The mushroom is the star ingredient in this smoked ragu and vegetable stock

From a scrumptious smoked ragu to a rich vegetable stock, chef Adriana Urbina is showing us how to transform the star ingredient — the mushroom.

Video Transcript

ADRIANA URBINA: Hi, I’m Adriana Urbina. Welcome back to “In The Know– Zero Waste Kitchen.”

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Today, we’re going to be making a [? smoked ?] mushroom ragu. For this recipe, we’re going to need mushrooms– in this case, I have baby bella mushrooms– spicy chipotle, garlic, chili flakes, lots of lime zest, a little bit of soy sauce. If you don’t want it that spicy, you can avoid the chili flakes.

We’re going to add a little bit of olive oil. We’re going to add our shallots, a little bit of salt. So we have our shallots. We want to cook them until all that water evaporates.

Going to add all our mushrooms. After five to six minutes, we’re going to add our garlic. And the reason why I’m adding the garlic now is because I don’t want it to burn.

Going to add our spices. Little bit of soy sauce. Our chipotle. We’re going to add the mushroom stock that I’m going to show you how to make after this recipe. And then what we’re going to do– like, we’re going to let this cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

So after 10 minutes, this is the final result. Not watery, like a– kind of like a barbecue sauce. I’m going to plate in this beautiful, colorful bowl, all in the middle.

The last touch is the zest. I like to add a lot. There you have it– the final dish. Let’s taste it. Mm, so good. I can taste the lemon, spices, everything.

So now we’re going to take the mushroom stems and we’re going to make a delicious broth. So I have shallots, even the skin. I have carrots, celery, mushroom stems. The only thing with mushroom stems– make sure that you clean them very well with a towel or a kitchen paper.

In a cast iron pan or in a pot, we’re going to start with a little bit of canola oil, a little bit of garlic. And we’re going to add a little bit of salt. We want to lightly saute this garlic.

We want to add our veggies once the garlic is cooked. All the veggies in there. We’re going to cook this for about three to five minutes. You want to sweat the veggies.

Once your veggies are cooked, we’re going to add the water. So 8 cups of water right in there. I like to use bay leaves, one bay leaf.

We’re going to bring it to a boil. And then we’re going to lower down the temperature and simmer it down for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the quantity. In this case, I’m going to do it for an hour.

So after 45 minutes or an hour, depending on the quantity, should look like this. Smells so good. So we’re going to strain it.

Then, very important, make sure to cool it down. Like, if you put it like this in the freezer, it’s going to go bad, or even, like, warm. Make sure that it’s completely cooled down.

I’m going to just go for it and plate it. The flavor changes because it depends on the vegetables that you have. I want to see how it taste. Mm– in-between of, like, salty and earthy– love it.

I’m Adriana….