Grandpa's sponge top

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 ½ kg wild mushrooms, preferably fresh
• 2 onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 ½ liters vegetable broth, strong
• 600 g potatoes
• 3 tbsp flour
• salt and pepper
• Caraway powder
• Sugar
• 1 dashes vinegar
• possibly game spice
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 1 tsp juniper berries, crushed
• 1 tbsp celery greens (celery leaves), dried, shredded

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

sweet and sour mushroom stew from the Ore Mountains

Clean the mushrooms, rinse briefly if necessary, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Finely chop the garlic and roughly chop the onion. Peel the potatoes and cut into bite-sized cubes (max. 1 cm edge length). Place the juniper berries and celery leaves in a tea infuser or linen bag. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, add the mushrooms, and fry briefly. As soon as the liquid begins to boil away, add the onion and garlic and sauté briefly. Then deglaze everything with a splash of vinegar and a little stock and reduce again. Add the diced potatoes, spices, and rosemary, and top up with 1 liter of stock. Simmer everything for about 10-15 minutes, until the diced potatoes begin to boil down. Remove the rosemary and the tea infuser. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter, add the flour, and use this to make a not-too-dark roux. Stir the roux with a little cold broth until smooth and gradually add it to the stew, stirring constantly until it becomes slightly creamy. It will continue to thicken. If the stew is too thick, thin it with the remaining broth until it reaches the desired consistency and season with sweet and sour vinegar and sugar. Serve the mushroom stew with fresh, buttered bread and plenty of chopped parsley. Regarding the mushrooms: In principle, any edible boletus or curly hen’s tail are suitable. Also, “firmer” agarics such as parasol mushrooms (only the caps, not the tough stems), russulas, saffron milk caps, chanterelles, young honey mushrooms (but only very young ones and even then only the caps), various knight mushrooms, etc. Also, smaller species such as trumpet chanterelles, birch chanterelles, grey-leaved sulfur caps, autumn trumpet mushrooms, etc. Giant puffballs, giant crested funnel mushrooms, sulfur polypore, and other aromatic species also go well with it. As well as bottle cap and hare puffballs. Cultivated mushrooms include button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, or king oyster mushrooms. Also a few garlic or clove puffballs, if you can find them. The main thing is to keep it colorful! I would advise against ink cap varieties or mushrooms that are too tough. Or against strong-flavored ones like the herring puffball.