The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen Sweet Spiced Mushroom and Rice Pilaf (2024)

Recipes>Mushroom Recipes

by Yotam Ottolenghi, The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen Team, Noor Muradfrom Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

Serves 4 as a main, or 6 as a side.

Total 2hr 20min

Prep 25min

Cook 1hr 55min

The combination of fresh portobello and oyster, and earthy dried porcini mushrooms adds rich, hearty flavour to this sweet, spiced rice pilaf.

From the book

OTK: Shelf Love

Yotam Ottolenghi, Noor Murad

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

A collaborative effort from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team

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Introduction

This robust vegan main scores major points for its liberal use of warming spices and both fresh and dried mushrooms. It’s really quite a festive dish, suitable for the cooler months, and would need nothing more than some lightly cooked greens to eat alongside, or the butternut squash with orange oil (p. 91 of OTK: Shelf Love), for a very happy spread.

Ingredients

1-2 (15g)	dried acho chillies, stems removed
30g	dried porcini mushrooms
500ml	vegetable stock, or chicken stock if not vegan
500g	oyster mushrooms, left whole
500g	large portobello mushrooms, stems discarded, each mushroom roughly broken by hand into 6 chunks
1 large	onion, halved and cut into ½cm-thick slices
10	garlic cloves, peeled
3	cinnamon sticks
4	whole star anise
150g	soft dried apricots (the plump orange kind), quartered
150ml	olive oil
350g	basmati rice, washed until the water runs clear and drained well
3 (45g)	spring onions, thinly sliced at an angle
5g	picked parsley leaves, with some stem attached
	salt and black pepper

Essential kit

You will need: a 34cm x 26cm roasting tin.

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C fan.

Put the ancho chillies into a heatproof bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Rehydrate for 20 minutes, then drain off the soaking liquid (save it for another use) and roughly chop the chillies, seeds and all.

Meanwhile, put the dried mushrooms, stock, 350ml of water, 1¼ teaspoons of salt and a good grind of pepper into a medium saucepan on a medium high heat. Bring to a simmer, then set aside.

Put the oyster and portobello mushrooms, onion, garlic, chopped chillies, whole spices, apricots, 120ml of oil, 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper into a roasting tin about 34cm x 26cm in size. Give everything a good stir, then bake for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through, until well browned.

Remove from the oven and transfer about half the mixture to a medium bowl. Stir the rice into the remaining mixture in the roasting tin, and set aside.

Bring the porcini mixture back up to a simmer. Pour this over the rice mixture and, without stirring, cover the tin tightly with foil. Bake for 25 minutes, until the rice is cooked through. Leave to sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and gently mix everything together.

Add the spring onions, parsley and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the reserved mushroom mixture, stirring to combine. Spoon this over the rice and serve.

Make it your own:

– Play around with other types of foraged finds, breaking them up into large chunks to keep intact their naturally ‘meaty’ integrity.

– Use other dried chillies in place of the ancho, such as cascabel or chipotle.

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