooms and vegetables to the gravy.
Make mushroom dumplings, recipe follows.
Wild Mushroom Dumplings Mushroom Mixture: Saute onions in butter until translucent. Add mushrooms and stir in, cooking to release moisture content. Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for ½ hour.
Dumplings: Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together. Beat the egg, add the milk and mix lightly with the dry ingredients, but don’t fully incorporate. Next, add the above cooled mushroom mixture to the dumpling mixture and stir to incorporate, being careful not to over-mix. Drop by spoonfuls into the boiling chicken stew with the chicken meat separated from the bones and vegetables added. Cover tightly and cook 15 minutes. Don’t peek! Cranberry sauce is an excellent accompaniment. Serves 6 to 8 people.