I love to cook with all kinds of mushrooms. If you check our portfolio, you can find versatile recipes such as Mushroom Wellington or Mushroom Meatballs. However, nothing beats the simple yet delicious satisfaction porcini mushroom recipes give you.

Yes, they are expensive. Plus they are kind of hard to get ahold of in supermarkets. But if you live in a country where you can easily find them in the forest, it really makes the difference to learn how to recognize them and go mushroom hunting. It's relaxing, and the reward of eating a meal with the products you've picked it's so much bigger.

Anyway, you can make fresh porcini mushroom recipes that are just as scrumptious with store-bought ones. Plus, if you can't find fresh ones, for the dish I will tell you today, you can always use frozen or dried porcinis. This being said, let's make these babies.

• The first thing you will need to do is to prepare the polenta because it needs to rest in the fridge.
• So, in a saucepan heat up the milk and the butter. You want to keep everything on medium to low heat.

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• Wait for the butter to melt, add salt and start pouring the instant polenta. I recommend you do this in batches and stir after each addition. It may require more or less than the quantity I mentioned. It really depends on the type you are using.
• When the polenta reaches a stiff texture (it should take 2-3 minutes), turn the stove off, grease a sheet pan with olive oil, and pour the polenta in there.

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• Place it in the fridge and let it cool for one hour.

Great! Now we can talk about the main part of this dish - porcini mushroom cream sauce. Actually is more of a stew, but you get the idea.

• So, the one thing I know about mushrooms is that you don't wash them. Just gently remove the dirt, chop them into 2-3 cm pieces and let them sit in a bowl until you prepare the other ingredients.
• Peel your onion and finely chop it. Cook it in the oil for 5-7 minutes until glossy and translucent.
• Add the mushrooms, turn the heat to medium and let them reduce themselves. You will see that they will lose more than half of their size, and your pot will have enough water for them to semi-boil.

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• Let them cook on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or so. Stir from time to time but do it gently, so you don't crush the mushrooms. They will have a very spongy texture.
• When they are cooked through, take 2-3 tbsp of the hot liquid from the pot and put it in a bowl. Mix it with the double cream, then return everything to the pot. Add the crushed garlic, season with salt, pepper, and paprika, stir and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Grate the parmesan in there and mix everything to combine. Take the pot off the heat, add the chopped green parsley and let it rest.

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• The final part is to finish the polenta business. So, take it out of the fridge, remove it from the sheet pan. It should be a very easy task since you oiled the bottom.
• Cut into as small or as big pieces as you like, then grill it for 3-4 minutes on each side.

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• Serve everything while hot!

This is all you need to know about my fried creamy polenta with porcini mushrooms. I want to say that this dish is a very traditional one in Romanian culture. However, I made a few twists.

Normally, the polenta is made with cornmeal boiled in water for a longer period, and it's served as it is and not fried. Furthermore, the thickness of the creamy sauce is given by flour or cornstarch and not by parmesan.

Now, regardless if you want to try the traditional or my twisted recipe, you will love the combination of flavors this complete meal has to offer. So, while porcini mushrooms are still available, I suggest you give it a try.

* If you want to make this dish without dairy products, you can follow the recipe until you add the double cream. Just let it reduce even more before adding the garlic, and of course, skip the parmesan as well.

** Don't forget to give us an Instagram tag when making this recipe.